Retail in museums
A selection of downloadable resources about creating successful retail, hospitality and catering opportunities in your museum.
PowerPoint training resources from ‘Inspired Collections Retail’ from their project at Buxton Museum and Art Gallery:
SMALL SHOP MERCHANDISING GUIDELINES
You can download the full report from this project here: Inspired Collections Retailing
AIM Success Guide: Successful Museum Cafes
Cafés are rather like good exhibitions – the best have real passion plus good organisation to come alive and make money. The downside is that cafés are not static exhibits – food goes off, labour costs can ruin your budget and customers rightly don’t appreciate queues, poor quality food, dirty tables or service without a smile. This AIM Success Guide offers an insight into catering – asking is ‘It the road to riches or ruin?’
Download the AIM Success Guide to Successful Museum Cafes
AIM Success Guide: Successful Retailing for Smaller Museums
This paper is not intended as a definitive guide to museum retailing but a way of pointing those who are new to retailing in the right direction. It has been written for smaller museums, although it will have a wider application. If nothing else, it should give them an insight into some of the complexities of retailing and to understand why it is sometimes necessary to seek professional advice.
Download the AIM Success Guide to Successful Retailing for Smaller Museums
AIM Focus Paper: Retail Guidelines for Small Museums
This Focus Paper offers useful and honest advice to take you through staffing and shop location to sign posting and setting objectives. If you are thinking about opening a shop or a sales point in your museum or are unsure how to develop an existing one, these guidelines will help you explore plans to get your shop idea off the ground and make more pennies.
Download the AIM Focus Paper on Retail Guidelines for Small Museums
AIM Focus Paper: Successful Museum Cafes
A day out ‘experience’ is not complete without some food and drink. Smart coffee bars are well established in bookshops, garden centres, leisure attractions and department stores. Catering is now wherever people congregate and there is no better setting than a busy museum or one that has a good location. This Focus Paper explores taking first steps towards tackling creating a food and drink offer, looking at merchandising and key food safety issues, the menu, staffing and café design.
Download the AIM Focus Paper on Successful Museum Cafes
AIM Success Guides: Successful Venue Hire and Corporate Hospitality
This Guide is aimed at museums and heritage attractions that are just beginning to develop this business area and those who already offer such services, but want to grow it further.
Download the AIM Success Guide to Successful Venue Hire and Corporate Hospitality
AIM Focus Paper: Venue & Location Hire
Museums are increasingly maximising the use and value of the space they occupy by hiring their spaces for filming, photo shoots, functions, weddings and conferences. This paper includes some suggestions for those starting out in this area and those who are already established but wish to expand.
Download the AIM Focus Paper on Venue & Location Hire
