First, read The Jacket I Left Behind. I STILL lust after it. I still regret it.
So there I am. A consignment shop owner, author, editor, and consultant, shopping in another consignment shop while on vacation.
I’m thrilled to find a shop, thrilled that DuH has a magazine that he can sit in the car and read, thrilled that I have time to really shop.
Sashay I into said shop. Nice place! Lookin’ good. Oops. There’s a poster right in the foyer with that blankety-blank “Color Tag System” You know the one. The sign that says Blue Tags 20% off, green tags 40% off, red tags 50% off, all buff, violet, ambergris tags 75% off
Okay. I am here to shop, not criticize. She wants to run her shop this way, who am I to complain. Muttering Blue Tags 20% off, green tags 40% off, red tags something or other and what the heck is ambergris? I proceed to happily browse. As I do, I notice the markdown lineup repeated here and there in the shop, but all her merchandise is so great, I would rather look at that!
Eventually, I make my selections happily. Ten things, great haul! I have passed up a few things that maybe weren’t as complete a bargain (translation: as my stepmother used to say when looking at price tags, They like it better than I do) as I would like and besides, I have reached my subconscious limit budget-wise and time-wise (Kenny must be getting to the end of his magazine by now.)
I trot with glee to the sales desk. She rings up my pile. Hmm! It’s $30 less than I had estimated in my head. Oh yeh, remember? The Color Tag System?
I had been so happily SHOPPING I had neglected to do the MATH.
Gee. I coulda bought more. I have $30 more to spend. But there’s the shopkeeper holding out her hand for my $70, another person or two in line behind me, and I’ll feel like an idiot if I say Oh wait let me go find that wonderful jacket since my total’s less than I thought and could I possibly scurry back and find that cute pair of shoes, wasn’t the tag a definite ambergris color so they were REALLY only $2.50 not $10 like the tag said… and anyway, my shopping time is up, judging by the fact that DuH has just come in to the shop with a scowl and a finger pointing to his watch.
Now remember:
I am on vacation (= more time to fun-shop, more inclination to spend money.)
I read the sign when I came in and made some attempt to remember it (more than you can say about most shoppers.)
I am aware that many shopkeepers think this system “works for them”, since I am (ahem) the World’s Leading Consignment and Resale Guru.
Heck, I can even do math with one hanger tied behind my back (after all, me and my red Pentel and my markdown chart have wandered many an hour through my shop’s racks and shelves. Go ahead, ask me 40% off any number you like.)
So if even I will consciously or subconsciously buy less because a shopkeeper doesn’t think doing markdowns right on the blasted price tag is “worth the bother”, do you think a “regular” customer would have the same problem? Will she pass up some great purchases because the price tag reads more than she wants to spend?
No? Are you willing to chance the success of your shop on that belief?
All of which is why I entitled this entry How to get browsers to buy less. And oh, how I dream of that blasted jacket.
[…] Now, I understand that a shop would request or even require the shopper to “mention this post”. That helps with ascertaining results. I can even occasionally live with (reluctantly, but I’m fighting an uphill battle here) requiring shoppers to do their own math. (But please, don’t make it a habit.) […]
Thanks for sharing this post on Pinterest. We use the color tag system. It’s easier for myself and staff, but I do see the problems with it every day. With a never ending to do list, I haven’t addressed it as a priority for the store. After reading this post and the related replies, I am moved to get my priorities rearranged and start to mark down manually beginning this coming week. Thanks Kate and all those who replied to the original post. I’ll let you know how it goes!
I trust, Lynda, you will be as amazed and pleased as others who have taken my (rather strident at times!) advice on this… it truly is one of the most important aspects to resale shopkeeping, as I have determined in my decades in the industry. We’ll look forward to your “progress report” in a few months!
I have always done hand markdowns as I was a retailer before my present life as a resaler. We donate less than a garbage bag at the end of 4 months out of an average of 20,000 items coming in a month, due to our efforts to actually sell the items. We do markdowns every month and it keeps the inventory fresh. Why take up space and hangers for things that are not moving? Your customers will really believe the signs that say “Buy it today, it may not be here tomorrow” if they come back for something and it really is gone. It will convince them they need to buy it now.
Would be interested, how often do you mark down manually? Once a month, each week, etc. I am still doing the markdown on the tag thru our computer program. I just hate the idea of wasting precious time handling merchandise a second time. Sorry Kate, I just can’t get my head around this one.
Hi Ruth, Marking down manually, if you are a consignment shop, is based on your agreement with the consignor. I recommend that the agreement state that items will be MD’d at 3 weeks, then again at 6 wks. Therefore, MARKDOWNS ARE TAKEN DAILY.
Yup, you read it right. If today’s the MD date for, say items placed on the sales floor on June 18… those items get MD’d today.
NOW don’t faint. Obviously you cannot aim for touching every piece of merchandise in your shop every day, looking to see if it’s due.
In reality, here’s how it can be handled: Create a back-room chart, with categories or departments or areas of the store running horizontally, and columns running vertically for calendar weeks. When someone has spare time, or your PT marker-downer comes in, s/he looks to see what hasn’t been initialed of by someone this week. China? Left-hand wall? So at the best of times, things actually get marked down, by hand, sometime between the 21st and the 28th day. So some stay at full price a bit longer than the agreement says.
Now, some shops make this quicker and easier by using a different color tag for each week. So if the week of Sun. June 17- Sat June 23 was yellow, the marker-downer can whisk through the area, department, whatever just zooming in on yellow tags. (This means, of course, that you need enough colors to cover all the weeks of your consignment period, plus a particular color for items that may, for whatever reason, be exempt from scheduled MDs.) This system means some things might get marked down up to 6 days before they are at their own personal 21st day… like if you MD a dress or dresser because it came in June 23, was tagged yellow, which really should have 5 more days at full price. So some items have less than their 21 days to sell at original set price.
I won’t repeat here the multitude of reasons I believe in hand-done MDs, and why showing a shopper that if she just waits 1-21 more days (by printing future possible MDs on the price tag), it’ll be cheaper and thus she’d be a fool to buy it today. But I will repeat here my proven thesis: Even if you have to PAY some staffer solely to do MDs all day (with the associated straightening, serving customers, discovering things you thought were lost, coming up with great swing shop or display ideas based on what’s in-store today)… it will MORE than pay for itself.
Some folks disagree, and think that doing this basic task of creating a fresh reason (“it’s marked DOWN!”) to buy merchandise is wasting time. “Precious time” is spent not only MDing with real, easy numbers so things sell; it’s also spent getting in there, up to the elbows, with questions such as “Why didn’t this sell? Is it because it’s floral, because it’s on the “wrong” side of the store, because it’s been tucked underneath and behind everything else,
because I overpriced it to start, because the fad for XYZ is dying, because it had a hole I didn’t see and no one mentioned it to me?….”
Everyone has their own theory. Mine just happens to be a little wider than most shopkeepers, because I have spent countless years doing, watching, and consulting. But choose your own system, whatever you feel is best for your goals. That’s why we are all sole props/ entrepreneurs, so we can do it our way. I can only speak to what truly works.
[…] Auntie Kate the Blog. That’s how strongly I feel about this. My first post. Huh. and finally, How to Get Browsers to Buy Less. Share this:FacebookTwitterPrintEmailPinterestLike this:LikeBe the first to like […]
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I’m going to give this a shot! We use heart punches for percents off in the tag and they are still forgotten about. It was one of those EASY habits to get in to. Well tomorrow is a new day and we’ll be hand marking them!
Thanks! I shall report back.
Melissa
We donate so much less now that we do hand markdowns, because stuff sells rather than hanging there at it’s original price. And while I could have an employee do it, I actually enjoy doing it myself. It lets me see what’s on the racks, what items I’ve over priced in the first place, what’s selling and what’s not. And the racks look so pretty once I’ve colorized, zipped and buttoned while I’m doing the markdowns. It also gives me a chance to get away from the incoming and chat with customers.
Kate~ The goddess of all things resale… thank you!
In our first month in the biz we did blue tags and had a sign “all blue tags 50% off” It was so darn easy to print out a nicely framed sign instead of hand markdowns… well wouldn’t you know it… I heard from a source that Oncore will never do well if they never markdown items… DUH they were marked down how did THEY not know… but after some soul searching (re`reading the manual) it hit me… no one was seeing our sign and I was too busy… or shy to tell them that the wonderful Italian silk table runner was now half price…
Yes we sill use colored tags BUT we hand markdown all of our tags and what a difference that has made for us!
Thanks Kate
You are the BEST!
Patricia