This article appeared in the October/November 2024 issue of Tableware Today, explains our inspiration for the Leaderboard.
Money is tight for many indie retail shops. Owners often ask themselves: What brands and products should I invest in to get the best return for my business? We have an answer to this question. Welcome to the Leaderboard. In each issue through this new column, TOP OF THE CHARTS, I'll be sharing with you the best performing wedding registry brands and products according to my company's data.
There's something for brands and sales reps as well: we'll be showing you the best performing retailers. This sales information, which is collected and curated by my company, is only available in this publication and can help readers understand what brands and stores move the sales needle.
My inspiration for creating the Leaderboard was
Peloton, the Internet-connected stationary bike company. During the pandemic, Peloton was a work-from-home darling; its valuation rose to almost $50 billion. Peloton's key feature was its ability for users to ride virtually alongside their friends and compete with them via a leaderboard feature. At Shop Local (my online platform that provides retailers and brands with tools to collaborate and run online stores), I created a leaderboard for our industry; swapping out fellow bikers for fellow brands and products.
If you're a retailer, you can use this information to scout new products and brands. If you're a brand or sales rep, you can use this information to tailor products to existing retailers or spot new merchants. We tally Leaderboard sales information from our online platform of
1,400 retailers, 3,000 brands, and 400,000 products.
We've focused the board on wedding registries – of which we host 80,000 – since registry orders make up the majority of online sales for our indie retailers. As with all print forms, there's a limit to what can fit in our print version here. But there's good news: you are invited to see more results for free on our website:
shoplocal.org/leaderboard. When you open a Shop Local account you receive full Leaderboard access.
I invite you to 'ride' alongside your peers and praise them for their success. Each subsequent TOP OF THE CHARTS column will offer a new snapshot of who and what is leading our industry.
This article appeared in the December/January 2025 issue of Tableware Today.
TOP OF THE CHARTS
SAYING I DO TO THE REGISTRY by JASON SOLAREK
Our e-commerce platform helps
1,456 indie stores sell $22 million a year. Perhaps surprising is that more than 90% of these orders are wedding registry gifts. Our stores offer tens of thousands of goods for sale online with the lion's share being wedding gifts. Why are wedding registry sales 90% of online sales while non-gift orders account for just 10%? Because much of the non-gift registry cake is eaten by new entrants – brands selling direct and big tech retailers like Amazon, Zola, and Wayfair. D2C brands have ample margins to give up and big tech retailers are highly leveraged by Wall Street. Even legendary traditional retailers like Macy's, Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom, and T.J. Maxx have beenfelled.
There are many reasons why indies succeed with registries. Since brides register, on average, at three stores, these merchants have less competition. In a small pool, a store doesn't have to compete on price and give up margin. The indie store has a one-in-three chance of receiving the order. Compare that to a non-registry purchase. A customer can scour the web and buy from scores of websites, reducing the store's chance of receiving the order to just 1%. When there's a lot of competition, a store often can't compete on price, shipping charges, and delivery speed. Even if the indie retailer gets chosen, the margin on the order is likely much smaller thanks to all the competition. That's where our software and strategies come in.
Our
e-commerce software with a built-in wedding registry service ensures our retailers' online stores are filled with top-selling wedding products couples want. We know what the top products are because our Leaderboard (the latest is shown below) tracks the data. The Leaderboard is not only a sales tool, but a collaboration tool. When indie stores are alone and isolated, they don’t know the latest sales trends to carry the right products. The Leaderboard fixes this bringing the best brands and products to the forefront. It's fitting that we work in the wedding registry business. Our software celebrates couples coming together and our platform and Leaderboard brings our members together. Our members say I do to collaboration. We invite you to walk down the (shopping) aisle with us.
TOP OF THE CHARTS
Catch the Registry Wave

by JASON SOLAREK
What are most brides-to-be doing in January on a Monday at 3 p.m.? If you answered, opening a wedding registry, you’re right. January is the most popular month to start a registry, Monday the most popular day, and most registries are opened between 3 and 4 p.m. (Side note: While most twentysomethings have internet access 24/7 on their mobile phones, it’s interesting they prefer to set up their registry during traditional work hours. A win for WFH, aka work from home.)
If your store already offers an online registry service setup, you’ve likely seen this wedding registry wave in past springs. If you don’t have an
online registry service setup, don’t worry. February is the second most popular month, followed by March, and you can quickly and easily offer local brides an online registry service. More on that in a bit.
Our research extends to gift givers. Gift givers are most likely to give a wedding gift for $165 on Monday between 11 and noon. If you’re curious about what gift givers are giving (and what brides are registering for), you’re in luck. We track that and share it with you in each month’s Leaderboard. See the most recent month’s activity below.
In last issue’s column, I shared why wedding registries are a surefire way to succeed online. Here I’m sharing that now is the time to act. If you don’t have an online wedding registry service, or need a better one, you’re invited to get your free software at my company’s website:
shoplocal.org.
In the coming issues, I’ll dedicate each column to an important part of improving your wedding registry service – from how you should set up your registry home page to how you can increase your checkout conversion. When you put all these pieces together, you’ll have your map to a successful and profitable wedding registry service.
In 2025, your indie store can get oceans of new registrants and registry orders. Let’s catch the wedding registry wave together.
TOP OF THE CHARTS
Build Your Robot 🦾 by Jason Solarek
Each month, our Leaderboard reports the best performers from among 1,500 indie stores, 3,000 brands, and 300,000 products with no man hours. Leaderboard results are automatically tallied and published on the first of each month; it's as if I have an omnipotent robot that does this work for me.
TOP OF THE CHARTS
Tableware Today, Tomorrow & Forever by Jason Solarek
While this may be the last issue of Tableware Today, it’s surely not the last of what the magazine has given us. What surrounds me and you has been touched and improved by Amy and Tableware Today in small and big ways. Over the last 19 years, thanks to Tableware Today, I’ve gained friends, grown my business, and enriched my life. In 2006, I was fresh into the tableware website scene and…