After posting my last article on Wholesaling One-of-a-Kind Products, I received some feedback that offered a different perspective on the topic. Of course, I believe that there is not always one right answer to an issue, but many possible options.
The following comments appeared on my Selling Wholesale to Gift Shops LinkedIn Group by Mckenna Hallett. Mckenna, who is a frequent participant in my group, is a jewelry maker with a very good perspective on how making one-of-a-kind (ooak) pieces for wholesale works for her.
The Other Side of the Story!
Gosh – I think this is all backwards, Sandy. I know that you have some experience as a rep
of food products, but durable goods is very suited to ooak (one-of-a-kind) items. In fact, it is because I cannot duplicate anything that I was forced into wholesaling. Let me explain:
Doing one piece that cannot be repeated (yes the basic shape or size can be fairly similar) and trying to only do retail means every single piece I produce would need its own photo. I create 250 to 400 pieces each month and even if I was retail only and doing half that much in production, I would spend two or three times more in marketing time and photos and running web stores and following up on individual inquiries. Yuck to that. AND then I would face computer monitors that don’t have the color calibrated (been there!) and have to deal with returns when the sky blue was really aqua.
The GREAT part about wholesale is that the sale is not to the end-user and so there is great latitude in what goes into a shipment – what they want is:
Consistency, quality finishing, and competitively priced goods. They expect something that is square to be mostly square and something that is round to be mostly round. If someone makes items from unique products from nature like I do or like the bowl mentioned in the article, that is even BETTER for the gift shop – if the price is within the normal range of their target market, any shop would love to have something that is that rare and unrepeatable to offer.
If the definition of gift shop is a place where made in china trinkets are the main offering, then that bowl may not work out, but many “galleries” are really just frame shops with a small section of hand-made stuff in a corner, so the marketing of the name gift shop or galleries can mean many things. But closing a sale on a ooak is much easier than trying to get someone to buy something they see everywhere and can even buy on Amazon.
If anyone reading this is working with ooak – just know that there is a future for you in wholesale. And it is easier and more profitable then chasing after a single sale to one person. Call any gift/gallery and ask to meet with the buyer about your crafted items and get some real feedback – not a sale – just feedback.
Just know this: A line is defined as a collection of items of similar raw materials that will be used for similar uses – if you make hats from wool, it would be odd to also offer place mats from burlap and vice versa. If you make hats, you might also make scarves or even mittens, but if you add shawls and sweaters and coats and skirts and dresses, and throws and pillow covers and so on it will take an army of worker bees (like china) to keep all those things available for shipments. A line needs to be something that a wholesale buyer will want to buy as a group of items to display and if you try to cover too many categories you will ….
a) have a hard time keeping up with orders and
b) confuse buyers as to what part of your offerings are worthy of space in their retail (high cost per foot) space. Think Burt’s Bees. THAT is a line!
Keep it simple, keep it priced competitively, and make it easy for the buyer to imagine the “collection” on display. Even offer an “opening order collection” to make it even easier for the buyer to say yes.
But really consider that ooak is really more suitable for wholesaling than it is for retailing. Not the other way around. Shipping 30 or 50 items to one shop several times a year with just a click to open an email is so much simpler than trying to sell each and every one of those same items to 30 or 50 new and/or individual clients. Re-orders are the bomb. And they can last for years and years with one gallery and you never (almost never) have to worry about returns or even exchanges.
So what are your thoughts? Like I said above, there is no perfect answer — just input from others who have make the system work for them!
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