Consignment Shops/Distros

[gloriana]

I can recommend Glamour Puss Shop - www.glamourpussshop .com - I consign with her, and it's been good for me so far.

[sewing stars]

I have my stuff on plainmabel.com (and let me tell ya, the girl who runs it is so incredibly awesome!) and I have stuff on www.morningcraft.co m. I have already sold stuff on plainmabel's site, I have been on there since March. I was just added to MorningCraft, so I am not sure what is going to happen with that.

Both of the people who run the sites are great to work with. I wanted to get my stuff more out there without having to fill big orders, and the consignment thing has been a nice way to do that.

I recommend trying it out!

[fly]

Just make sure you read the fine print with those sites...
I thought about going with one of them, but they wanted 40% of my sales.  I think that I'd rather not sell as much than give away 40% of my profit margin (Well, even more than that, because I had to pay to send my stuff to them first)

I don't know if there are any better ones out there, but it might be a good idea to look around - especially if you don't make a lot of money on stuff.

[kittencndy]

I run GlamourPuss Shop and thought Id add my two cents into it. Most likely consignment stores will want 40%. It may seem high but think of it this way. The consignment shop has to pay for web space, shopping cart software, credit card fees, advertisement (I advertise in 3 mags right now), and their time spent, dealing with customer service (questions, returns, exchanges), photographing and putting up items (currently takes up a great deal of my time) and processing and shipping orders. With wholesale the designer usually discounts 50% or more so I dont think 40% is bad. Even though your items are not guaranteed to sell you do get free exposure.

If the 40% from consignment is taking away a big chunk of your profit have you considered raising your prices? Your retail price should be double your wholesale price (which should be about 20% above the cost of materials and labor).

[sewing stars]

40%/60% is standard for consignment, and better than wholesale with a mark-up of 50%. There are upsides and down sides of each way of having people re-sell your items.

I personally like the consignment thing because they do all of the work for selling the items, like they take care of the money/shopping cart on websites, photographing the items, and I benefit from their own self promotion.

I agree that if the 40/60 seems to high that you should raise your prices a bit then.

[amareluna]

MY better half owns two retail stores where he sells fitness equipment- not the same type of item, I know, but when he and his partner select items to bring into the store, if they can't make 50% (or 50 points as they call it) on an item, they don't bother.

Why? Because they have to pay their own salary, the rent, utilities, employees, cell phone bills, advertising (have you checked out the cost of a simple yellow pages ad?), update store fixtures, carry liability insurance, etc.

There are lots of 'hidden' costs in operating a retail location. These have to be covered by the markup they can use on the items they carry.

I agree that 50% may seem like a lot, but if you don't think you can make a fair amount of profit for yourself at that price range, or if you think it's too expensive for your items, maybe it's not the item to consign?

[plainmabel]

Thanks to the last three posters for mentioning where the 40% goes when you sell on consignment.  The promotion, site, and other costs are quite large, not to mention the time and energy that the shop puts into showing your items in the best light and selling them to the customer, as KittenCndy noted.  And even if your items don't sell on consignment, many more people are seeing them, and your brand, than if you hadn't done consignment -- and you'll likely get many more visits to your site where customers may choose to buy from you directly.

Also, as far as I am aware, all of the sites listed above do the same 60:40 ratio -- it's not a hidden or fine print sort of thing, it's totally standard.

Sorry to get defensive, but I just don't want people thinking that the 40% funds weekend trips to Bermuda or something! 

[coffee]

or instead of talking percentages, you can set prices for your work.  a lot of the consignment i've done we've discussed prices openly: if there is a set price i wanted my items sold at i said so & we worked out how much i needed to get & how much she needed to get.  that's one of the nice things about consignment, the relationship you can have with the person selling your work.

*e

[dotty_gem]

thank you for all your advice! I know about the 40:60 ratio and I think it is pretty fair and if anything you can just see it as  :)free advertising. Thanks for your suggestions of consignment sites, didn't know about most of them!!! thankyou!!

[Evil213]

I told a friend that I want to consign with a website.  I can't afford to pay for a website, I can't open a bank account, I can't pay for the business license, and I can't pay for all the other things a business needs.  She says they take too much of you profit and that I will get very little money from consigning.  Can anyone give me advice and/or tell me your experience with consignment?  I want to sell stuff but don't have the money to.  i could only pay for little things like supplies and shipping.  I don't mind having my profit chopped to 60% but she insist that I rethink it over.