[Jewelry making - Article 00972] - Re: [Orchid] Approaching stores and consignment contracts?

[Jocelyn Broyles]

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R.R.,

    My experience has been this: 

    First of all, the stores aren't doing you a favor by carrying your
    work, especially on consignment. You are both in business and you
    will both make money if your jewelry fits their market. I know
    that's a hard feeling to get over, especially when it's your first
    time getting your work out there! I'm not sure what type of jewelry
    you make, so my experience is based in bridge jewelry, mostly in
    sterling and semiprecious beads that retails for between $60 and
    about $250. 

    What I found to work for me was this: Canvass an area that has a
    bunch of boutiques -- I'm from California, so I hit certain areas in
    San Francisco, Palo Alto, Los Gatos -- chi chi little shopping
    areas. If I thought that the clothes and accessories the shop was
    selling fit into my look, I would take a card and write down a
    little bit about the store in a notebook. Once I had finished
    checking out a certain area, I would call the boutiques, asking for
    the accessories buyer and let them know who I was and what I did and
    that I'd like an appointment to show them my line. Getting this
    appointment wasn't particularly easy, but persistence pays off. I'd
    take in probably 20-30 pieces on black trays with black or grey
    "velvet" pads and show them part of the line. I feel like 10-12
    pieces is a good representation of my "look" for any boutique -- I
    think 3-5 is too little, but that's just me. 

    A contract is key. You're not going to offend anyone -- you're 
    business person giving a retail location goods to sell. You need a
    contract. (I have a copy of one I'll send to you off list if you're
    interested.) I had them sign it the first time I dropped off
    inventory. I also had an inventory list (my inventory number,
    quantity, description, my price, suggested retail, paid or not paid
    columns for each piece) of what I was leaving, they got a copy and
    signed the copy I took for my files. That way, if there was a
    discrepancy, I could take that sheet back and say, here, you signed
    for X amount of pieces and you don't have them, nor have you paid
    for them. That's only happened a couple of times, and they've paid
    up eventually. 

    As for prices, I found that some places did 70/30 (70% to you 30% to
    the store) lots did 60/40, but most wanted 50/50. This seemed
    outrageous to me at first. But that seems to be the way it goes, so
    I figured out how much I needed to make per piece, suggested they
    keystone (double my price) each piece for retail, and let the store
    sell it for whatever they wanted. I got the price I needed and that
    worked fine. Most stores keystoned and added a little bit like 10 or
    20% to cover credit card processing or what not. 

    Consignment for me was a great way to start getting my pieces sold.
    Most store owners were easy to work with, some will be more
    difficult. I found the biggest pain was going back to the stores,
    checking their inventory against what they'd had the last time I was
    there and making sure that they paid me for all the pieces sold. 

Good luck!
jocelyn broyles

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