Is it time to start your winter clearance NOW?

Think about it. If your shop is consignment, what do you have in stock that’s at its final markdown? That’s OD?  Enough to have a winter, end-of-season clearance?
Chances are, you do.
Now think of when your potential clientele is in the mood

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Friends & Family Discounts work for consignment shops too!

Wanting to spur some action in your resale, thrift, or consignment shop in the next week or two?
Why not take a leaf from the department stores’ play book and offer a Friends & Family Discount?
It couldn’t be

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Hiding your (holiday) lights under a bushel.

Okay, so you’ve planned a Local Artist’s Fair for the Saturday before Thanksgiving in your consignment shop.
Great! Count on me!
I’ll be there. Look at those terrific offerings in the email body text. What resale shopper in her right mind wouldn’t

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Translating “Business Articles” into your Shop

There’s a lot of good information out there, especially on the web, for resale and consignment shops and for non-profit thrift stores as well.
Trouble is, sometimes it’s hard to translate advice written by and aimed towards corporations with  more hierarchy than our businesses.
Here’s an article from Andy Sernovitz which is easier to see ourselves in [...]

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Why Consignment & Resale Shops Shouldn’t Give Up the (Christmas) Ghost

I hope you’re knee-and-elbow deep in Christmas (Holiday, Hanukkah, Winter Solstice etc) planning this weekend. I hope your expectations for the holiday selling period in your consignment (resale, thrift etc) shop are great.
But I suspect they are not. And worse, I suspect that your very expectations are going to be self-fulfilling.
If you do not

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Stop Giving Cash Off in your Consignment Shop NOW

No more $5 off a $35 purchase or $10 off a $50 purchase or whatever you have been doing; STOP IT RIGHT NOW.
Really.
At least for now.
Here’s what you do instead:
You give

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5 things rich consignment & resale shopkeepers do differently than poor shopkeepers.

They plan ahead.
Do you have every event, every ad, every blog message, website change, consignor letter and bag-stuffer….even every display window theme, between now and the end of the year planned out? Know when and how you will let your prospective audience know about the events? If so, you may be a rich-shopkeeper-in-the-making.
 
They seize the [...]

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Pumpkins all put away? Ready for a Merry Recycled Holiday?

For Consignment and Resale and Thrift Shops, a special Product for the Professional Resaler: Find out how to make November and December months that you’ll love!

 
Yes, [...]

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Cash for Clothing Clunkers: Dare you?

I kept waiting for one of the resale or consignment shops who send out broadcast emails to send one entitled
“Cash for Clothing Clunkers.”
Thought it would be a good subject line for a message about

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Excuse me, but is your save-the-earth bag full of germs?

What with Target finally “going green” with reusable shopping bags (and taking a tip from consignment and resale shopkeepers who’ve been giving a nickel “rebate” for years!) and CVS getting a dollar cash and four trips in out of you to give you a dollar store credit (weird, I know. Think it’ll fly?)  and people [...]

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Email, coupons, and pondering customer response

Many consignment and resale shops send out terrific broadcast emails (if you don’t, I recommend it. *)
I got one the other day. Made me sit up and take notice.

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Store Brands Resource for Consignment & Resale Shopkeepers

Know your Store Brands Update:
Robin Caldwell, back last spring on her blog Luxe Redux, listed many store brands, and lots of consignment and resale shopkeepers lauded her. She promised…and now she’s DONE! and update with more brands. Many thanks, Robin!
My original post, where you’ll find the link.

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Sure glad I’m not manning the sales desk here.

Wouldn’t you get awful tired of answering the question, “So how much is this?” if you were working in this resale shop?

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How much is YOUR floor space worth?

Consignment and resale shopkeepers are well-known for being frugal. They want to help their customers get the best buys.
But when is your floor space simply NOT WORTH selling left-overs at 75-80-90% off the price you originally set for them? What about those tired clearance racks, those “dollar bargain” sections, merchandise that 3 or 4 or [...]

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Seasonal consignment sales: What are YOU doing?

Large Consignment Sale Attracts Moms
Trio puts together consignment sales
Consignment sale opens today in Noblesville
Children’s goods at giant consignment event
Businesswomen expand consignment sale
Omaha Moms: A Consignment Sale Worth Visiting
Limited-time, seasonal consignment sales, which typically pay consignors 70% and even more, are proliferating wildly in this economy.
Renting a

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