Trending in your area...

2020 has obviously been one for the record books. What trends have you noticed in your area?

Unfortunately I'm finding that more people are coming to me with things they've already bought and would like engraved. Some of these projects I've turned away because it's not worth the headache and some of I've taken on as a challenge and been successful at. I've also noticed people have been asking if I even accept products that haven't been bought in my shop. Although this is nothing new I've heard from these customers that most other places won't accept products not purchased in house.

I've also seen a shift even with vendors and what they were pushing for 2020. Johnson Plastics and JDS have really focused on personalized gifts. Seems as though corporate awards and incentives are becoming a thing of the past. I've noticed a decrease in plaques and awards from 5 and even 10 yrs ago. I had one customer who is part of the local government switch from plaques to paper certificates. They will only hand out plaques if the employee is retiring and has been there for more than 5 yrs.

What's your take?

2020 was a pretty good year for me overall. I'm a home based but do most any engraving I can accomplish. I had pretty good first quarter, several pretty good large orders, covid hit and my walk in and my local retail went to zero for about 6 months. I continued to process several of my commercial accounts, only had one repeat that was oil field related that has gone to zero. Retail picked up in Oct through Dec. But not as good as prior years. My etsy and ebay stuff sold well till Aug/Sept, slowed down but was good in Dec. I don't do a lot of plaques and awards, but I've done none from prior customers. I have picked up a new customer that does a good number for rodeos and cattle shows.
I turn away only a few things that I could probably do, but laser isn't good option. My fiber laser is getting good workout, and I'm adding a second one to handle the deeper and larger plates that seem to be showing up more that my 20 watt struggles with.

I'm down this year over last, but not by a ton. Basically the books look like this:

Customer's 1 and 2, they're about even over a 4-year average.
Customer's 3 and 4, down about 20%...
Customer 5 is down 95% (ouch)

But NEW customers (which include returning old customers from 4+ years ago), have added about 95% of the decline of customers 3, 4 and 5...

etc etc...

In 2020 I logged 122 unique business customers and 24 cash customers (many of which are repeats.)
In 2019 I logged 128 business and 28 cash customers... given the extremities of the past 12 months in general, I couldn't ask for better.

And if the RFQ's I've been getting are any indication, 2021 IS going to be better :)

I was down 28% from 2019. All of it covid 19 related.

2019 was a HUGE year for us. 2020 is one for the books for sure!! I have mostly commercial accounts. I agree with you all about customers having been bringing their own purchases in to be engraved.
Trending this past year was;
More Cutting boards this year.
More Auto, truck and vehicle engraving.
Custom installation jigs and or brackets.
Alot of repurposed wood projects!
uptick in Pallet picture frames and nick/nacks
The biggest up tick this is year was Healthcare workers & Healthcare industries.

Hoping and praying for all of us to have a better and safer 2021!