Comments on: Questions on Purchasing for Wholesale Sales

By: Cindi Bernloehr

Cindi Bernloehr — Wed, 01 Aug 2018 01:20:00 +0000

I have found some local retail boutique shops that want local artists and I use Rena’s standard price formula of materials x 4 plus my cost per hour for a retail cost. I usually pay 30-40% to the merchant for the display and marketing of my product. I think this is a reasonable cost. I have had my own retail shop so I understand the cost of space and marketing plus all the time I spent sitting in a shop and no one comes by so I think this is a fair trade, I have found that if a shop is close, I will stop in to check my stock more regularly than if it’s more than a 15 min. drive. I also swap out my stock regularly (once a month) so customers can see new products.

By: Cheryl Feyen

Cheryl Feyen — Thu, 04 Jun 2015 15:46:47 +0000

I don’t sell my jewelry wholesale but I would buy a supply (2-3 dozen) of the unusual components so that I knew I had them and then buy the more common items as I need them.

By: Drakestail Jewellery

Drakestail Jewellery — Tue, 02 Jun 2015 17:51:44 +0000

I would talk to your suppliers and know what their turnaround times are for the supplies that you would need. Keep a chart, too, so you have that info handy. If there are items that would take a long time to come in, you might want to consider pre-ordering those.

Then, I would calculate how much time it would take to produce an item, from placing your supply order to making your items to having them packaged and ready to deliver. Make sure that you have as accurate an answer as possible, and it might be advisable to build in a couple days of wiggle room to account for holidays, errors, etc.. Then, when negotiating with a wholesaler, you can ensure that the delivery date that you promise is a true one, and you can comfortably fulfill their order on time.

By: Maureen

Maureen — Tue, 26 May 2015 22:43:00 +0000

Personally, I buy in bulk, make my designs and literally peddle them to retailers. Generally, I charge 1/2 to them as I would charge on Etsy. It’s a nice income stream, even though some of them have gone out of business, I just try new ones. Consignment is not an option for me because I would rather keep my stuff under my own control in my Etsy store. Good luck and don’t be afraid to ask retailers, all they can say is no but yes feels really good. Oh, and make sure you have excellent business cards.

By: Victoria De Caro

Victoria De Caro — Tue, 26 May 2015 12:30:40 +0000

Great question, Amy! I’m at the same place in my business and am interested to hear what others have to say on the topic. For the time being, I’m going to follow what I’ve been doing on the retail side which is make a handful of styles in bulk that I heavily promote and use them to drive traffic for my limited edition and one of a kind pieces. At this point I have a good understanding of what my top sellers are and definitely buy those materials in quantity. In order to be competitive on the wholesale side it will be absolutely critical to contain costs as much as possible and also have enough on hand so there’s not a huge lag in fulfillment time. Best wishes on this new chapter of your business!