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Archive for the ‘Shopkeeping talk’ Category

In Honor of International Resale Day

Posted in Shopkeeping talk, tagged , on July 18, 2016| 4 Comments »

Happy International Resale Day!

Here’s hoping you have a great promotion in your shop today (or sometime this week… just make your headline “Happy International Resale Week”!)

Oops, did the time just get away from you? Here’s (more…)

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3 Things to do when there are NO customers in your store.

Posted in 5- Minute Fixes, Shopkeeping talk, tagged , , on July 15, 2016| 4 Comments »

Okay, the cash register ain’t ringing (do cash drawers even ding anymore?) and it’s been hours since your front door even opened. Do you get on the Internet and (more…)

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Back to School: It’s not just for kidswear consignment & resale

Posted in Shopkeeping talk, tagged , , , , on July 14, 2016|

btsblackboardBoy, talk about rushing the season, huh?

The summer sun’s high, you haven’t even been to the lake/ beach/ pool yet, and here Kate is, urging you to get ready for Back to School… yes, even you home goods resalers.

Our feature article on TGtbT.com right now will help you make the most of shoppers’ budgets… for their sakes (Friends Don’t Let Friends Shop Big Boxes) and yours.

PS Need a social media message to get your clientele in the mood for shopping (consigning, selling, donating?) back to school items? HowToConsign.org, our customer blog, has an article you can link to!

Teach your kids how to shop resale

5 Things to do to get your share of this season’s shopping dollars. 

 

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Can You Clean Closets?

Posted in Shopkeeping talk, tagged , , , , on July 8, 2016|

Can You Clean Closets? Or re-do a family room in an hour?

Use a mess to CLEAN up with this resale promotion from TGtbT.comOf course you can. You have, by dint of being a resale shopkeeper, a talent that you might not even realize others don’t. The ability to see what people need to clear out, how to use what you have to make life simpler and more rewarding.

So why not take your talent and turn it into a social media storm, a shop business uptick, and a whole lotta fun all at the same time? (Not to mention the press release possibilities!)

Here’s how:

1- Create a social media storm on your most-productive social media channel(s):

Show Us your Messy Closet!

Post a pic of your Pitiful Family Room!

2- Invite them to post pix of their sad situations as interaction on your social media. Comment on every entry.

3- Choose one of the entries as the winner. You can do this by allowing folks to VOTE in your shop (Post a pic of the situation, give each customer a token to deposit in a jar) to get folks in and to also alert shoppers to follow you on social media, running a social media contest (personally I think this would be overkill on top of the photo entries, but…), or simply with your infallible social media radar: which entry looks like it would yield the most dramatic Before-&-After photo/ post result?

4- Go there, do it. Seriously. WITH an eye out for marketable results, such as “Do you really need 8 pair of black heels? Pick the ones most flattering/ comfy, consign the rest” or “The room NEEDS a study corner with a good desk lamp and a pop of color, which we’ve grabbed from our inventory at OurShop” Take LOTS of photos, way more than you think you’ll need.

5- Post before, during, after photos on your blog over the course of a few days (NOT only on FB, but on your blog so you can refer back to this event every 4-5 months!) to show how YOUR business can help your followers/ fans/ readers/ customers live a better life. Think “reality show”: Make it personable, show your interaction with the winner, do a little conflict (“But that’s the lamp my aunt gave me! I wore that dress on my first date with my husband!”) resolution. By

clearing out, paring down, recycling, and shopping resale

you’re entertaining, educating, and showing folks that they can, in the words of HowToConsign.com:

ReSell * RePlace * ReJOICE!

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How are you rewarding your regulars?

Posted in economics of resale, Shopkeeping talk, tagged , , , on July 6, 2016| 1 Comment »

If your shop issues Frequent Buyer Cards, remember, they’re more useful than you think. Some ideas that go beyond just punching:

* 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.

A TGtbT.com Product for the Professional ResalerFor 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.

 

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