Mobile POS Carts Speed Gift Shop Sales

Historic Hudson Valley eliminates long lines at museum gift shops by deploying mobile POS stations.

As wireless technology continues to improve and expand, an increasing number of retailers are using it to support mobile POS stations. Historic Hudson Valley (HHV), a not-for-profit enterprise that operates an integrated network of six historic sites in New York state's Hudson Valley, is discovering how mobile POS solutions can help relieve the long lines in its gift shops at popular events. HHV's historic sites include Kykuit, which was home to the Rockefeller family for four generations; Washington Irving's Sunnyside home; Van Cortlandt Manor; Phillipsburg Manor; the Union Church of Pocantico Hills; and Montgomery Place historic estate. Each of these sites, except Kykuit, has a gift shop selling a wide range of memorabilia, souvenirs, and gifts, as well as admission tickets to the grounds and tickets for guided tours of the sites.

HHV holds many public events each year, including a variety of workshops, festivals, concerts, and holiday celebrations. Many of these events draw large numbers of visitors, including numerous tour groups. The flagship event, the Great Jack O'Lantern Blaze, held in October at Van Cortlandt Manor, is the largest Halloween event in New York state. Last year – its second year – the event attracted 35,000 attendees over nine evenings. This year, the event is expanding to 19 evenings, including Halloween night, and HHV is expecting the number of visitors to more than double. Many of those visitors will descend on the gift shop within a very short window of time, intent on purchasing the special Blaze-related merchandise stocked for the occasion, including more than 100 decorative pumpkin-themed gift items such as hats, notepads, T-shirts, magnets, glass paperweights, mugs, and books.