Selling handmade cards through a shop?

Minxy_Bella

I'm not sure if this in the right place or not but I'd be grateful for some advice from anyone who has experience of this.

I'm considering approaching a particular shop and asking them if they'd put some of my handmade cards on the counter and see if they sell. I make 'alternative' cards for people who like the 'Goth scene' and this shop is totally in this market.

I'm not scared of them saying no, that's fine, I'll try somewhere else, but I'm concerned that I don't allow myself to get ripped off. The cards are not particularly cheap to make (in terms of money and they each take around one hour to construct) and I'd expect them to have a retail price of around £3-4 (more for the fancier ones) so I was wondering what would be the best way of arranging a deal with the shop, should they want to go ahead.

Would it be better to say that they take a percentage of the sale (25%???) or should I ask for a flat rate ie they buy the cards from me at £3 each then they can charge what they want??? I'm not sure which would be more attractive as an incentive for the shop to go with my products but which would also make it worth my while.

MTIA for any advice and/or suggestions.

xxx

RoxyK

I think you'll find they will want more than 25% of the sale - most cards are sold on a 100% mark up basis as they will want as much profit as possible. I've sold cards on a sale or return basis twice. And twice both card shops closed down without warning and I never received payment even though I kept being told it was on its way. I did get my cards back from the 2nd one at least. Just a little word of warning!

If you work out the minimum price you could sell wholesale then that will be a good starting price to talk to the shop owner. HTH and good luck.

Minxy_Bella

RoxyK wrote: »

I think you'll find they will want more than 25% of the sale - most cards are sold on a 100% mark up basis as they will want as much profit as possible. I've sold cards on a sale or return basis twice. And twice both card shops closed down without warning and I never received payment even though I kept being told it was on its way. I did get my cards back from the 2nd one at least. Just a little word of warning!

If you work out the minimum price you could sell wholesale then that will be a good starting price to talk to the shop owner. HTH and good luck.

Thank you so much for that.

The shop I'm thinking of sells clothes and accessories, so I'm hoping that they might take on some of my cards as a little sideline - but I'll heed your advice.

Best of luck for shop number three, if you decide to give it another go!

xxxx

paulwf

I think most shops would want to just do a normal purchase from you...when you are in retail dealing with numerous suppliers things like percentage schemes, affiliates, referrals etc gets a bit complicated.

Have you researched what customers are willing to pay? £4 sounds a lot for a card especially when it would be a sideline for the business not their speciality. Also if as suggested by another poster you'd need to offer them 100% markup i.e. a cost price of £2 is it worth it? If a card takes 1 hour to make and the materials cost £1 you'd only be making £1 p/h.

LittleCharlie

When I sold jewellery on a sale or return basis, most shops / galleries took 50% of the sale price. Some took 50% + VAT.

50% is a very standard average, with some taking as much as 60% of the total sale price.

Plus £4 is alot for a card, even a hand made one. If you could get your prices down to around £2.50 or so I personally think that's a more acceptable price point in peoples minds. That would mean you giving £1.25 to the shop on average though, and having £1.25 to pay for your materials and profits.

Don't forget you'll need to invest in display and marketing materials too. I was always expected to provide these, branded.

NIC26

Have you considered selling through etsy website. Its an american based website where you can sell/buy handmade goods. There is a good review of this website on ciao website. Sorry can't post links as new user or something.

Yoga_Girl

Here is the link to etsy:

http://www.etsy.com/

There are also a few uk based sites where you can sell handmade goods:

http://www.folksy.com/

http://www.coriandr.com/

http://www.misi.co.uk/