Consignment Stores: A Knitter's Goldmine
Sell your knitting in consignment stores
Consignment stores are very often a 'goldmine' for knitters who want to sell their work. Knitting on consignment simply means that you are permitted to display and market your work in someone else's shop, in exchange for a percentage of the amount you are paid for the goods.
SELLING ON CONSIGNMENT
Consignment knitting is a great idea for several reasons:
1. Selling on consignment means you don't need to have your own retail outlet, with all of its overhead costs.
2. Someone else takes care of marketing your goods - you don't even need to be there!
3. You don't need to have any particular amount of inventory on hand - you can put one item on consignment, or one hundred.
4. You have no deadlines or pressures - you knit as you can, and sell at your leisure.
5. A knitter can get exposure to a buying public you might not otherwise be able to reach.
CONSIGNMENT DETAILS YOU NEED TO KNOW
If you are considering putting your knitted goods in retail stores on a consignment basis, here are some things you need to know:
1. It's up to you to keep proper records of your consignment activity: your inventory, selling price, consignment percentage, date taken in, date sold.... all that sort of thing. :)
2. Check out the shop policy on payment carefully - some pay only once a month, some pay within 3 days of the sale, etc. Since you already have to plan for the 'time lapse' between turning over your goods and actually selling them, try to negotiate as little time as possible between the shop selling your item and actually giving you the cash.
3. The shop may not have insurance coverage for your goods, so you might want to arrange that separately.
4. Ask how long you can leave your items in the store, if they are not sold yet. Some stores have a 'turn over' policy, whereby you rotate your goods so that it doesn't look as if unsold items are sitting for a long time.
5. Discuss marketing and promotion with the retailer prior to placing your goods on consignment. How much does the retailer do to market your products, and are there any restrictions on what YOU are allowed to do?
Knitting on a consignment basis might be perfect for you as a business knitter - but do your homework, and make sure you ask all the right questions!