At least here it did. Kindergarten through college. Maybe in your neck of the woods, school starts later. But it got me thinking, what with all of us being last-minute sorts: so here’s some last-minute, low-budget ideas to make your shop stand out from the crowd.
11 Things you can do NOW to get your consignment or resale shop noticed during the Back-to-School Buying Season (6 ideas for Kidswear shops and 5 for the rest of us ’cause everyone loves BTS!)
Selling Kidswear?
1- Support a School: Or all of them. Contact your local schools and ask how you can help. Then let your customers “vote” for a school by giving every purchaser…or every child…some sort of token to put in a glass fish bowl labeled with their school’s name. It’s just for fun and friendly competition: you’ll present what you can to each school, from a gross of pencils to a pile of consigned books.
2- Give the kids their OWN version of your business card. Print something colorful and whimsical up yourself or get some of those free cards at Vistaprint. Stick a foam BTS shape on the back of each. The kids’ll feel important, the card will bang around the family vehicle/ manse for a while. Who knows? You might even start a “trading card” fad in your elementary school!
3- Give the family a take-away: Create a trifold brochure with lunch-box ideas and recipes to assure that your shop’s name and info goes come with every family. In conjunction, have a drawing for a lunchbox: modern, vintage, insulated or tres chic, depending on your shop’s ambiance. Some ideas to get you started.
4- Your ads, email messages, and blog entries can emphasize the cost of a child’s wardrobe and the savings to be found at your shop. My favorite way to show this? Compare two complete outfits, new and gently-used and the totals for each.
5- Get the winter coats out! If you have pakaways from last winter, don’t hold back. When parents are shopping, help them save even more on this, the most expensive item in any child’s wardrobe. Ditto, Halloween costumes.
6- Take a look at the consumer advice on how to shop with your child at HowToConsign.com so you have something to talk about, something to blog about, and something to use in your ad headlines and in-store signage (remember, use other people’s writings for inspiration. Cutting and pasting is plagiarism.)
Selling Teen and Adult Clothing, Home Items, Family Goods?
1- Show the hottest trends in wardrobe or dorm decor in your windows, using magazine layouts for inspiration. Continue the look into your swing shop.
2– Takeaway: Checklists of what to pack for college, what a dorm room needs…or if your target market is looking forward to fall and aren’t students of any sort, perhaps a brochure of local autumn treats: festivals, self-pick farms, farmers’ markets, best route for a fall foliage motoring tour.
3– Show your remaining summer items layered for fall: tank tops under hoodies, chino shorts and skirts with sweaters.
4- Have a drawing for whatever the hottest electronic item is for your clientele: phone, iPod, video camera. An expensive goodie, but guaranteed to make your target audience take notice of your shop!
5- If BTS is here, can Halloween be far behind? Start alerting your clientele to this season with bag stuffers, the beginnings of a costume/ home decor area. You could even include a Halloween coupon in your bag-stuffer. Coupons get kept around longer than straight advertising fliers, and that’s a good thing.
Auntie Kate The Resale Expert 
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