Museums turn gift shops into curated shopping destinations

Where once museum shops offered postcards and coffee table books, they now sell slogan T-shirts, homeware and fashion items as institutions lean into merch to boost revenue. Curated edits spanning fashion to homeware are turning gift shops from an exit point into a desirable entry point and a stand-alone shopping destination.

The National Portrait Gallery’s new Marilyn Monroe show, for example, includes cat-eye sunglasses, a limited-edition lipstick and a baseball cap emblazoned with her signature. Ed Simpson, the gallery’s buying and product development manager, said they began developing the Monroe offering 18 months ago and noted that while posters and postcards remain, the wider selection is “a really great way of interpreting the exhibition without being too literal”.

Simpson added that the team tries to avoid “just slapping an image on a product”, and that an autographed baseball cap offers “a kind of ‘if you know, you know’ nod to the exhibition”.

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