If you’re a womenswear resale or consignment shop, no doubt you’ve encountered Eileen Fisher clothing. Simple, timeless, well-made (I have a favorite tank top that’s at least 20 years old and still looking fresh and elegant!), it’s a hit with fashionable customers.
I’m a great believer in reminding your browsers, customers, and suppliers about your business as often, in as many places and in as many ways as possible. And one of the best, cheapest, most touchy-feely ways to do this? Give them Continue Reading »
Posted in Shopkeeping talk | Tagged advertising, customers, kidswear, resale shopkeeping, small business |
How many times do you or a staffer touch incoming merchandise?
Ever thought about how much time that takes?
Ever thought about how much MONEY that takes?
- Take the batch from the consignor/ seller/ donor. Put it in your accepting area.
- Label it with the info you will need to later process it.
- Sort into things you can accept and those you can’t.
- Enter it into inventory.
- Go back and price each item.
- Rehang, fold, whatever. Maybe even steam it? Place on the sales floor.
- Label NTYs. Move them into short-term storage. Fetch them when the consignor/ seller comes to take them back.
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, Functional Friday, Shopkeeping talk | Tagged accepting, buy-outright, consignment, Products for the Professional Resaler, profit, resale shopkeeping |
Pink hard hats? 
PERFECT for Continue Reading »
Posted in Shopkeeping talk | Tagged advertising, display, promotions, resale shopkeeping |
Once upon a time, I dreamed up a promotion where every one of my customers who returned a postcard to my shop would get entered into a drawing for a $50 gift certificate.
Trouble was, I didn’t get someone else to proofread my copy…
And it so happened that about fifty of my customers mis-read it, thinking
THEY would receive a $50 gift certificate just for returning the postcard.
Chances are, everyone who read it thought the same, but most of them had the good sense to realize that that was probably NOT what Kate meant.
Now that was an “Oops!” moment.
So in an effort to save you the embarrassment, financial cost, or lost business that you might make, here’s 5 ways to avoid an “oops” in your business.
- Make sure your web site tells the world where you are. I just visited one, very attractive, consignment shop web site with six pages. The usual: Home, About, How to Consign, Gallery, and so on… but there was only one place where I could actually determine where this shop was. It was (finally!) on the Contact Page… and even there, it as way down at the bottom of the page.
- You work so hard on your broadcast emails. Provide multiple links in that email to your web site or your Facebook page, so folks can refresh their memories on why they adore your shop, where you are (see number one above!) and when you’re open.
- In the news? Terrific! When strangers click to go to your site, make sure your home page assures them that they’re in the right place. Something as simple as a nice big photo front and center of the reporter in your shop (taken by a friend or staffer) with a “Thanks, Susie Cutesie and Channel 7 News, for stopping by the other day!” Leave it up for a week or two, then swap it out with another “talk-of-the-town” moment.
- An oops that’s all too easy to make. And a simple memory trick to avoid making your friends, followers, and fans wince (not to mention your high school English teacher.)
- And last but most definitely NOT least… get somebody else to proofread your public announcements and promotional copy. Not just for typos, but for understanding. Better yet, get several somebodies. That way, you won’t have to hand out $50 gift certificates right and left.
A few more “oops” moments: Here and here.
Posted in 5- Minute Fixes, Shopkeeping talk | Tagged resale shopkeeping, small business, success |
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