Posted in economics of resale, Shopkeeping talk, tagged resale shopkeeping, seasonal sales, small business, starting a consignment shop, success, word of mouth on August 3, 2016| 2 Comments »
Bag sale days can be wonderful for you and your clientele… but they can be a logistical nightmare. Lines, lines, everywhere lines…
Bag sales can also mean great income for your shop from scads of items that might have to be otherwise disposed of dumpster-direction. But hey, couldn’t your local charities use that stuff?
1- Sell (more…)
Posted in economics of resale, Shopkeeping talk, tagged customers, resale shopkeeping, selling, starting a consignment shop on July 6, 2016| 1 Comment »
* Use an “extra punch” or “double punches” to motivate shopping. Instead of reducing your prices, simply promote by offering more punches when you need to move a too-full category. Especially useful when you want to sell down a category that’s a slow mover or whose time is quickly waning: holiday items in early December, for example.
* Extra punches are also great to reward seniors, the military, donors to your charity drive, as an apology when it looks like you may be losing a customer or supplier.
* Remember that punches don’t cost you much, if anything… but they are perceived as extra value!
* Speaking of perceived value: Do they get a gift certificate in exchange for their filled FBC? They should!
* Consider structuring your FBC so that they expire at the end of the calendar year. Gives you a great reason to email, blog, or otherwise notify your customers to “Fill your FBCs now and redeem them!” That alone might get shoppers in during the December shopping period.
* Perhaps a “donate your FBC to charity” event in early January? They bring in their not-filled but expired FBCs to donate to a charity… you give them a fresh new FBC with a “free punch” for having done so, and the total value of all the punches on all the unredeemed cards, you grant (amidst great media fanfare of course) to whichever charity your shop can help. Details in an earlier post here on the Auntie Kate blog.
For layout ideas, information on variable qualifiers and how to turn an FBC into a Gift Certificate, see The FBC Idea Kit on our Too Good to be Threw Products for the Professional Resaler Layout Ideas Shop.
Posted in economics of resale, Shopkeeping talk, tagged advertising, blogging, customers, resale shopkeeping, selling, success, Thrift, web on June 25, 2016|
For more HOT ideas to keep your consignment or resale shop cookin’, click the egg!
How about holding a sizzling
Here’s how:
Pick about half a dozen great buys from your consignment or resale shop’s stock to feature each day of your promotion. Be sure to select items that will appeal to a variety of virtual shoppers.
Photograph them… together or separately. (Add your shop logo and contact info to the photo!)
Decide how your online fans, friends, followers can call dibs/ purchase these items. Post on every social media site that you can… including the front page of your web site and on your blog.
Post a new batch every day at your audience’s optimal time, being sure to leave time for those eager shoppers to get in to buy/ pick up that day!
Bonus points for turning your swing shop into a “Virtual Sidewalk Sale” showcase… it’s fun and it’ll motivate those who DO come in to start following your social media.
Posted in economics of resale, Functional Friday, Shopkeeping talk, tagged accepting, buy-outright, consignment, Products for the Professional Resaler, profit, resale shopkeeping on April 8, 2016|
How many times do you or a staffer touch incoming merchandise?
I’m tired just typing that. Think about how you operate. Is there a way to stop touching these items over and over again? A way that not only will make you more efficient but that will please your supplier? A way that will allow you to get incoming on the sales floor in less than 24 hours? A way that your time can be spent selling, not accepting (after all, selling’s where the money is!)
Here’s an excerpt from Your Money-Wise Guide to Accepting & Pricing to help you make the most of your accepting/pricing time:
Tricks to quicken clothing check-in:
1- First, check the areas most likely to have too much wear: armpits, crotch, neck and wrists. Stains, pilling, discoloration. Then, whether any elastic the garment might have is still snappy. Soil often shows most on the satin neck label.
2- Check for fading across shoulders, under lapels, across collar. Yes, things fade even in dark closets.
3- Next, holding the hem of the garment, pull it out so the front is as parallel to your lights as possible. Spots and stains pop out (this is the real reason for items having to be on hangers, and of course for having good lighting at your check-in area!)
4- Check fasteners: buttons, snaps, zippers. Then seams and hems (both for no missing stitching and for twisting which results from a garment being cut incorrectly when it was new and once it was washed, skewing. Knit fabrics are especially prone to this.)
5- Not everything, of course, is “good as new”. But at this point you need to examine according to your own standards. Is a missing button okay on an Escada suit, but too much of a flaw on an Anne Klein dress? Is that Eileen Fisher T-shirt artfully faded or is that Hanes T just too greyed? A bit of wear might be acceptable on something you really need (for example, a size 16 mother-of-the-bride outfit) but not on something you have an abundance of (size 6 Levis.)
And of course you don’t need to go through this entire process if the item is one that doesn’t pass the first few tests: a style your clientele wants, clean, odor-free. THOSE items get put aside without a second glance. The above 5 steps don’t matter if it’s not a style your customers will buy, if it’s soiled or reeks of smoke/ moth balls/ pets.
For more on how to accept and price incoming with profit in mind, get your own copy of Your Money-Wise Guide to Accepting & Pricing, a Too Good to be Threw Product for the Professional Resaler. Wouldn’t you love to have an hour or more back, every day? You can!
Posted in economics of resale, Shopkeeping talk, tagged customers, daily operations, resale shopkeeping, word of mouth on March 16, 2016| 5 Comments »
While reading the paper about a local shopping district that’s being revitalized, I came across this quote from Samantha David of WS Development:
At the end of the day, people don’t need to go shopping anymore. You go shopping if you want to. If you need to buy a new sofa or a pair of sneakers, you can do it online from your sofa in your house.
The important part of that quote?
Ms. David goes on to add:
The burden is much
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