About a month ago, I was contacted by a small local salon, asking me if I was interested in selling some of my earrings in her shop. She'd found me via my Etsy shop. (Lesson 1: Having your jewelry online helps you get found!)
I was flattered to be asked, but I didn't want to jump into anything since I'd heard some consignment horror stories before. I had trouble finding helpful information online, but the book The Handmade Marketplace had a small section about consignments, which helped me think about questions to ask.
So while I'm no expert on consignments, I have learned quite a bit already that I wanted to share, in case you were thinking of doing something similar.
- What's the percentage breakdown?
In other words, how much do you get and how much does the shop get? 50/50, 40/60, 70/30? You also need to find out if there are any other fees. For example, it hadn't occurred to me to ask who pays the credit card fees for a purchase. - How often will I get paid?
- Who is responsible if an item is damaged, broken, or stolen?
- How do my items need to be marked?
As you can see, I have all my earrings on cards with my name on them. On the back of the card, I've placed labels that I've printed out with information about the earrings such as whether the ear wires are hypoallergenic. This was not required by the shop, but I wanted to give them as much info as possible, since I can't be there explaining the details that can help make a sale. I also print out a spreadsheet each month with the name/description of the earrings and my price. I don't put prices on the cards; the shop owner does that so she can add in her mark-up. - How long will they keep the items in the store? Will everything always be displayed or will stock be rotated?
In my current situation, I'm checking in every month and rotating a few of the unsold items out. With a salon, there are regular customers who might visit weekly or monthly, so it makes sense to always have something new for them. It helps that the store is local, so it's not a big deal for me to drop by with extra pieces when needed. - Do I need to be exclusive?
Shops will want to carry your items exclusively; you should be able to negotiate a reasonable geographical area, rather than giving a shop national exclusivity (unless you're talking about Anthropologie!). You might also discuss your online shop. I have some items exclusive to the salon, at the moment, and a few that I've also listed on Etsy such as these Breathe Earrings. - Who will create the display?
I offered to bring in a display. This is a nice option in that you can control the "look" of your pieces as a group. I wanted something that fit with my jewelry style, but also made it easy to the earring cards to be removed and that fit in with the small scale of the shop.
One final piece of advice: No matter how nice and friendly the manager is be sure to get a contract with everything in writing. The fact that this shop manager had a contract ready for me to review made me feel a lot more comfortable about jumping into the brick-and-mortar world.
I'd love to hear your consignment tips and stories.