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Posts Tagged ‘christmas’

The Key to Holiday Selling for Consignment, Resale, and Thrift Shops.

Posted in Shopkeeping talk, tagged , , on November 14, 2010| 4 Comments »

Holidays in Resale can help your shop AND your beloved clients!Okay, let’s dispel the myth that resale shops have to just suffer through the holiday buying season because, after all, “no one buys used stuff for Christmas.”

After all, you have plenty of NWT items for sale (do folks who aren’t yet fans of your shop KNOW that?) and there are all sorts of things folks need for the holidays themselves (have you REMINDED them that everything from a LBD to a stunning serving platter can be had for budget-sparing price at your shop?) and that your shop’s a haven from the commercial, flimsy, mass-produced big-box junk (TELL and SHOW them your shop’s a treasure trove of the unique, local, and hard-to-find)? See what HowToConsign.com is telling YOUR potential customers about a Merry Thrifty Christmas and a Heedful Holiday.

This excerpt from Holidays in Resale just might get you fired up to help your customers have a wonderful, eco (-logical and -nomical) celebration…and have one yourself as well!

The key to holiday selling is to remind your shoppers, and the potential shoppers in your marketplace, that you have great gifts and holiday supplies that are unique, individualistic, and affordable. Gussy up what you have in-shop, and develop reasons and ideas for your shoppers to buy your items.

Don’t let your merchandise be hidden by holiday decorations. Instead, use things that are for sale as your decor. Red sweater, green sweater. Pile pine cones in the serving bowls. Tie big velvet bows on every crib and stroller.

Add touches that evoke the Yuletide spirit to your merchandise. Fill those for-sale crystal bowls with sparkly balls and tuck evergreen boughs behind paintings. Tie a red muffler around the neck of a green coat. Make quick bows with wired plaid ribbon and pin them on necklines, lapels, waistbands.

Do everything possible to sell holiday-themed goods as early as possible. Face-out displays, swing-shop features, window displays and so on. What’s worth $50 on November 22 is worth ZERO on December 22. Move it!

Order your own PDQ copy of Holidays in Resale today.

How do you show both current and prospective customers that a Merry Thrifty Christmas is not only possible…but preferable?

 

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Keeping the holidays bright…in your consignment, resale, or thrift shop.

Posted in Shopkeeping talk, tagged , on November 4, 2010| 1 Comment »

Consignment shops & Christmas DO go together!How many days ’til Christmas? Fifty. Isn’t that nifty?

But maybe you don’t look forward to the holidays. So much hassle and worry and duties … and expense. Well, chances are (more…)

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Fold ’em, roll ’em, throw a sheet over ’em: Resale & Consignment Shop Tactics

Posted in economics of resale, Shopkeeping talk, tagged , , on July 8, 2010| 4 Comments »

Clear it Out & Clean Up: Bag Sales, Dollar Racks & BOGO Deals

Click to add to your Resale Business Library

Okay, before you have your final summer clearance, before the bag sale or the dollar rack or the BOGO just-get-it-outta-my-sight sale:

Pull your pakaways. They’ll do more for your business at a later date than they will right now.

What am I saying? Take stuff that (more…)

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Will next November be GREAT for your consignment shop?

Posted in Shopkeeping talk, tagged , , on December 30, 2009|

Buy Christmas outright now in your consignment shopIt might be…if you buy holiday items from your clientele NOW…

You can do this whether you’re a consignment shop or a BOR. You’ll need to let them know via broadcast email, Twitter, Facebook:

  • “save the packing away, the hauling up to the attic and then remembering to haul it DOWN at Halloween next year”,
  • “decided you didn’t like those ornaments, Santas, garlands and serving pieces as much as you used to? Turn them into cash to pay your Christmas bills”.

…and you need (more…)

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Go buy a lot of little Christmas trees this weekend.

Posted in Shopkeeping talk, tagged , , on December 26, 2009| 1 Comment »

little Christmas trees can mean a BIG boost to rresale sales

If you have a shop which sells kidswear, go find little fake Christmas trees.

You’ll need them next November 1.

Little kid-can-carry trees that small ornaments can be hung on. Buy them all when you find them. 

It’s gonna be a great holiday promo that will boost not only Christmas sales, but your shop’s community-activity profile as well. 

Now’s ALSO the best time to

plan for next year’s holiday season to be even better than it was this year! Order TGtbT.com’s PDQ of  Holidays in Resale for your advance planning.

More holiday decor items you might want to stock up on, and why.

Okay, why little trees?

Here’s the plan: You want families to remember your shop in November and December. So you build a promotion that will keep customers coming back regularly during this time span.

You start with the beginnings of a season-long giveaway: a little Christmas tree per child.

Each week, you offer something to decorate this tree. Depending on how much time and energy you and your staff can devote to this you can offer:

  • A workshop once a week for the kids to make an ornament through materials and lessons offered by your shop.
  • A branded “kit” of take-home-and-make supplies with easy instructions.
  • A how-to handout per week with an ornament-making idea for kids to try at home.
  • A completed ornament for the children to hang on their tree. These could have a theme: Week One, an ornament representing transportation “I’d drive from anywhere to visit MyShop,” Week Two a teeny piggy bank for “I am learning to save money by shopping resale at MyShop,” and so on.

Some notes:

  • Be aware of the safety factor: no small parts, no instructions involving sharp knives, ovens, epoxy!
  • Be sure your promotion actually promotes your shop with your logo on all kits, instruction sheets, maybe even a sticker sheet for them to fill as they try the various ideas you offer.
  • If you are offering an instruction sheet, keep the past weeks’ around so some kids can play catch-up as time goes by.
  • (You might even offer a full collection of these ideas as a stocking-stuffer freebie to parents and teachers, or a post-holiday idea book they can use next year.)

Don’t want to deal with those little trees? Vary the promotion by having a big, bare tree in your shop window. The participants can hang their ornaments on your tree and the community can watch the tree become bedecked with a dazzling array of imaginative ornaments. (Bonuses: A great photo-op for local media and a way to bypass the necessity for display changes for weeks! And the week after Christmas? They can bring in their visiting relatives to see the tree they helped build, and then reclaim their ornaments to use on their tree next year.)

So what has this type of promo done for your business?

  • Increased traffic in your shop at a time when families might be lured away to the malls and big-box retailers
  • Built community involvement and shown community acceptance of your business
  • Provided a news-worthy story for the media
  • Promoted loyalty to your shop by your clientele by starting a new tradition
  • Increased the growth of consumer habits…let’s go to MyShop this week!
  • Perhaps decorated your shop windows for little effort and built the appeal of your shop’s location by the tree’s display
  • Given consumer families and their out-of-town family a reason to come to the shop between Christmas and New Year’s.

This idea specific to shops which carry childrenswear is from KidBiz: It’s NOT Child’s Play, one of TGtbT.com’s Products for the Professional Resaler

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