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Retail Industry

Retailers tailor selection to scrapbooking clientele

DSN Retailing Today, August 8, 2005 by Debbie Howell

The rise of scrapbooking as a core craft category has shown no signs of slowing; instead, it s maturing into a stable retail segment that is now expanding into related paper-crafting segments, such as card and gift bag making, journaling and memory-related decor.

Creating Keepsakes, a leading consumer magazine dedicated to the hobby, estimates the retail market for scrapbooking products at $2.55 billion, up nearly 28% from 2001. During that time, the number of scrapbooking households grew by 4.4 million to more than 26 million, with the average spent on supplies increasing 6.3% to $96.76 a year. That equates to one in four households currently involved in scrapbooking as a hobby.

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Not only are craft specialists benefiting from this memory-making fascination, but retailers of all types are expanding space devoted to scrapbooking, from mass retailers to office supply chains. Suppliers in office, photo, hardware and craft categories are increasingly targeting this market as well, coming out with products for both the dedicated scrapper and novice, along with age-targeted lines mainly related to teenage girls.

"It's still a very hot category. We've seen our scrapbooking sections at our trade show growing and it continues to be very popular," said Allan Fliss, spokesman for the Craft & Hobby Association.

Fliss noted evolution of this hobby from personally decorated photo memory albums stored in bookcases to the creation of more artistic tabletop books or home decor items. The artistic elements of scrapbooking continue to grow more sophisticated, with textured papers, three-dimensional embellishments and more elaborate photo presentations replacing the industry's early reliance on basic colored papers, stickers and cutouts.

"People are taking scrapbooking into wall decor, home decor and personal gifts. Papier-mache is a huge growth area for us," said Tom Bazzone, president of ReCollections, an offshoot retail concept of Michaels Stores devoted to papercrafting supplies.

ReCollections, launched two years ago, operates 11 stores in the Dallas, Phoenix and greater Washington, D.C., markets. Bazzone said the company expects ReCollections to eventually grow into a 250-store chain. ReCollections faces competition from two leading chains, 29-store Archiver's of Minnetonka, Minn., and 17-store Memories of Bountiful, Utah, along with hundreds of mom-and-pop scrapbooking stores across the country.

As opposed to the early key emphasis on scrapbooking exclusively, Bazzone said ReCollections has remodeled some of its stores to a broader focus on papercrafting in general. The crop room, where customers can work on projects, has been renamed the papercrafting studio, and assortments in albums, paper, embellishments and card making grew about 20%.

"We got much more intense with our merchandise offering and smarter with our fixturing," Bazzone said. "There's a real void of a dominant brand in papercrafting."

As opposed to the broader focus on papercrafting and deeper selections in key scrapbooking items at ReCollections, the merchandising strategy for mass retailers is typically one of convenience, targeting the novice scrapbooker or dabbler in memory-making. Office Depot, for example, features 12 feet of scrapbooking supplies that includes paper, embellishments, cutting tools, albums and related items near its school supply area.

"Our core customers who are picking up scrapbooking supplies are teachers, morns and a lot of digital camera users," said Ellen Schoenheit, director of merchandising in scrapbooking at Office Depot. "We are really looking at the beginner and intermediate scrapbooker."

The category that Office Depot added five years ago has grown in size from an initial 8-foot section, demonstrating that scrapbooking even as convenience assortment is performing.

Other mass retailers that have expanded or added scrapbooking sections in recent years are Wal-Mart and Target, while Staples and Office-Max also sell scrapbooking supplies. Now photo retailers are getting in on this growing business as well, according to Linda Hall, director of marketing at Me & My Big Ideas, a leading scrapbooking supplier.

"There seems to be somewhat of a trend in crossover into photo and we're pursuing that market," Hall said. "The trade as a whole is pursuing the scrapbooking market."

As for trends within the scrapbooking category itself, items that are hot seem to follow fashion, with bolder, brighter colors emerging now to replace the formerly popular vintage, or shabby chic look. Sayings that attach to a photo page are also popular, as are fibers used to decorate pages, pressed petal letters, rub-on transfers and metallic embellishments.

"Now what we're tending to see is a swing toward brighter colors. One intriguing thing about this industry is just how much it can change overnight. It has much in common with the fashion industry," said Nigel Timberg, show coordinator with Fiskars' school, office and craft division, a producer of cutting products for the scrapbooking market.

Retail Industry

Retailers tailor selection to scrapbooking clientele

DSN Retailing Today, August 8, 2005 by Debbie Howell

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