One of the less-known ways to make your consignment, resale, or thrift shop really succeed is to draw a crowd.
Because nothing draws a crowd like a crowd. When potential shoppers go by, other people going in and out of your consignment or resale shop will pique their curiosity, and they’ll be more likely to stop and explore what you have to offer.
This is a powerful argument for consignment shops paying out what’s due to consignors on demand…10 or 50 more people coming in increases the visibility and perceived popularity of your shop. (Not to mention, you then have 10 or 50 more opportunities to sell those consignors something, to make a personable social connection, to let them know what your shop needs that they might have…oh, and the 10 to 50 co-workers, friends, or family members who might come in with that consignor.)
Along these lines is a tip from Too Good to be Threw The Complete Operations Manual for Resale & Consignment Shops: If your shop is brand-new and your parking lot sits empty, park your car there…other cars will follow to see what’s going on!
Making your shop look “active” can also work without hoards of folks.
Add motion with windsocks, decorative flags or bunting, even pennant flags, depending on what suits your image. Twinkle lights give vitality to your store front as well. Encourage people to linger outside your shop, as living lures for more shoppers, with a park bench or bistro table set.
Regarding today’s photo, from Sept 26 1932 Time Magazine:
On Chicago’s North Side stands the White Elephant Rummage Shop, a gloomy brownstone repository for the cast off knicknacks of Society. There in an undignified jumble are gilt chairs, slightly nicked, hand painted lamps, ormulu clocks, embossed silverware, picture frames, bronze cupids and napoleons. Back & forth among them move questing vultures: second-hand dealers, boarding house keepers, inquisitive ladies of uncertain age.
Inquisitive ladies of uncertain age: and what a tag line that could make.
Auntie Kate The Resale Expert 
[…] Add motion with windsocks, decorative flags or bunting, even pennant flags, depending on what suits your image. Twinkle lights give vitality to your store front as well. Encourage people to linger outside your shop, as living lures for more shoppers, with a park bench or bistro table set. —read the full post […]
Great article! I recently hosted my 2nd official “Girl’s Night Out” at The Fashion Safari and it was a huge success. The main reason it was so successful was that I spent about six weeks of planning prior to the event. Promotion was the key to our success and I promoted like you wouldn’t believe.
The event was advertised in several local papers and was sent in as a free press release under community news. I hand delivered flyers to local businesses, other consignment shops, chamber of commerce gatherings (yes, I am definitely a chamber member), and stuffed them in shopper’s bags. I did a mass emailing to all my consignors and asked the chamber of commerce to send it out in their weekly email newsletter. I also posted it on my website, Craig’s List, MerchantCircle, and my myspace page.
I didn’t have to spend a dime on food or refreshments. I asked a local coffee company to provide the complimentary coffee, and two women who own separate businesses selling Tastefully Simple and Grammy K’s Monster Cookies were glad to provide samples to patrons. A representative from Travelling Vineyard provided free wine samples. I also had a Mary Kay representative doing make-up consultations and a massage therapist provided complimentary upper back massages. Of course, I had to do some major rearranging in the store to fit everyone in.
One of the big big draws for the event was the special sale (that was not announced til the event). The sale was 40% off all color-slashed merchandise throughout the store. Another huge draw was that I told everyone we would have tons of door prizes! That was the clincher. Free food and prizes brings them out every time! I had over 40 door prizes that were mainly in the form of gift baskets or gift certificates from local businesses such as restaurants, beauty salons, other consignment shops, etc. I gave out tickets at the door for prizes and used a PA system to call numbers every fifteen minutes during the event. I made sure to make a big deal about what the prize was and to give sufficient credit to the prize donor so that they would want to participate again in the future.
The advertised hours of my event were from 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm and during both 2 hour events that I have hosted in the past four months, I did record sales! I plan on holding the events on a quarterly basis and am looking forward to the next one in December.
We recently hosted an event called rock n shop, with a local band playing… no food.
We promoted two months for this… reminded people on our myspace, bag stuffed the event and even promoted coupons for return visits after they came to the event. Ohhh – we also sent out emails every week (the last 4 weeks) reminding every one to save the date.
It was very successful, and the event was only 4 hours.
Whichever event you work out, be excited about it, so your anticipation is felt by everyone : )
Soooo, Have Fun!
Special events are great…for word-of-mouth, sales, and just plain FUN to share with your clientele. But 2 things, I think, need to be remembered:
* Food’s not why they come. So make it simple, keep it neat, and BUILD on your food…for example, provide a nice take-home recipe card for same, with, of course, your shop’s info on it. Encourage your guests to take an extra recipe card for a friend, who will then have your shop info!
* Most “special events” I see are not as wildly successful as they could be because they aren’t promoted ahead of time enough. “If you build it they will come” is most definitely NOT true of events in your shop. Promote the HECK out of it!
* Oh, and a 3rd thing: Provide your potential attendees with AS MANY REASONS to participate as you can: a Mary Kay consultant? A feng-shui practitioner? Fortune teller? Harpist? Percentage of proceeds to a (or multiple) local charities? Bake sale by the high school band boosters?
Let us know what you decide!
So maybe I should throw a party during slow times? $100 spent on refreshments and door prizes for a day time event might be worth it. Think I’ll mull this over a bit. See where it leads.
Cathy, I think no one writes in compound sentences, with precise use of words because a) fewer and fewer people ‘read’ and b)we’ve become so ‘busy’ we want everything ‘fast’ – our food, and our words – we want sound bites! Paaahhh!
Great post Kate and oh so true! Thanks!
Why don’t we write like that anymore?!