If you are a current MSA Member, please log in to your member account to pay the member price.

Upon purchase, you will receive an email from info@museumstoreassociation with a link to download a PDF.  Download the PDF and use the link contained within to access the session recording.

MSA FORWARD 2022
May 18-22, 2022
Educational Session Recordings

Do Museums Need Stores?

Presenters: Victor Oliveira, Director of Merchandising, Peabody Essex Museum Jamie Larkin, Dr, Center for Creative and Cultural Industries, Chapman University
Knowledge Standards: Visitor Relations, Strategic Management, Marketing & Communications

Session Description: Selling items related to experiences has a very long history; some would say that they pre-date the concept of a museum. In this session, we will explore the history of experiential retailing and how it has evolved into today’s museum stores. In the face of the ever-changing retail landscape and those cultural institutions have choices to offload operations to concessioners, it’s essential to understand the relevancy of museum stores beyond simply creating operating revenue. Visitor experience, sustainability, educational extensions, and programming are just a few reasons museum administrations should see stores as essential for successful visitor experiences. We will explore these topics and more and also speculate to the future on how merchandising will be able to leverage a museum’s image and digital assets to create new opportunities that will create deeper visitor engagements with collections and operating revenue.