.bodytext {float: left; } .floatimg-left-hort { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right: 10px; width:300px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-caption-hort { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:300px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-vert { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right:15px; width:200px;} .floatimg-left-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; font-size: 10px; width:200px;} .floatimg-right-hort { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px;} .floatimg-right-caption-hort { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px; font-size: 10px; } .floatimg-right-vert { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px;} .floatimg-right-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; font-size: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; border-top-style: double; border-top-color: black; border-bottom-style: double; border-bottom-color: black;} .floatimgright-sidebar p { line-height: 115%; text-indent: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar h4 { font-variant:small-caps; } .pullquote { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 150px; background: url(http://www.dmbusinessdaily.com/DAILY/editorial/extras/closequote.gif) no-repeat bottom right !important ; line-height: 150%; font-size: 125%; border-top: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid;} .floatvidleft { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatvidright { float:right; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} In an effort to expand his business beyond the busy fall season, Bryan Etchen, owner of Iowa Orchard Inc., experimented with selling gift baskets in a mall kiosk seven years ago. Though the effort of making custom baskets and shipping them to individuals proved too much compared with the income, it did attract an investment firm that decided to purchase about 500 baskets for its clients during the holidays for the next six years.

Now Etchen is planning on making a big push to market his gift baskets to other businesses after tripling the number of baskets he made last year, with one company ordering nearly 1,000.

“I think it’s helped our exposure for people who didn’t realize we were here, even though we’ve been here 35 to 40 years,” Etchen said. “Overall sales have gone up since we’ve gotten into the baskets, and it’s something we really enjoy. It’s a neat time of year.”

Like Etchen, other Greater Des Moines retailers and organizations see the end of the year as an opportunity to capitalize on holiday shoppers and have come up with creative ways to draw them to their products.

Jennifer Hansen, owner of eden, is hoping her second location will be renovated and open in time for the East Village Holiday Promenade on Nov. 13. She purchased the building next to Gong Fu Tea on East Sixth Street in the East Village, and is planning on moving her personal care products to that location, while keeping her home and baby products at her 500 E. Grand Avenue store.

“The store continues to evolve,” Hansen said. “We started off with a very small and limited inventory, and it’s just grown and grown, and actually at this point now, we’re bursting at the seams.”

The two locations also will give her the space needed to re-create the comfortable atmosphere she started with four and a half years ago, with couches and tea being served to customers. Her husband is even planning on making eggnog lattes for customers during the Holiday Promenade, which he does every year.

In November, Hansen also will begin offering a service called the eden wish list, where customers can write down the products they want, and the store will keep it on file for family and friends to access when purchasing gifts. The concept is an expansion to the wedding and baby shower registries she already offers. Hansen also provides a service to people who cannot make it to the store, where they can order a gift over the phone and she will deliver it to a downtown office.

“It’s a huge part of our business, those six weeks” leading up to Christmas, she said, adding that it accounts for about 25 percent of the year’s total sales.

The Downtown Community Alliance is jumping on board with the holiday shopping spirit by launching a gift card program this November. The cards can be purchased online and at the DCA offices, and can be used at any participating downtown business. The DCA is currently asking interested businesses to sign up for the program, and will have to train them and make sure their computer systems can process the cards.

The idea is in response to the success of the passport program this summer, which encouraged people to shop downtown by giving them a “passport” that stores would stamp; when filled, the shoppers could turn it in for a chance to win a free trip to Italy.

“We think it will be a great way to get people excited about shopping downtown,” said Mary Lawyer, president and CEO of the DCA. The DCA has signed a five-year contract with the gift card vendor to continue the program.

Toby Joseph, president of Josephs Jewelers, has found events to be a successful method for drawing people to his jewelry store, especially outside his three busiest weeks of the year leading up to the holidays. Last spring, Josephs was one of 18 stores to host an Orrefors crystal artist. Sales during the event were higher than at similar events in Chicago and Beverly Hills, even though the Beverly Hills store held its event a week before Christmas, Joseph said.

“People in Des Moines like events,” Joseph said. He added, “People like getting together and having a good time. It relieves the stress of shopping.”

Josephs will have two events this November. One will be centered around Swarovski crystal, which Joseph said is collected by several hundred people in Greater Des Moines. The event on Nov. 3 will offer a limited-edition 20th anniversary piece to customers without requiring them to pay the fee to join the company’s collectors’ society.

The second will be a three-day event from Nov. 15 to 17, when the store will offer hundreds of animal charms ranging from sterling silver to gold and diamond pieces at prices from $20 to $2,500. Ten percent of the proceeds will go to Animal Rescue League of Iowa Inc., which during a similar summer event had animals available for adoption at the store. Three Dog Bakery also will have merchandise available.

With about one-third of the store’s sales happening from mid-November to Christmas, Joseph said, “We want to be different. I don’t want to look like a standard store when you go into it.”

About the same time Josephs is gearing up for its events, Iowa Orchard will be taking orders for gift baskets, with the rush to make them from mid-November through Christmas.

“When we get to Halloween, we pretty much empty the room out and then it becomes a gift-basket facility,” Etchen said.

He lets customers choose the contents of their baskets from a variety of products, including apples and pears grown at his orchard or shipped in, preserves, nuts, salad dressings, truffles made by Suzette Candies, chocolate- and caramel-drizzled popcorn and apple pies made at the orchard.

Etchen is working on updating his Web site, www.iowaappleorchard.com, and developing a catalog to send to businesses.

“The orchard is always going to be the primary thing,” he said, “but this is as close to a secondary thing as it ever will be.”