Greetings! I am so excited to be your guide for bringing in or adding adult toy products into your stores!
I’m Kim Airs and I’ve been in the adult novelty industry for thirty years. Yep! An exciting thirty years where I’ve seen the business evolve and change from hard plastic, two C battery vibes, to app-controlled gizmos that can be used around the world. It’s an exciting time to be in the business, whether it’s in the smoke side of the adult biz or the toy side. Both cater to similar demographics, and I can’t wait to share with you my insights on lots of topics in my monthly column!
- How to incorporate adult products into your stores
- The basic info about materials, uses, and everything else so your store can also be a “go-to” for adult products
- How to train your smoke staff to know about adult products
- Great ways to encourage customers to purchase adult
- Product reviews and “how they work” info
- And much more!
Let’s jump in with “just the facts, ma’am!”
First, you want to make sure that it’s legal to sell adult products in your stores. Don’t assume that since you sell smoke that adult products are fine, too. I can’t stress this fact enough. Check with your local zoning rules regarding the sale of adult products. You’ve worked hard to keep your store open and cater to your customers’ needs so you don’t want to jeopardize that by bringing in adult products. If you can’t easily find out if adult is legal, check with the town clerk or county clerk to see if your area is zoned for adult. Remember the phrase, “if it looks like a duck, if it walks like a duck…” well, you can be sure they are gonna check and see if it IS a duck!
Okay! Now that the legal part is out of the way, now to get onto the fun stuff!
Have customers been asking about carrying adult products? If so, were they asking about any particular products? Keep notes about what they are looking for because this can be your guide as you expand the adult department.
What’s your budget? This is something you should ask yourself when bringing in any new products, let alone an entire new section. Getting an idea of your investment will give you a better idea of your ROI entering the adult market.
How will your adult products be displayed and how much room do you want to dedicate to them? A section of your glass showcase so they are out of the way? On a spare few feet of slatwall? On POP displays near the register? All details to consider when changing things up in your store.
This is where working with a distributor will come in handy. Do your current distributors carry adult products? Many of them do but if you’re looking for a distributor specifically for adult products, there are many available, and often they are chosen because of their local-to-you geographic location to decrease shipping costs and time to get the merchandise in.
There are several distributors coast-to-coast and a quick Google search will bring up many of them. I must say the majority of them have knowledgeable sales staff who can work with you to create a great “starter pack” of what to sell when dipping your toys—I mean, toes—into adult retail.
I’ll also be suggesting some basic items that are easy to incorporate into your stores. Some are simple and basic products in a wide range of what they do and what customers they could appeal to. And I’ll be including information about condoms and lubricants, too, because what the hell? May as well make your store a one-stop-shop for hours of adult pleasure!
See you next month!
