Impressions - Sports Fan Retailer - 21

////////////// SHOW PREVIEW
[during baseball season]," she says. "But
STEPPING UP THE RETAIL GAME
we see a lot of [University of ] Michigan
She soon learned that not everyone
fans, Ohio State fans, Cleveland Browns,
wanted to buy a large gift basket,
Steelers, 49ers and, of course, Cowboys
especially if it contained only one or two
fans [at other times]."
things they wanted. For this reason, she
changed the kiosk into a brickand-mortar store.
"By the fifth year, people started
asking for individual items in the
gift basket," Mansour says. "Then,
I started ordering individual
items and people were buying
them off the shelves. We went
from a 4' x 4' to a 6' x 6' to an 8' x
8', all the way to a 16' x 16', until
Stephanie Mansour, Touchdown Gifts
the mall manager said, 'You're too
Owner
big to be in the center of the mall
In fact, Mansour says her store
anymore. You have to be inline.' So we
relies heavily on selling out-of-area
went inline and evolved from there."
merchandise; and unlike many smaller
After spending about eight years as
stores, she has success doing it. Why?
a sports-gift kiosk, Mansour's seasonal
Touchdown Gifts is one of the rare
operation became a regular staple as
one-off retail stores in the United
a 3,000-square-foot retail store in the
States that has an account with Nike - a
mall. Mansour only previously ran a
huge advantage.
seasonal football gift-baskets stall and
"Nike - the name in and of itself
had no experience running a year-round
is huge," Mansour says. "It brings a lot
business, much less a store that sells all
of traffic to my store, I know that. Ever
sports-related products, not just those
since Nike took over as [chief apparel
for football.
The first year involved a steep learning curve. "I only knew NFL teams, and
knew what sells [seasonally]," she says.
"I had to basically listen and learn what
the customers were looking for in MLB,
NHL, NBA teams. I was better prepared the second year."

supplier] from Reebok in my store, it
has made a huge difference. A lot of
my apparel is Nike sideline or Nike
fashion, and you don't find a lot of
what I have in the other stores
around here."
So when Mansour sells out of
San Diego Chargers, Philadelphia
Eagles or Carolina Panthers gear,
it's not exactly surprising.
Interestingly, Touchdown Gifts
doesn't sell jerseys, even though
Nike is the official provider of
NFL jerseys. While some say the
retailer is missing out on revenue,
Mansour says other nearby bigbox stores have a strong grip on
jersey sales. Moreover, she says she sees
her store as more of a T-shirt, sideline
apparel and accessories retail outlet than
a jersey-selling operation.
"There is a Dick's [Sporting Goods]
down the street and a Foot Locker, [both
selling] jerseys; I try to be creative and
bring in more sideline apparel instead of
jerseys," Mansour says. "Jerseys, you can
find anywhere."

"By the fifth year,
people started asking
for individual items
in the gift basket."

ADAPTING
Situated almost directly between
Pittsburgh and Cleveland, Touchdown
Gifts has no shortage of professional and
collegiate teams to which it can cater, so
adapting to customers' wants and needs
was essential to Mansour's business
success. And though local fans abound,
Touchdown Gifts also sells plenty of
out-of-town team merchandise.
"[We mainly sell to Pittsburgh]
Pirates and [Cleveland] Indians fans

January 17-19, 2017

Touchdown Gifts has an account with Nike but doesn't
sell jerseys, says store owner Stephanie Mansour.
21
Impressions - Sports Fan Retailer

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Impressions - Sports Fan Retailer
