Choosing a Tool Pattern : Non-Traditional Players Flock to the Lucrative Wedding Registry Market
Having lived on their own for much of their 20s, Beth and Mike Bollinger didn’t need kitchen appliances when they got married in December.
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“We needed building materials and tools,” Beth says. Their newly purchased 1907 home in South Pasadena needed work, so they registered at Home Depot for wedding gifts and had a tool shower.
Today’s nuptial couples are different. Practical, older, committed to careers--and perhaps marrying for a second or third time--they’re more likely to already have the basics for setting up a home. For wedding gifts, they don’t want china.
Hardware stores, outdoor outfitters, mortgage lenders and travel agencies are among non-traditional players stepping into the gift registry business to fill their needs. With this year’s nuptial season in full swing, these and other companies are hoping to garner a slice of the fast-growing $35-billion-a-year wedding market, long under the domination of department, housewares and home furnishing stores.
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Home Depot, for example, offers tools, lawn and garden materials and fixtures for a couple’s new home. Recreational Equipment Inc. sells backpacking equipment for newlyweds seeking romantic getaways in the Sierra Nevadas. BankAmerica Corp. invites gift givers to contribute toward the newlyweds’ down payment for a home.
“We wanted to get things that we need instead of getting miscellaneous punch bowls,” says Richard Cole, who with fiancee Cath Grisham is among 3,000 people registered on REI’s gift rolls. Both already have established homes, and they share a taste for adventure sports. They’ve registered for backpacking equipment for Cath so they can go exploring on weekends after they’re married in August.
Registries are a big part of the wedding market, which also includes reception services and even insurance. Fireman’s Fund Insurance Co. of Novato, Calif., offers “weddingsurance” to cover the hefty deposits anchoring any celebration should an earthquake or other disaster postpone the wedding day.
Companies find the wedding market attractive because newlyweds are responsible for a disproportionate amount of retail spending. Although the marriage rate is roughly constant and newlyweds represent just 2.6% of American households, they account for the largest chunk of sales for some housewares. Newly married couples spend freely after halving their rent and doubling their incomes through matrimony. They are also optimistic, consistently topping consumer confidence surveys. What’s more, the wedding market is recession-proof.
“What drives the bridal market is the number of people getting married,” says Annie Thurow, research director at Cahners Publishing, owner of Modern Bride magazine. “The bride’s still going to register for the same amount of stuff regardless of the economy.”
Registries are a particularly attractive way to tap this market because they are an easy, inexpensive marketing tool with which to build a faithful customer base. Registries offer companies a rare opportunity to learn about a customer’s tastes, says John Ronzetti, spokesman for the National Retail Federation in Washington. Companies can use the information to build a detailed marketing profile.
After a couple registers for their wedding, they may return to open a baby registry, Ronzetti says. If astute, the company can follow the couple’s changing needs and offer them new products. The company can also approach the people who bought gifts from the registry, developing relationships with them as well.
“You can continue to market to them specifically and develop relationships that last much longer than the initial transaction. It holds tremendous potential,” Ronzetti says.
Others now in the registry realm include L.L. Bean, Tower Records, several major hardware chains and some catalogue companies.
San Francisco-based BankAmerica saw a connection between weddings and the first-time home-buyers market and started its Home Bridal Registry program for down payment gifts.
“We were looking for ways to target niche markets,” says BankAmerica spokeswoman Viviana Vigliarolo. “Studies show that many dual-income couples make enough money to make monthly payments, but they don’t have enough to make the initial down payment.”
Although none of the 25 couples registered in the program has closed a loan yet, BankAmerica already considers the registry a success. “It’s a referral source for us,” Vigliarolo says.
Worldtek Travel of New Haven, Conn., expects to reach an older, more upscale bridal market by starting a Honeymoon Bridal Registry, where couples can register for help on financing their post-wedding trips.
Department stores say they aren’t threatened by these new entries. Most couples register at more than one store, enabling them to register for fine china as well as kayaks and circular saws. Ninety percent of couples registering for gifts still do so at department stores, according to Modern Bride.
Pam Meier, manager of gift registries at Dayton-Hudson Corp.’s Dayton’s, Hudson’s and Marshall Field’s department stores, says the company’s registry business has not been hurt by the emergence of specialty stores. Department and specialty stores don’t compete for business, because their wares are so different, she says.
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Makers of housewares aren’t the only ones who shared in the $34.9 billion spent on weddings last year. In an effort to broaden their market share, many tool and recreation companies, along with banks and travel agencies, have jumped on the registry bandwagon. Percentage of bridal market sales by industry: Reception services: 19% Automobiles: 15% Housing down payments: 14% Honeymoon travel: 10% Investments: 10% Other: 32%
Sources: Modern Bride magazine, “1994 Bridal Market Retail Spending Study”
