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Just Like Home

Tina Benitez -- Gifts and Dec, 6/17/2011 5:35:55 AM

New and quirky When Marissa Owens started renovating the old building in the town of Norman, ok, nearly eight years ago, she was finally sure about her future. Just a few years earlier, Owens majored in public relations and moved to California for some time. Throughout the years, she always seemed to go back to what was in her heart: retail. She opened up her first shop in August 2003, and Tulips was born.
Her vision was simple: to offer gifts and home decor in a shop featuring bath, bedding, tabletop, custom linens and other products that you couldn't find anywhere else in the state. "I just wanted to bring unique products to Oklahoma," says Owens. "I like the creative side, the merchandising. I just followed the market for more custom products and brought a more customer service edge to the business. If we had it in black and someone needed it in red, we'd offer that."

VIETRI	Many of the displays are crafted so that customers can envision how things would look in their own homes.

     As it was, offering more unique and customized products was a big deal in Oklahoma; there weren't many stores offering the products she had. "It's just making little everyday things extraordinary," she says. "It can be in cooking, cleaning, perhaps a decorative dish towel - just bringing a little style to all the things that you have to do every day."
In the beginning, she even imported items, which proved challenging and costly with shipping. Direct mail was the best means of communicating with customers, but also expensive. Owens has moved to social media and email to market Tulips and communicate with patrons.
      Owens has used the outlets to promote the store by inviting customers to bring in a friend or family member for a discount or extra raffle entries. "It's an incentive to bring a friend," she says. "It lends fun to an event; people feel like they've been to a party."LE CADEAUX
     Free gifts and giveaways are also a huge draw. Over the years, Owens has been working with vendors, and to her surprise, no one has ever turned down her request for free product or "gift with purchase" to offer customers. She says it helps to put together an email to vendors outlining the work she's put into promoting their product on her end. Once they see all the effort, it's a win-win on both ends - and for the customer. "They're excited about the advertising and promotions that you're doing, so they're excited to work with you," says Owens.
GRANDMOTHER'S BUTTONS    Another extra Owens offers Tulips' customers is personalization. Her in-house staff can personalize anything for customers, and it's free. But personalized or unique, new and different isn't always what customers want; Owens says it's important to keep around those tried and true products. "Sometimes customers don't necessarily want to be educated," she says. "I get excited by new and different; that's what I love. For some people, that doesn't excite them; they like what they know... that traditional element - something your mom or your grandma once had. I have things that help people make their home part of their family tradition as well."
     Wedding and baby registries have also been a big part of the business. The baby business was growing so much that Owens opened up a separate, 800-sq.-ft. shop next door, Tiny Tulips, in 2007.NIVEN MORGAN
     Gifts for babies can be hit or miss, but Owens says wedding registries are easier, because there's a protocol for gift giving. She's even noticed her registry business growing to more of year-round request, rather than a summer-only event. "Brides are registered 12 months a year," says Owens.
     Tulips also offers personal registries for anniversaries or just for people who want new tableware, another way Tulips gets personal with its customers. "Your friends can get together and instead of buying you a candle or something, they can get you a plate," says Owens. "Before you know it you have six place settings. This increases repeat sales, because we do it for everyone." That's the Tulips way.
Home Sweet Home
JULISKA JULISKA     Family and home are important elements for Tulips. In fact, the entire store feels like home - literally. The 3,500-
square-foot, two-floor shop has the feel of a real house, from the little walls and rooms. (One resembles a bedroom
with windows and curtains.) "When we renovated it, I did it so it had the feel of a house, and Tulips feels like a home," says Owens. "You would think it was a house, but it was actually never used for that. We've got neat walls and little rooms and our displays and vignettes really lend to a home. We do everything in a way so you can take it, the product and transfer into your own home."

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