Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Posts Tagged ‘success’

17, or 40, Suggestions for your consignment shop Christmas Wish List

Posted in economics of resale, Shopkeeping talk, tagged , , on December 10, 2013|

Too Good to be Threw helps your consignment shop thriveIf you have a consignment, resale or thrift shop, or if you manage one, or if you DREAM of having such a shop, tell Santa (more…)

Read Full Post »

Lights, camera (please Santa)… and consignment/ resale ACTION!

Posted in Not-for-Profit Resale, Shopkeeping talk, tagged , , , , on December 4, 2013|

Video's the way to go: Ask SantaMaybe you should ask Santa for a video camera for Christmas, if you want to make your consignment, resale, or thrift shop

shine online.

Then all you have to do is find an eleven-year-old elf to help you edit and publish!

Some resources that will have you ready to produce videos for your business:

Vertical Response’s suggestions

No video camera? You can still (there’s a pun there) make a video!

How video is important not just online, but in your store

And some examples you can learn from, from our industry peers:

Furniture Consignment

A video for a shop contest and a fun “10 tips” video

A collection of ideas Auntie Kate posted about videos

And even a nice, polite way to tell donors how to donate to a NFP thrift shop

Santa the Photog illustration from here.

Read Full Post »

Shop resale for the holidays!

Posted in Shopkeeping talk, tagged , , on November 15, 2013|

Holiday shopping is calm and relaxing when you shop your local resale shop for the holidays! And your (more…)

Read Full Post »

Could someone please explain this to me?

Posted in economics of resale, Shopkeeping talk, tagged , , , on November 11, 2013| 13 Comments »

Read this Facebook post. Then tell me how this makes marketing sense.

Facebook posting from a consignment shop

I’ve never understood this selling technique. I love “we’ll pay the sales tax” promos…. they always seem more valuable to the consumer than they actually cost the business. So why (more…)

Read Full Post »

Consignors got choices. (As do sellers and donors.)

Posted in economics of resale, Shopkeeping talk, tagged , , , on November 6, 2013|

131103 Moriarty_Sheila-Two_Friends_Talking

(Click the pic to learn about the artist)

A couple of old-timers in the consignment business got together recently, and one remarked that her industry siblings were seemingly having a tough time obtaining merchandise. “Is it the economy?” she asked. “Nah, said the other. “It’s pure and simple, there’s

more competition

now. Look at all the new shops opening up. They may or may not make a go of it, but in the meanwhile, they’re sucking away suppliers from the other stores.”

Then these old-timers put their combined resale industry experience (over 70 years! Imagine the number of consignors they dealt with!) together to make

a list of what drew potential suppliers to a particular shop

and what didn’t. Besides the blindingly-obvious draws of location, cleanliness and friendliness, the other pluses were:

  • An easy-to-understand process for consigning.
  • As few restrictions as possible: times to bring things in, numerical limits.
  • Transparency in consigning: what are you accepting today? How much will it be priced at?
  • Payment instantly or near-instantly. Cash in the palm of the hand or check.
  • Feeling valued, rather than discredited or as an interruption of the business. This applies to the intake, payment, communication and retrieval process.

As to

what turns off potential suppliers

soon after a relationship is started:

  • (Pretty much the lack of the above list.)

And what would

stop a potential consignor from using a particular shop?

  • Having to “trust” a shopkeeper. No receipt for items left on consignment, no copy of the agreement, lack of ease in finding out how the items are selling or when they might receive their money.
  • Seeing their items go for a lower price than they feel comfortable with (this applies somewhat to the original price the shopkeeper sets, and somewhat to arbitrary “markdowns” of newly consigned goods, AKA “You marked down that X from $50 to $40 just because you were having a sale? But you said you’d price it at $50 and it was only there a week!”)
  • Being forbidden to reclaim unsold items, whether or not they actually planned to. Just the thought of this led most potential clients to have doubts about the honesty of the shop.

What have you found are consignor turn-ons and turn-offs? What do you do to get the best goods into your business and to keep them coming? Tell us in the comments.

.

Save

Read Full Post »

« Newer Posts - Older Posts »