Auntie Kate The Resale Expert

The old adage is

People don’t want fertilizer, they want green lawns

is nowhere truer than in consignment and resale shops.

After all, do you REALLY think that customer is in your shop browsing because she woke up this morning and thought Boy I just gotta have me some used stuff and right NOW?

No. Your clients, both shoppers and suppliers, have a problem that they are

willing to pay you money to solve.

Not only

willing to pay for an answer to a need, but thrilled to fork over the green stuff if you can help them.

They’re not looking for STUFF…they are seeking SOLUTIONS.

What problems does your marketplace have, and how can you offer a solution at a profitable price?

Here’s some solutions:

• Residence Inns offer grocery shopping/ delivery to their guests
• Plaque-disclosing tablets come in fun flavors, so kids willingly chew them to help parents on brush-n-floss duty.
• Boil-in-bag rice solves the problem of not being able to get rice right, not too hard, not too gummy
• Jitterbug sells a cell phone with big buttons, a dial tone, and nothing to complicate its use, for seniors who don’t want to text, browse the Internet on the Interstate, or any of that new-fangled stuff. They have designed a product which does less, costs more, and is exactly the problem-solver a segment of the market needs.

Some from our industry:

Numerous childrenswear consignment or resale shops educate on cloth diapering, baby-wearing and the like…creating loyalty, attracting parents who otherwise might not venture into a “used” store, and building a name for themselves as the shop which will help you raise your kid.

Do potential consignors have the problem of not enough time to prep their underloved goods to bring in? Seasonal sales offer “Valet Consigning“…that is, they enter the goods into the inventory system, print out and attach a price tag, and put it on the selling floor. For this, the seasonal sale client agrees to the basically the same percentage as a year-round shop would give them.

There’s several consignment shops who make the old problem of I have this skirt I love but don”t have anything to go with it not only solvable, but fun. They hold evening events and invite their shoppers to bring those hard-to-match up items with them, and the whole group helps find flattering pieces to create a full outfit.

So what problem can you YOU solve…and make more money by solving?

Want to make more money? You can.