Do you believe in what you’re selling? Do you believe that the hours you put in tracking down merchandise, digging through junk – some of it hazardous to your health, cleaning and/or repairing diamonds in the rough, sitting through hours and hours of auctions, wandering the country side, not to mention tagging the items, hauling them to and from booths, and styling all of it to create attractive displays has value?

It’s a Yes or No Question

If the answer is yes, then stop apologizing for your prices. If the answer is no, then get and/or stay out of the business. It’s really that simple.

Pricing Strategies

Now, let’s move on to the various strategies to pricing your merchandise. Think of pricing as being on a linear spectrum where two camps sit on each end: on the right (no political references intended) are those who want top dollar and will sit on merchandise until they get it; and those on the left who prefer to sell lot’s of stuff for less profit per item.

On one hand, you can wring out every last penny of profit in an item by pricing it on the high end. On the other, you can price merchandise so cheap that your booth turns over every day. And, of course, there are many points in between those two ends on the spectrum.

Stale Merchandise

Personally, I prefer a booth that turns over rather quickly – but not daily! So, I opt for a pricing strategy that creates a higher volume of sales. For me, a stale booth – one that has the same merchandise every time I visit it, is a business killer.

“Obviously, everyone thinks that stuff is crap,” customers think to themselves. “Why should I want it?”

When a booth gets stale, there are two ways to freshen it – with a sale or a complete change-out of merchandise. The sale will cost you more than just the lost profits of that particular sale (I plan to write about the pros and cons of sales in the future). Changing out an entire booth will cost you mountains of time.

Impulse Purchases

Every single one of us succumbs to impulse buys as shoppers – especially when the prices and deals are great. Good deals and lower prices lower the resistance level of your customers, too. And just like you, customers tend to return to booths where they always find the best stuff at great deals.

Profit Margins

Too many new dealers just double the price they paid for an item and call it good. That’s wrong. What you paid for an item has nothing to do with its value.

That item could very well be worth 100 times what you paid for it. And it could also be worth much less than what you paid for it. I hope the latter doesn’t happen to you too often, but rest assured that it will happen in the vintiques business.

So, get the idea of doubling your price on every item out of your head.

Doubling Your Price

I’m not really sure where this double the price idea comes from. Maybe it comes from wholesalers whose suggested retail prices are double their wholesale prices. Who knows. One thing I do know is that it’s bunk – at least in the vintiques business.

I have bought items for a buck or two that I sold for a $100 or more. And I have bought items for $20 that I sold for $30. All dealers will spring (pop as Mike and Frank would say) on the former. Most will turn up their noses at the latter – even if that $10 profit is made in mere seconds. Somehow that ten bucks isn’t worth the effort.

Let’s do a for-instance

Let’s pretend that I’m at an auction. Got my handy-dandy list of items on which I plan to bid and a fabulous yellow-ware bowl comes to floor on which I hadn’t planned on bidding. The starting price is a bit high – $25, probably because the owner demanded at least that price. I could probably get $45 bucks for it in my booth. With a 10% buyers premium to the auction house, the mall’s 10%, maybe a customer discount of 10%, I’d earn $10 when it’s all said and done.

No one bids on the lovely bowl, so I do.

Look. I’m already at the auction buying other stuff. There’s no additional time required from me to get the bowl. The bowl is in good condition. A quick dusting and a price tag, it’s ready for the booth in mere seconds. In mere seconds, I made ten bucks.

If I can make a quick profit on an item, even if it’s a small profit, I’ll buy the item. The key word there is QUICK.

Why Doubling Your Price Isn’t Doubling Your Profit

Don’t think that doubling your price, doubles your money. Buyers premiums at auctions, sales percentages taken by your mall, discounts for customers, the costs of tags, marking pens, cleaning supplies, gas and insurance for your vehicle — all these things and more are called overhead.

Take your gross sales, subtract the overhead and there’s your profit. If all you did was double the prices you paid for merchandise, you have NOT doubled your money.

Again, I say, throw away the idea of doubling price. Look at the actual value of the item to determine its price.

Devise Your Own Pricing Strategy

My strategy may not work for you. You may be in a boutique mall where your fellow dealers have come up with a strategy that everyone in the mall must follow. Your booth may be in an upscale spot where customers are accustomed to, and willing to, pay big bucks. Woohoo! Go for it in that case.

Devise a pricing strategy that is right for your business. Then, make no apologies for your prices!

We all love a good story, don’t we?

Hearing a funny one can brighten our spirits, while listening to a tale of heroism bolsters our strength.

Have you ever considered that the way you present your business, your products, your services, is YOUR story to tell? That the way you present your products can speak volumes to your customers AT FIRST GLANCE?

It’s true.

You can begin to ‘Tell Your Story’ from the moment that potential customers first view your business.

My goal as a retail consultant has been to help every business discover what their unique story IS, and then relay it to customers in an effective and original way. Over 35 years, I’ve been able to assist thousands of retailers achieve success in the way they present their businesses and products. I’ve done this through the displays and stores I have designed for them, the articles I have written for magazines, blogs and websites, and by presenting seminars at national gift shows. Those retailers have run the gamut from corporate wineries and independent home décor boutiques to artisans and antique dealers who sell at shows and in malls and galleries.

The same basic guidelines work for all of them, because the Story is all in the ‘Telling’… each business uses elements that help them stand out from the competition. (Much like the way a good story or joke is told with voice inflection, pauses, facial expressions, and a good summary or punch line!)

One of those elements is how you display your goods.

Visual merchandising/display is the process of thoughtfully presenting your products. Whether you do that in an online venue like eBay or Etsy or your own web store, in a retail store of your own, in a rented space within an antique mall or cooperative, or as a vendor at shows, it is important to maximize this part of your business in a busy and often overwhelmingly ‘similar’ marketplace. At shows and malls, your ‘competition’ is literally inches away from you…. making your booth and your products stand out from the crowd is paramount to getting noticed! You certainly don’t want to look just like the guy next door. (Do you?)

Increasing your ‘visual impact’ – which is the way that your customers SEE your business and products – starts helping you to sell without speaking a word. It’s the equivalent to the great opening line of a story or joke, and catches people’s attention: A customer coming down the aisle at a show sees a fabulous color, or item, or setting in the booth in front of them, and they are intrigued to come closer and discover more.

As the customer comes closer, a bit more detail in the displays is revealed, drawing them INTO your booth to investigate further. The customer is now in proximity to you, the salesperson – or, in the case of mall space, to your signage and price tags. Either one serves the purpose of providing information and detail about the products…telling more of the story.

The customer is now actively participating in the selling process by looking closely, touching, perhaps picking up (trying ON, maybe?) your products. Here is where you give them the full story: You inform and entertain by offering more information on the items, sharing alternative uses and added value, why this is an opportunity not to be missed.

You make the visual impact so strong, so intriguing to them, that they cannot resist the pull to take a part of it home with them. Even if they purchase only a small something, they can own a bit of the magic that you have created and introduced them to. With them, they take your information so that they can be sure to visit you again and repeat the experience. This is how you use the story you tell to sell products – but also to create an experience, build a brand and develop a fan base.

As a part of my seminar ‘Tell Your Own Story’, I offer an outline of the basics in displaying products and designing retail space. In 2009, I created a new version specifically for antique dealers. It contains dozens of basic and advanced tips on maximizing your visual impact, and will help you plan and develop the Story that you will tell through your booth’s appearance. I’d love to share it with you, to assist you in discovering and telling YOUR story!

You can access the document here (http://decodivadebi.blogspot.com/2009/10/creating-successful-displays-resource.html) and also find it on the sidebar links on my Retail Design Website (http://www.DebiWardKennedy.com ). Please feel free to use it to develop your own visual plan, and share the link to it as you wish. The material contained within that document is my original work, and is not to be used in any book, article, blog post, class, seminar, or other method of sharing with others for profit or press. Contact me via email for permissions at debi.wardkennedy@gmail.com

My website ALSO features six videos about retail display & merchandising – I produced the series in 2008 for the Gift & Home Channel, and filmed at The Farm Chicks Antique Show in Spokane, Washington. You’ll find a plethora of inspiring ideas, tips, and examples of successful booth design and display in those videos.

My Retail Design Blog, accessible from my website, offers resources on every aspect of display and retail visual merchandising – literally hundreds of links, articles, tips, photos, books, videos, and more.

While I am providing those resources online, with a limited availability of private consulting and speaking/writing engagements, I am focused on utilizing my experience and abilities in our own Vintage Industry business: Retreat http://www.RetreatStyle.com . I invite you to come and introduce yourselves if you are at a show that we are selling at! Our 2011 schedule is on our website.

Content of attachment and this post is original content property of Debi Ward Kennedy Copyright 2008, 2010. www.DebiWardKennedy.com | debi.wardkennedy@gmail.com

Keeping customers coming back should be every Indiepreneur’s top priority. Here are five very good reasons.

Never underestimate the power of a happy customer

Customers are what bean counters call an acquired asset. Good customers return to buy again and again. Great customers spread the word about your goods or services. Indie buyers tend to show off unique purchases to friends or relatives. If those friends and relatives like what they see and trust the word of mouth recommendation, they become good customers who also spread the word about your business. When such a multiplication effect happens, your business will take off faster than you ever dreamed. As your reputation grows, so does business and hopefully, profit.

It costs your business to acquire new customers

It costs on average six times more money to sell to a new customer than it does a happy, repeat customer. No matter what your strategy to find new customers, it has a cost on your business.

A good number of Indie’s do their own marketing to dig up new customers. Blogs, a shop on Etsy, participating in chats and forums usually don’t cost a lot of money, but they certainly cost time. Your time is valuable. Don’t ever forget that.

Some Indie’s send free products to reviewers, buy ads in traditional and electronic media. Antique dealers and designers spend money on unique display pieces not to mention oodles of time and money to haul wares across the country to shows just to find and reach new customers.

Statistically, one sale to a new customer generally doesn’t earn you a profit. Once you hook ‘em with that first sale, make sure you treat them with the respect an acquired asset deserves and turn them into repeat customers. You want them to buy again and again to make all your time, money and energy pay off for the long run.

By the way, don’t neglect existing customers in favor of gaining new ones. Remember, it costs six times more money to get a new customer than it does keeping the ones you have happy. If it comes down to it, please existing customers FIRST.

Repeat customers give you a competitive advantage

Steady business increases your profit, but it can also free your mind and time to build your business. Instead of sinking all your resources into beating the bushes for new customers, you can invest in improving existing products, and creating or finding new products for your customers.

While you’re building your product base, your existing customers are beating the new customer bushes for you by sending you referral business. It’s good practice to reward those referrals. You don’t have to make a big production out of it or plaster your marketing materials with tacky referral pleas. Just send a small thank you gift to the referring customer – and let the surprised customer spread the referral news, too!

Repeat customers are the best consultants

Trying to decide whether to add on to your line or upgrade existing products? Is the Pantone color of the year really all that? Ask your existing customers what they think. They obviously love your style and usually aren’t shy about letting you know when you’re on the wrong track. In fact, listen to their unsolicited advice, too. Good or bad, it’s free feedback! Take it and run with it!

Happy customers give you confidence

I can spend hours upon hours fluffing my booth at the antique mall – redecorating and styling my space to make it really stand out. While I have a good time doing that, there was a time when I doubted whether all my sweat and those trips up the ladder were cost effective. Did all that effort really matter when it came to sales?

My answer came from a shopper who happened to come by on a day I was in a major refluff. She went on and on how much she loved the stuff I sell, detailed everything she ever bought from me and told me she makes a beeline for my space whenever she shops the mall. The compliments went right to my head – and my confidence. I really knew what I was doing! And, well, to paraphrase Sally Field, they like me … really, really like me. Better yet, she had a friend with her and several shoppers strolling by heard her gushing.

When customers come back to you, it removes some of the doubt from your business equation. Repeat customers are a sign that you’re doing something right.

At the end of day, smart Indiepreneurs make building repeat business a priority. It’s just smart business. You can start by posting the following quote somewhere in your business office:  “A satisfied customer is the best business strategy of all” – Michael Leboeuf