An offbeat bride is on her way to becoming a specialty retailer’s idea of a marriage made in heaven.
Storefronts selling everything from boats to beaujolais are seeking to cash in on the lucrative wedding business by taking advantage of a traditional marketing tool: the bridal registry.
To pull in new customers, small businesses, from travel agencies to furniture design firms, are seeking brides-to-be to register with them.
It’s a market with strong growth potential: Each new bride has a panoply of attendants and guests who represent not only new customers but also possible future brides-to-be.
Scott Spencer, who owns Wines of America, a two-store operation that started registering couples more than a year ago, estimates that “for each registry, about six people come in.”
Also hopping on the registry bandwagon is Barbecue Hall of Flame, where a bride recently selected a Pitts & Spitts barbecue pit and a pair of birch candlesticks. At Boat/U.S. Marine Center, couples’ wish lists have included dinghies and dishes.
“Bridal registry is the perfect vehicle to create a brand new customer base,” says Cleverley Stone, executive director of the Houston Wedding Association, whose 100 members cater to brides. “The payoff is big. What you’re getting is a brand-new family unit that needs everything.”
Traditionally the territory of such registry denizens as Dillard’s, Foley’s and Neiman-Marcus, specialty retailers are striving to appeal to the less-traditional tastes of some ’90s brides.
She may have been married before and already amassed the usual china, silver and crystal. Or the couple wants to select more-affordable gifts. Maybe, like many brides, she spends her kitchen time between microwave and dishwasher. Realizing that the Wedgwood or Waterford may never get out of the box, this bride registers for gifts she needs and wants.
In a sign of the times, catalog king L.L. Bean introduced a registry service for kayaks and kerosene lamps in its Spring Home & Camp catalog.
Sue Shirley-Howard, who registered at Wines of America before marrying Dick Howard last November, said that since both have been married before, they didn’t need the traditional trappings.
“We said, `At least let’s direct them (friends and family) to something we might enjoy and use,”‘ Richard Howard says.
For stores new to the bridal registry approach, the challenge is to get the word out and lure brides and grooms through the door.
Most brides still take the traditional route when it comes to registering. The big department stores, which offer a range of items, more flexibility in terms of exchanges and often locations around the country, have a lock on the business.
For the smaller boutiques, that’s stiff competition.
“It is very traditional still,” says Richard Attar, producer of Houston’s twice-a-year Fantasy Bridal Show. “They still want the crystal and china.”
Some couples are just going straight for the cash, he says.
Bering’s, which has registered brides since the late 1970s, exemplifies a retailer that has branched out successfully into registering couples for less-traditional items.
“They have literally registered for garden hoses and wheelbarrows and other lawn and garden tools,” says Norman Bering, Bering’s president. Still, such nontraditional wares represent less than a tenth of Bering’s registry sales.
The fastest growing section of Bering’s stores is its gift shop, where plates, glassware and fine home furnishings are sold, he said.
Bering’s bridal registry business started, like that of many stores, in response to customer demand. But some boutiques say it’s difficult to get the word out.
“That is the hardest part,” says Dean Michaels, manager of a Houston Wines of America store, which advertises its registry service in the shop’s newsletter.
That’s not to underestimate the power of hearsay.
“The word of mouth is not just casual,” Bering observes. “It’s almost a pyramid. If you have a bride and she registers for 100 gifts, and 50 people come in and buy gifts, then those 50 people have been exposed to Bering’s bridal registry.”
Fun & Sun Travel Corp. has successfully pierced the non-traditional registry business through its year-old Honeymoon Bridal Registry unit. The travel agency arranges for the bride and groom to register their honeymoon in the same way they would register their silver. To pay the price of the trip, the agency collects monetary gifts from the couple’s friends.
“Brides and grooms often don’t have enough money to go where they would like, where they would have a dream vacation,” says Joe Tate, president of Fun & Sun Travel.
Honeymoon Bridal Registry is marketing its service aggressively. The group recently bought a display booth at the Fantasy Bridal Show and since has mailed out information to 6,000 brides planning to marry in the next year.
Couples may end up getting their fantasy trips after all.
