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Many resale shopkeepers enjoy industry discussion groups on Facebook. They love to have a place where their ideas, comments and opinions are not the stuff of general knowledge. It’s a place to discuss ideas, develop strategies, and even to learn something new.
[V]ery few businesses are doing something special with their presence on Facebook – I am sure you find the same thing with the pages you follow. Everyone seems to be doing the same thing, or saying the same thing. Over and over.
And oh how true! Over and over again, a shop’s page will have “Great stuff coming in” posts or “New markdowns taken!” While such commercial appeals are welcome, they don’t often build loyalty to your consignment, thrift or resale shop… the kind of loyalty that will have people thinking of your shop first, before they wander over to the mall.
Well, here’s a strategy that WILL build loyalty, one that works better than monthly Girls’ Night Out events and is easier, cheaper, and more consistent. A group page created by your business will
make your shop stand out from the Sea of Sameness
that consumers grow weary of in consignment and resale shopping today.
Starting a group page for your shop’s clientele is a great strategy to improve your business. This author’s #2 point, to add value to being a “regular” in your shop, is of course near and dear to my heart, but
I suspect #3 will be the real reason
you opt to put some time and effort into a shop FB group!
Auntie Kate The Resale Expert 
Love Pat’s post. This would work great since we post on eBay. And it is better than a clearance area. I like this. I’m headed for Pat’s fb page to see it is person. Thanks for the idea.
And it would be SO much more exciting to your followers/ fans than a (yawn) clearance area, wouldn’t it? Good luck with it!
This is a great idea and actually posted this question to my our Resale Group and did create one for my business but haven’t started using it yet, but these are some wonderful ideas on how to use it One tip though that I just learned that you can’t promote “group posts” to reach all of your friends in your group. But I LOVE all the ideas. Thanks!
Yes, there were a ton (was a ton? I never know…) of good ideas there to adapt to resale, weren’t there?
Good question (about the internet eternity factor). Sometimes, I do not post items until two or three days prior. It seems to get people pumped up. I also ask folks what they are looking for as well (and attempt to see if I have anything that I can auction off that will fit those needs). I send out daily reminders as well … to invite friends, to ask questions, etc. to keep interest going. Sure, people forget, but it’s more likely they will be upset if they totally miss the auction because they didn’t know it was coming up. They post their bids on my group page under the photo of the item for auction. I open the auction at a particular time (such as 7 a.m.) and keep it open all day until about 9 or 10 p.m. Then, at that particular time, I pick items to CLOSE and post “closed” for each item (in no particular order). Highest bidder wins. I then send them a message letting them know the total for all items they won and arrange for pickup time. If they don’t pick the item up within a week, it gets re-auctioned in the next auction (or back on the sales floor).
Thanks for the details, Pat… I’m sure you’ve helped put some seeds in some resalers’ brains this afternoon.
Hey Kate! We did this for our resale shoppe just a few months back. We had started the group page for our current page fans as a place where we could post pictures, sales, etc., but that did not seem to work as well for us as being able to have it as an “auction” site. Auctions are a huge deal these days! Just here in Tulsa, there are dozens of people with groups where they go out and find cool things (or things from their own home) and auction them off to the highest bidder, or just list things for really inexpensive prices to sell. We thought it was a great idea and it gives us another avenue to sell items that have been on our shelves for more than a couple of months. The premise is simple – about once (maybe twice) per month, we announce an auction and invite our current members to invite others for the fun. About a week before the auction I begin posting photos of the items up for auction and I try to post as many photos as possible, along with measurements (if appropriate) and an opening bid. The day before the auction, I delete all but the main photo of the item and then the bidding begins. Folks pick the items up in my shoppe, which gives them yet another turn to shop while they are here.
It’s gotten us a few extra customers the three or four times that we have held an auction and our name is growing … but it is difficult. We’ve been doing this for a little over a year and things have been tight … slow … trying to persevere is difficult, but we use as many free avenues for advertising and selling as we can (and we sell on eBay as well).
Pat Stang
A Li’l Bit Retro
Interesting, Pat. They post their bids on your shop’s group page? And what’s the rationale behind posting a week before they can bid… wouldn’t that be likely to make them forget all about it? Or do you have it on display in your shop so they can come by and see it? A week is an eternity on the Internet… heck, anything over a couple of hours is to me! More, please!