Auntie Kate The Resale Expert

Now’s the time when the bravest of us start gathering our previous year’s information together and mulling it over. A whole year’s info can be a sort of treasure map, if you look at it from the right angle.

In my case, “mulling it over” means “avoiding doing the actual math that I need for my tax return.” I find mulling much more rewarding, and less…umm, taxing if you will… than adding and subtracting line 39 from 57 1/2.

Using my statistics, some insights into the resale and consignment industry as a whole:

♦ Too Good to be Threw, my site for shopkeepers, was busiest in the “slowest” shopping months: June, July and August. That’s when resalers have a chance to catch their breath, research information and Products that will improve their shops.

♦ The months when our shopkeeper site gets the fewest visits are February and September (when shopkeepers are drowning in incoming goods!) and December, when holidays eat up any free time.

Now here’s the equivalent information from HowToConsign.com, my consumer- oriented site. This is when shoppers and suppliers (consignors, sellers, or donors!) are interested in the industry:

♦ July thru October are the prime “looking for a resale shop to shop or take things to” months. (Keep this in mind if you are a resale shopkeeper. And make special note of July and August…these are months the less-established shop tends to assume that no one wants to hear from/ about them.) My Internet traffic patterns say: The Early Bird Gets the Worm: Grab those clients before they wander (by mistake of course) into your competitor’s shop.

♦ January is, just as we all thought, the slowest retail month. Especially after the overspenders get their December credit card bill! That might be the time to use your mailing lists to coax both shoppers to “treat yourself to a little thrifty something” and to remind suppliers that, just as HTC says, they can Turn their Cluttered Closets into Cash!

So what does your treasure map, that year’s worth of numbers, tell you? Any changes needed?