With the start of the new year has come a new opportunity for me: having some of my products for sale in a local retail store.
I approached this very, very carefully. I've been offered wholesale accounts before, mostly involving my selvage bath mats. Shop owners have asked about ordering, say, 25 of them, what sort of discount would there be, and do I offer drop shipping. Well, my response has been to thank them but to tell them that I'm just not set up for anything like that. There's too much production time and too little profit margin to consider working for what essentially would be 1/2 price.
But what about developing projects specifically for wholesale? It would be a great way to expand my potential customer base locally.
The store showcases crafts from local artists, most of whom also live in the neighborhood.
I've been working with the owner about developing specific projects for the customers that come into that store.
I brought in some heart coasters and pincushions that I had already made.
One thing that the owner mentioned that people always ask for are APRONS. You probably already know that aprons take a lot of fabric, at least a couple of yards, plus they're pretty labor intensive. Well, she had a great idea-- don't make the apron, just make it fancy.
It was a great idea! I ordered 6 of these white poly/cotton aprons from Georgia Towels on Ebay. (The spatula-wielding hunk was not included, unfortunately). They were only a couple of dollars each, including shipping.
I just quickly embellished them with leftover appliques and strips from other projects.
They look super cute and took very little time. We'll see how this goes!
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