Posted in Mailbox: 1-on-1 Advice, Shopkeeping talk, tagged kidswear on October 12, 2009|
Another interesting question in the mailbox:
If a consignor comes in with a recalled item, should (more…)
Posted in Mailbox: 1-on-1 Advice, Shopkeeping talk on September 16, 2009| 3 Comments »
Tracy, who has a 8-year-old resale shop named My Best Friend’s Closet, wants and needs a new name. She writes:
I will be moving to a better location after the first of the year. When I move I will be changing my tax structure and have learned that there is currently a business in my state that have registered my name. So now I need a new name! I want one that is short and sweet. That channel lettering is expensive you know!
I am wanting a name that is not too generic or cliché… My demographic is teens and women to 55ish but I want a cool name that sits well with the 20-30ish group. I figure one that is not too young or too old sounding.
Short and sweet is a good parameter. I am particularly fond of one word names… or names that end up being one word once your customers get ahold of it! In addition, as you mention: short is good for those per-letter charges for channel letter signs, which so many shopping 
centers require.
I think a new name for an established shop needs to play off the current name. Once people are used to the old name, you’ve got to provide them with an easy way to remember the new one!
Cool names. Well, that lets out most of the standard resale industry names like Encore and Second Time Around (which is a GOOD thing, not that those names aren’t fine names.)
One thing you did not mention, but I think must be a marketing consideration: A name needs to be able to engender a complimentary tag line, even a “standard” advertising headline.
And last but by far from least: can you get a URL for your web site that will be meaningful to your shop’s new name, and preferably one that ends in .com?
Drumroll please. My suggestion is
And look what URLs are available (as of today at least!) that you could use: shopbestresale.com
thebestresale.com
thebestresaleshop.com
Heck, you even have a logo already: just erase the extraneous words! (Come to think of it, maybe your tagline could be “Hang with the Best“!)
Like it? I’ve even got a (rather long but I like it) tag line or at least an advertising campaign/ wall words/ Tshirt planned for you:
Update October 4 2009: Tracy has decided the name doesn’t speak to her. Please feel free, if you like, to use it and the suggestions for your shop. I will expect that you, in appreciation of this idea which would be breathtakingly expensive if you hired a “real” branding consultant, to generously support TGtbT.com and HowToConsign.com. In fact, chocolate and roses would be nice as well. Or simply a handwritten thank-you note if you think that’s suitable.
Posted in economics of resale, Mailbox: 1-on-1 Advice, Shopkeeping talk, tagged consignors, starting a consignment shop on September 14, 2009| 6 Comments »
Bloggers just LIVE for the thoughtful questions posed to them, and Auntie Kate is no exception.Imagine her delight when this missive from a resale shopkeeper landed on her virtual desktop:
I’m two months into the store and we are doing well….Still the only shop in town, doing lots of advertising, very nice and clean store, reasonable prices, but I can’t seem to turn my consignors into shoppers. What do you recommend? –Hungry for More
If you want to get your consignors to drop some cash while they’re in, there’s many ways to do this. First, do you have things they want to buy…and can they easily explore these things?
Are there tempting goodies right next to them? Many consignors come into a shop, go directly to the area you use for dropping off items, turn around and leave. Is your elbow-area full of irresistible little purchases, the metallic bangle bracelets, the hand-painted readers, the scented candles, the vintage brooches?
How about the path they trod? Plotting your consignors’ way through your sales floor, are they passing easily-admired, easily-purchased items coming and going? The one-size shawls, the best-selling books (face-out of course!), the feathered masks for Halloween?
Having things consignors want to buy. Your consignors are NOT your run-of-the-mill customer, in many cases. Consignors are often a little easier with their money, a little more willing to explore alternate dressing/ decor (which is one of the reasons they have “excess” possessions to consign!) so what appeals to the generic resale customer might not be what they will swoon over. You’ll notice I used, above, easily-purchased (no fitting necessary) and colorful pick-up items. Things like these, rather than a standard pair of pants or a shirt, are more likely impulse purchases made on the spur of the moment by your consignor. Always keep in mind that she didn’t come in here to shop, and you’ll see why she might take a little extra coaxing to do so!
How easy is it for her to BUY? If you don’t pay cash, on demand, whenever she comes in, start doing so. Cash, not a check, and none of this waiting until the 10th of next month. Cross her palm with silver, and she’ll be much more likely to grace your till with some or all of it.
Are you insisting she stay RIGHT HERE by you? If your intake procedure involves her presence (or even just encourages it!) stop that right now. Give her permission to explore your shop. Thanks, Ms. B, I’ll just be a few minutes…take a look at those great designer bags over there and I’ll be done in a jif. And take away that stool she can perch on while you work. You want her wandering through the shop.
Are you giving her the bum’s rush? Not allowing her a moment’s respite from her errand running today? If you bustle about, being all efficient and “not wasting her time”… she won’t be relaxed enough to browse. You can tell who really needs to get on with it and who’d love an excuse for 10 minutes’ down time. Don’t hustle her out of there.
Hope these thoughts help you, Hungry for More.
Posted in Mailbox: 1-on-1 Advice, Shopkeeping talk, tagged consignors on October 9, 2007| 12 Comments »
A follower of Too Good to be Threw recently wrote:
Hi Kate:
I bought your manual and it has really help me with my store, however, I am growing so rapidly that I am going to have to m
ake some changes and would like your opinion!
Right now I accept consignments everyday without an appointment (I’m open seven days a week). I have one part time employee but I am beginning to be overwhelmed with consignments. Last year I changed my policy andrestricted the number of items to 15 for each consignment. This helped and was no problem with my consignors. Now, however I can’t keep up and don’t have the cash flow yet to hire another part time employee.
So, my thought was to NOT take consignments on Tues. and Thursdays so I can keep up with the consignments (I allow my consignors to pick up any items I don’t accept within 5 days if they don’t want to donate. This is another policy I am thinking about changing to “donate only”).
Anyway, any thoughts/suggestions you have would be appreciated!
Yes, it is hard, isn’t it, to accept all day every day…gets to where you are feeling like all you do is accept!
I’ll make some suggestions, but before I do, I would like you to think about one aspect of this situation, and I am going to put it bluntly, so don’t take offense and keep your mind open:
If you are so busy, so popular, what is keeping your overhead so high that you cannot afford more than one part-time employee? I think examining that question, and finding the answer to it, may well mean that you can stick to an all-the-time policy, and remove that “limit”, which keeps your shop so consignor-friendly… and which will make you a millionaire.
Okay, while you figure out why you aren’t making the big bucks but you’re getting overwhelmed, some thoughts as stepping-stones:
* Limit of 15: Absolutely the worst choice if you have to choose. Short reason: she picks the 15 she wants to get rid of, not the 15 that will make you and her the most money fastest. She’s not the shopkeeper; you are. She knows less than zero about what will sell; you do. Why force HER to make the decisions that impact YOUR pocketbook? You don’t require her to set PRICES, do you, so why would you ask her to make the selection of 15 of her things?
* While we’re talking fastest: Price your items to sell faster. Turnover is the name of the game, so you have space. (Although you don’t mention lack of space in your message, so maybe that’s not the problem.)
* (Maybe the problem is…and here, I am blunt again and my intention is not to shame or accuse, but to get you shook up enough to look with fresh eyes:) Are you too slow? Does it take too long to check in? Are you too painstaking in your procedures? Could you streamline procedures?
* Not taking consignments certain days: This is probably the best solution for the time being (that is, until you figure out why you cannot afford staff), but since you have had an open-door policy for whatever length of time, you are gonna PO some people. How are consignments managed if you’re not there? Does this part-timer check items in?
* It sounds like you’re all Drop-&-Run, all the time. If you are: D-&-Rs are great in many aspects, EXCEPT one. It costs you time to bundle, label, put into the storage area and make note of NTYs, and again, time to go get them, un-note them, and hand them back. That’s why, especially with established consignors, a quick pre-sort, or a complete check-in whenEVER possible, is more effective.
* If you are allowing inexperienced consignors to D-&-R, you’re setting yourself up for constantly (not just her first time, before she learns what you consider salable) sorting through “are-you-kidding”s…because with a D-&-R she’s not standing there watching you dismiss, without a second glance, old styles or obviously less-than-fresh items…in other words, she won’t have to be embarrassed as you reject 75% of her stuff, so she’ll stick every last item she has in the pile. What’s she got to lose? Nothing. What have YOU got to lose? Time and energy and good nature.
* With D-&-Rs, it’s best to make the pickup of NTYS a VERY important point to the consignor. I would suggest “please pick up before tomorrow’s close of business”. The five days you mention, or the 7 others use, DOWNPLAYS the necessity of immediate pickup. “If she doesn’t expect me to pick them up for 5 days, what’s wrong with 10?” At least with ONE day, you stand a chance of getting her back on the SECOND day!
* Declaring your shop “donate only”…whether of the NTYs in a D-&-R or ODs, if there are any… is a red flag to any consumer who has reason (or unreason) to doubt your honesty. Do not put yourself or your business in such a category if you wish to be successful and respected. Period.
Kate
Posted in Mailbox: 1-on-1 Advice, Shopkeeping talk, tagged consignment, customers, merchandising, resale shopkeeping on May 11, 2007| 4 Comments »
Here’s Chris’ rear room. It’s part of her selling floor, but she can’t seem to get browsers to explore the room no matter what merchandise she features there. Chris asked for help.
Here’s a few solutions Chris might try. We want to engage all the senses of her browsers to tempt them into exploring this area.
To use sight to lure them in, increase the level of lighting, making the room actually brighter than your front room. This might be tricky, since we’re assuming that display windows add to the intensity in your main room. If there’s no way to get enough light into the rear room without the heat and expense going too high, try “washing” that back wall with track lighting.
Another appeal to sight: Mount mirrors so the reflection is seen from the main room. That will make the back room look larger, so it won’t look cramped or crammed. Cheap version of this: have LOTS of for-sale mirrors hung on that blue slatwall, even if you have to go BUY them and sell them for ZERO profit (you know me, it’s impt to have as few “not-for-sale” items in your shop as possible!)
Touch: Install, probably in the right front corner of the rear room, an oscillating fan to move the air (in addition to the ceiling fan you already have…read on:). Doesn’t need to be a big one, but just enough to “tinkle” a small wind chime set in the path of the air. So customers will hear something going on back there. (A small CD player with quiet instrumental music so as not to conflict with the music you play in the main room, is another way to charm people into the room.)
And there’s smell: A barely-noticeable scent of orange or vanilla influences people’s browsing. Have it subtle enough that people do not remark on it.
The final sense is taste. Maybe you could put a coffee pot or a slow cooker of apple cider back there? 😉
I notice that the flooring seems to change as you step over the threshold? If it does, think about using a runner to bridge the change. People won’t even notice they’re entering another room!
And last: no matter how crowded your shop may be, do not infringe on the width of that door way. It can seem claustrophobic to many. Leave the doorway totally open and all pathways within the room circular, so shoppers do not come to dead ends.
For more good ideas on getting the most out of every inch you have, see The Essential Guide to Using All Your Space, a Too Good to be Threw Product for the Professional Resaler.
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Auntie Kate The Resale Expert 