All those post-holiday returns? 
They have to go somewhere. And those barely-even-touched goods (more…)
Posts Tagged ‘success’
Reverse logistics. Opportunity for your resale shop?
Posted in economics of resale, Shopkeeping talk, tagged profit, resale shopkeeping, success on December 29, 2015|
All those post-holiday returns?
To be a resaler means that I am proud….
Posted in My Favorite Things, quotations of use, Shopkeeping talk, tagged advertising, HowToConsign.com, resale shopkeeping, small business, success on November 4, 2015|
If your shop’s web site has a link to any of HowToConsign.com‘s pages and articles (“How to Prepare Your Items” is a favorite!), or to any one of HowToConsign.org‘s blog posts (maybe “9 Tips to Avoid Consignment Hassles with your Fashion Apparel” or “9 Tips to Avoid Consignment Hassles with your Home Decor” would pre-educate incoming suppliers?) just send me the URL of your page, and get this frameable print (without the watermark, of course) for free!
Oh yeh, and I’ll also put your shop’s web site on the #1 Google-ranked Resale Shop Directory! But then, you knew that.
Why you’re the last person you should ask
Posted in Really good ideas, Shopkeeping talk, tagged consignors, customers, daily operations, resale shopkeeping, starting a consignment shop, success on October 19, 2015| 2 Comments »
When you first started out, you probably based your business plan for your consignment or resale shop on what you wanted or thought you’d want if you were a customer. And that’s okay, ’cause you had lifelong experience as a customer. Your gut instinct (along with the advice in Too Good to be Threw Complete Operations Manual) got you started.
But now, whether you’re a year in or twenty years in, you have lost something… and it’s for the better.
You are no longer a “typical customer”… and you can no longer go with your feelings when making decisions about how your shop will grow and develop.
So stop asking yourself “What would I like?”
Instead, ask “What would my target customer like?” For example, you may have, back when you opened, chosen to have business hours that ended at 5pm. After all, we need to be home to get supper on for the family, you reasoned. Women haven’t got the time to shop after work. But if you continue to close at 5pm, because that was your decision way-back-when…. and don’t use your recent experience to observe that many of your shoppers want to shop on their way home from work… at 5:15 or 5:45 or even, depending on your market, at 6:15… you may be hampering the growth of your business.
In other words, once you become a shopkeeper,
your typical-shopper instincts wither and die.
You no longer can walk into a new-merchandise store, whether it’s a department store, a boutique, or a hardware store, the way a typical shopper would. Instead, your shopkeeper mind is cataloging a hundred things: what their signage says. Whether your ease of passage is impeded upon by displays. And so on. You are no longer, and never will be again, the typical shopper. Your personal reaction is no longer a reliable indicator of the right thing to do. But that’s okay, because you have turned into a retailer. A retailer who can ask, instead of What would I like?,
“How can I make their shopping experience more delightful here than anywhere else?”
Need some customer tips to share?
Posted in 5- Minute Fixes, Not-for-Profit Resale, Shopkeeping talk, Teeny Tips, tagged Facebook, resale shopkeeping, small business, success, Twitter, web on October 8, 2015|
Tired of always posting “buy buy buy” messages in your social media? Believe me, your viewers/ followers/ fans are even more tired of reading nothing but these over and over.
Break up your blatant advertising with something social. Like tips, jokes, thoughts.
In fact, rule of thumb is, (more…)
The scariest season in resale & consignment
Posted in Not-for-Profit Resale, Shopkeeping talk, tagged Halloween, holidays, resale shopkeeping, small business, success on August 31, 2015|
No, it’s not the dead of January or those slooww days in July. The scariest season of all is
Halloween.
Why? Because people love it…. more and more each year. Because you have like THREE WEEKS or so to make or break (more…)
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