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The Gifted Retailer

GDA Staff -- Gifts and Dec, 8/8/2011 2:45:43 PM

Owners of Curate Gifts in Millburn, NJ, Debra Camitta (right) and Mary Litterman (right) say the best advice they ever received was to follow their passion and trust their instincts.

Gifts & Decorative Accessories: What do you like about being a retailer?
Debra Camitta & Mary Litterman: We like helping people find the perfect gift and seeing the customer walk out thrilled.

G&DA: What was the most valuable piece of business advice that you ever received?
DC & ML: Follow your passion and trust your instincts!

G&DA: What three products/lines are your best sellers?
DC & ML: Jewelry, serving pieces and small tabletop, and unusual men's gifts

G&DA: What are you doing to attract new customers?
DC & ML: We email our c Curate Gifts ustomers with pictures of new and exciting items we just got in, we are giving our website a new look and we are starting to engage in social media communication.
We are redesigning [our website] to better match the look and feel of the store. The feedback that we have gotten is that store had a more sophisticated feel than the website. We worked on the overall look and how you navigate through the website when purchasing.
In terms of social media, we're just getting started. We are working on a much more interactive Facebook page and will soon be on Twitter. We are also looking at other online options for promoting our website. We expect the new website to go live in early September

G&DA: What was your most effective display?
DC & ML: We find our window displays draw in our customers. The ferris wheel in the [holiday] window we had mechanized so that it would actually move. We won the town-wide competition for holiday windows in the non-traditional category. Curate Gifts
In terms of window displays, in general we try to make them bright, full but not cluttered, and often include some interesting artsy sculpture or mannequin to capture people's attention as they walk by.

G&DA: How do you find your best employees?
DC & ML: Right now we are running the business with just the two of us.

G&DA: What was your biggest retail problem and how did you solve it?
DC & ML: We are finding the economy to be our biggest challenge. We have tackled this by finding unique, off the beaten path gifts in all price ranges, offering great personalized service and fabulous complimentary gift wrapping.

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