How Museum Puzzles Enhance the Visitor Experience and Boost Revenue
The Perfect Item for your Museum Gift Store
People everywhere – regardless of age – enjoy visiting museums and other attractions. And when the day winds to an end, museum owners count on their guests making a stop by the gift shop to purchase some memorabilia. For those museum and attraction owners who want to make more sales, there’s no better item to keep in stock than attraction-related museum puzzles.
Why People Love Museum Puzzles
Museums are a popular destination for people of all ages, offering a glimpse into the past and an opportunity to learn about different cultures and topics. While visiting a museum, visitors often stop by the gift store to purchase souvenirs that remind them of their visit. Among the many options available in museum gift stores, museum jigsaw puzzles have become increasingly popular among visitors.
Museum jigsaw puzzles offer a fun and educational way for visitors to take home a piece of the museum. These puzzles feature images of famous paintings, sculptures, or artifacts from the museum’s collection, allowing visitors to recreate the artwork in their own homes. For art enthusiasts, museum jigsaw puzzles provide a unique opportunity to examine the details of a masterpiece up close.
>> READ MORE: Jigsaw Puzzles: The Perfect Custom Souvenir for Your Retail Store
Jigsaw puzzles are also a great way to relax and unwind after a long day of sightseeing. They require concentration and attention to detail, helping visitors to take their minds off the stresses of daily life. In addition, museum jigsaw puzzles are a great way to bond with family and friends. They can be enjoyed together, providing an opportunity for quality time and conversation.
Finally, museum jigsaw puzzles are a unique and affordable souvenir option. Compared to other museum souvenirs, such as expensive art prints or collectibles, puzzles are relatively inexpensive. They offer visitors a way to take home a piece of the museum without breaking the bank.
6 Reasons Why Museum Owners Love Custom Printed Puzzles
It’s not just the visitors who love these puzzles – museum owners and store managers also see the value in selling them in their gift stores. Here are some reasons why:
1. Huge Popularity
The jigsaw puzzle market in the USA has experienced a significant surge in popularity over the past few years, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2020, the puzzle industry saw a 300% increase in sales compared to the previous year, with over 20 million puzzles sold. According to Statista.com, revenue in the Puzzles segment is expected to top US$0.84bn in 2023 with a future estimated annual growth of 6.01%. Gift stores do not want to miss out on this lucrative market.
1. Unique Product Offering
Custom jigsaw puzzles offer a unique product offering that sets museums apart from other gift stores. Visitors are often looking for something special to remember their trip, and custom puzzles featuring artwork or artifacts from the museum’s collection are a one-of-a-kind souvenir. They cannot be found at just any gift store, making them an exclusive offering for museum gift shops.
2. Increased Revenue
Museum puzzles can be a profitable addition to a museum gift store. They are relatively inexpensive to produce, yet can be sold at a higher price point than many other souvenir items. Plus, they offer repeat sales opportunities – once visitors complete one puzzle, they may want to purchase another featuring a different artwork or artifact from the museum.
3. Educational Value
Museums are often dedicated to educating the public about art, history, and culture. Custom-printed museum puzzles featuring pieces from the museum’s collection can offer an educational component, allowing visitors to learn more about the artwork or artifact in a fun and interactive way. This educational value can be a selling point for museums looking to promote their educational mission.
4. Collaboration Opportunities
Creating custom jigsaw puzzles can also offer collaboration opportunities for museums. For example, museums can partner with local artists or puzzle manufacturers to create a unique puzzle featuring artwork from the museum’s collection. This collaboration can not only result in a high-quality product but also offer cross-promotional opportunities for both parties involved.
5. Appeal to a Wide Audience
Museum puzzles have broad appeal, making them a great souvenir option for a wide range of visitors. They can be enjoyed by adults and children alike, and offer a fun and relaxing activity for families to complete together. Additionally, custom puzzles featuring famous artwork or artifacts can attract art enthusiasts and collectors.
Find more information on how you can order a custom-printed Jigsaw Puzzle for your museum or Request a Quotation.
Why Jigsaw Puzzles are a Great Way to Promote Your New Exhibit or Attraction
Custom Printed Puzzles can also be a great promotional tool for a museum. When museums open a new exhibit things can get pretty exciting. Of course, to make that excitement contagious and to bring in new customers to check them out it takes a certain amount of PR. And since people love getting their hands on new souvenirs and gifts, it’s smart to have some promotional items on hand that you can use to promote your newest exhibit or attraction.
That’s where jigsaw puzzles come into the equation. These puzzles can be custom-made to feature any artwork or photograph that you desire so they are a natural way to publicize those new attractions to the public. Unlike other, generic and common custom-made products, jigsaw puzzles reflecting the image of a new exhibit or attraction are the type of item that people really enjoy getting their hands on. Museum Puzzles always end up being passed around between family members and friends and are often used time and time again over many years.
Here are some of the benefits both you and your guests get when you offer attraction-related jigsaw puzzles:
Get the Word Out
When people purchase or receive a custom or promotional puzzle as a giveaway, you do your part to get the word out on the streets about your newest exhibits. Word of mouth is always a welcome form of publicity. Since people really enjoy working on these puzzles, they naturally want to share the experience of putting them together with their friends and family. So the customer gets the fun of putting the puzzle together with their friends, and your new attraction gets automatic word-of-mouth notoriety.
People get a sense of Ownership and Engagement with your New Exhibit or Attraction
When someone takes a new custom-printed jigsaw puzzle home that features an image of a key exhibit or other artwork, they feel like they actually have a small piece of that exhibit in their own homes. And that feeling of ownership ensures that these guests will come back again and again to see their favorite new exhibit.
They are an Inexpensive Way to Promote your New Attraction
Even better than postcard marketing, you can use postcard puzzles as a very cost-effective way to promote your attraction to your mailing list or as an event giveaway. Unlike other items, you can purchase custom-printed postcard puzzles with your marketing message and image at very reasonable prices.
Using postcard puzzles as a marketing tool is unusual and noteworthy and is guaranteed to get the attention of the recipient. So if you have money figured into your advertising budget, you can use these puzzles as a very inexpensive giveaway item or direct mailer to attract new visitors.
Read more about our Postcard Puzzles here.
A Source of Income to Help Cover the Cost of Visiting Attractions
Museum jigsaw puzzles allow zoos, museums, and other tourist attractions to recoup some of the costs associated with putting new exhibits on display. If you have something that people want to see, there’s a good chance that you sunk a fair bit of money into that exhibit. Selling custom-made “Limited Edition” museum puzzles in your gift store is a great way to make some of that money back. And since you can mark up these puzzles at a premium cost – they are custom-made items – you make a tidy profit on every unit sold.
Do your part to make your newest zoo or museum exhibit a smashing success. Consider some of the things mentioned in this article, and put these fun, engaging jigsaw puzzles to work promoting your latest exhibit to the public.
The Educational Benefits of Museum Jigsaw Puzzles
Museum gift shops really are wonderful places. These stores are usually the last stop for museum guests; before they go home for the day. As such it’s imperative that museum and attraction owners stock their gift shops with the types of items that people really enjoy purchasing. But stocking the right items doesn’t just begin and end with the purchase; you’ll want to make sure that the items you sell in your gift shop also impart a bit of fun and some education for your customers. After all, museums are all about education and enjoyment, so it’s no wonder that museum jigsaw puzzles are such a hit with museum guests.
Combining Education with Fun
These puzzles are those rare souvenirs that serve as a reminder of the museum experience, an educational item, and a reminder to the guests about all the fun that they had while visiting the museum’s attractions. And they really do hit home as some of the most educational gifts that people end up purchasing from the gift shop. But what is it that makes these puzzles so educational? Here are just a few of the reasons that museum jigsaw puzzles are such enlightening items.
Concentration is Required
In order for someone to put a puzzle together, they have to concentrate. That means that when people purchase and put together museum puzzles, they have to really pay close attention to the details. The entire experience of taking the individual pieces and putting the entire puzzle together allows people to study the details printed on the puzzle while doing something engaging and fun.
When you combine fun with the learning experience, as you do when you offer museum jigsaw puzzles to your guests, you give them the opportunity to have fun as they assemble these puzzles. And that means that they will internalize and remember all about their favorite exhibits and attractions on a whole new level.
Fun & Learning for Everyone
When people purchase museum puzzles, they usually end up putting the puzzles together with other family members and friends. That means that people who may not have even visited your museum get a chance to learn about the exhibits featured in these puzzles. So even non-guests end up getting a bit of an educational, yet very fun, learning experience.
More often than not, these folks will be so intrigued about the museum, simply from putting these puzzles together, that they can’t wait to actually visit the museum in person.
It’s always the goal of museum owners and management to pass along fun, engagement, and education to all their guests. And since museum jigsaw puzzles pack in all three, it’s easy to see why they are perpetual best sellers and customer favorites at museum gift shops all over the world. And since these souvenirs literally fly off the shelves, to the tune of very nice profits for the gift shop, you can bet that museum puzzles are sure to be some of the most in-demand museum gift shop items for many years to come.
Marketing Support
It’s important to promote a new product in order to make it visible to gift store shoppers. This is even more important when it is a highly visual product such as a Jigsaw Puzzle. It’s a great idea to show a completed puzzle in your store so shoppers get a chance to see the completed puzzle and its size.
To help with the successful launch of a new Jigsaw Puzzle in your gift store, we offer a range of marketing support materials and services. Depending upon your order quantity, we also offer a selection of these items free of charge with each order. Additional quantities can be purchased for a nominal fee.
Digital 3D images of your puzzle boxes
As part of the order process, we provide you with high-resolution 3D image representations of your boxed museum Puzzle. These are great for promoting your puzzle products in both print brochures and online. Use these on your website as product images or in emails to announce the availability of your new puzzle products. Standard versions of these are available free of charge with your order. If however, you need further graphical layouts of your range of puzzle products, for an additional fee our in-house Graphics Designer would be happy to put these together for you.
Sample Puzzles for Wall Display
Displaying a full-sized puzzle on your gift store wall is a great way to showcase your new range of custom-made Jigsaw Puzzles. To make this easier, we can produce a 50% cut puzzle. This basically means that the puzzle will be cut only halfway through. From the front, it will look like a completed Jigsaw Puzzle but the piece will not come apart. This makes it a great item to use as a wall display.
Please note that to make shipping easier, we do cut larger puzzles into two pieces with each piece then being 50% cut. The two sections can then be easily fitted together to display the completed puzzle.
Empty Puzzle Boxes for Display Purposes
We can also supply empty Jigsaw Puzzle boxes which are great for use in gift store displays. The boxes will look exactly the same as the retail puzzle but will not have the actual puzzle included inside. This makes them lighter and easier to display on shelves and on the wall.
Depending upon your order quantity, we do provide a small quantity of these items free of charge with your trade order. Please contact us for more information.
Our Jigsaw Puzzle Box Designs
This is the “New Look” of our Jigsaw Puzzle boxes. You can of course still request a different layout or changes to this layout when placing your order.
Founder and owner of TSG Products Inc., the Canadian company behind PuzzlesUnlimited.com and Jigsaw2order.com, one of the web’s oldest sites offering personalized, custom-made jigsaw puzzles since 2002.
With over 2 million puzzles manufactured and collaborations with thousands of artists, photographers, museums, and corporations, Colin’s expertise in the puzzle industry is unparalleled. His company, TSG Products Inc., is dedicated to producing high-quality jigsaw puzzles for customers worldwide, providing unique and creative products for the global market.
