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Can You Clean Closets?

July 8, 2016 by Auntie Kate of Too Good to be Threw

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!

Save

Posted in Shopkeeping talk | Tagged , , , , |

How are you rewarding your regulars?

July 6, 2016 by Auntie Kate of Too Good to be Threw

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.

 

Posted in economics of resale, Shopkeeping talk | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment »

Hot enough for you?

June 25, 2016 by Auntie Kate of Too Good to be Threw

Hot enough to fry an egg on the sidewalk? A creative consignment solution from TGtbT.com

For more HOT ideas to keep your consignment or resale shop cookin’, click the egg!

Too hot to shop.

How to get the register jingling when it’s too hot to shop?

How about holding a sizzling

Virtual Sidewalk Sale?

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!

Do this every day for as long as it works, or until your actual sidewalk sale, whichever comes first.

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.

Photo by Pockafwye via Flickr Creative Commons

Posted in economics of resale, Shopkeeping talk | Tagged , , , , , , , |

Going to Conference? Here’s a goal to aspire to:

June 21, 2016 by Auntie Kate of Too Good to be Threw

Mentoring someone can help YOU succeed, says Kate Holmes of TGtbT.comA gentle suggestion for those shopkeepers who will be attending NARTS Conference this week: Aim to return home with both a MENTOR and a MENTEE.

One person with whom you have a relationship that will encourage you,

help you make decisions, guide you, share their wisdom and experiences…

and one person for whom you can do the same.

When you meet fellow shopkeepers, explore: are they willing to share their  expertise in a way you can tap, or are they looking to explore your experiences in a way that can help their businesses grow and thrive. Either way, as mentor or mentee,

you will continue learning even long after Conference.

Even if you do not find a given acquaintance to fit either of these categories, chances are that, using this goal, you’ll interact in ways that benefit you both.

And by benefiting you both, you will also be benefiting the industry as a whole. The better we each are at resale, the better reputation the resale industry will have as a whole!

Now THAT’S a goal!

Posted in Really good ideas, Shopkeeping talk | Tagged , , , |

May your every day be TODAY

June 20, 2016 by Auntie Kate of Too Good to be Threw

Today is FULL of possible

Posted in I've been meaning to tell you, Shopkeeping talk | Tagged , , , |

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