I Can't Figure Out What Sold

The Problem: You get the printout showing what sold for the month.  Your tags were great - they had all the information you needed to keep your inventory accurate - item description, inventory number, price, and vendor number.  Your writing was legible, but when you look at your printout, you can't figure out what sold.  Whoever rang it up didn't bother with your inventory numbers.  They didn't describe anything the way you did.  They wrote plate or vase or table or necklace or sometimes no description at all.  Unfortunately, you have a bunch of plates, vases, necklaces or whatever.  Then you have to go to the mall and look through all the sale pages to figure out what sold.  It happens month after month.

The thing is, when a store gets busy, whoever is working the cash register often feels pressured to hurry up.  Things are skipped.  OR there may be someone ringing up who is just plain lazy and doesn't bother adding what he/she thinks of as unnecessary details.

Are you tired of it?  Would you like a tip that helps you figure out what sold without having to try to change someone else's behavior?  After years of going to the stores and hunting down my sales, I came up with a solution.  It's so simple that it's ridiculous and I can't believe I didn't figure it out sooner.

The Solution:
There are two things every cashier tries to be accurate about, even when in a hurry - the price and the vendor number.

Vendor Number - You need to make sure your vendor number is easy to read and is written in such a way that it won't get confused with another vendor's number or the price (yes, that can happen).

Price - At some malls, if a checkout person writes up the price incorrectly, they can get into trouble.  They might even be charged.  They ring up the price very carefully.  That's the key to this trick.

Write your price with crazy numbers in the cents.  Do not end it in .99.  That's too common.  If you were thinking of marking something $30 or $29.99, instead, write it up as $30.12.  or $29.74.  If you go UP a tad, you've made a little extra money without scaring off a customer.  They still think of $30.12 as $30 when they are making a purchasing decision.

Further, let's say that $30.12 item was a platter.  You have three other platters and you want to sell those for around $30 each, too.  Mark them something different - $30.48, $29.88, and $30.27.  

When each of those platters appear on your monthly printouts, you'll be able to figure out exactly which one sold and your inventory will be easy to keep up without having to dig through the store's sales pages.  

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PS - I apologize for going so long between posts, but I know many of you understand.  Those of you who keep up with my posts probably remember my husband died in May.  I'm trying to figure out how to make sense of my life.  I write about that, as well as my husband's battle with cancer, in as positive a way possible on my other blog - Rudy and Denise.  You're welcome to read that if you are facing or have faced any similar issues (widowed or a caretaker).   If you aren't, I recommend that you stay away from sad stuff and go kiss your loved ones. Be happy.  Meanwhile, thanks to the many of you who have sent me sweet messages of encouragement over the last year. It's crazy how notes from people I've never actually met can mean so much.  As for this blog, I really do intend to keep it going.  I have a number of posts on my To-Do list that I plan to post in the future.  I find it really helps to do little things that have nothing to do with loss and grief.  Happy things.  My Vintage Show Off posts make me happy.  I like knowing I'm helping people.

Sell as a Set or Price Separately

I see it often.  A dealer will paint a set (bedroom set, table and chairs, desk and chair...) and put one price on it all.  Since it was a matched set or has been painted to match, the dealer thinks it must all be sold together or that it would be a shame to split the set.  In my humble opinion, that's a mistake.

I just posted this pretty set on The BoneYard's Facebook page.   This vendor did it perfectly.   She made three price tags and she tied them all together for different pricing options.

I love that all three tags were together rather than only on the different pieces, but occasionally it may be preferable to split them up.

Make the price of the set less than the total if buying separately.  Note the savings when buying this set.  When someone buys it all, there should be a savings.  If purchased separately, the cost adds up to $948.  That's $150 less than the price if purchased separately.  The savings doesn't have to be that much.  This is just one example.

Why offer to sell separately?  Not everyone shopping needs a complete set. In the case of the dining set above, someone may come in and want just the table because they already have perfectly good chairs.  If this table were only available as a set, that shopper will likely pass this set by.  Another shopper may have a nice table, but just need chairs.  Don't pass up sales opportunities by insisting on selling everything as a set.

If this dealer sells these items separately, she'll make more money in the end.  :-D

What if it all doesn't all sell together?  When I have suggested separate pricing to some dealers, they worry about what to do with a partial set, such as a table without chairs or chairs without a table.  TRUST ME.  That's no problem.  These things sell just fine alone.  I promote at two different stores and I see what sells.  There's no question at all - things sell separately just fine!!!  Also, it's easy to find another set of chairs or another table.  You can paint them to match or put chairs that aren't an exact match with it.  You don't have to have everything match.

Look at Current Magazines - 

They hardly ever show a matching set 

in any room.

I happen to be a person who prefers NOT to have a matching set.  I like chairs that are different from the table (not made to match).   There are many many people out there like me.  Just check out my DINING ROOMS Pinterest Board. Very few of the tables and chairs are sets or made to match and most of those were pinned for other reasons.  Here's one example from that board -

Source

This dining room is from Marian (of the famous Miss Mustard Seed blog).  She has 4 easy to find maple chairs that match. She has two completely different end chairs.  She painted the base of the table in the same color as the end chairs.  Marian swaps things out in her home often.  She has switched tables 4 or 5 times in the last few years.  She changes chairs about as often. She finds things that work together, but they are definitely not a matched set.  You can click the link above to see a tour of her home.  

You Called it a WHAT???

Be careful what you call an item on your price tag.  Your fancy item name may actually cause a customer to rethink a possible purchase.  Let me explain.

In the example above, the tag specifies that the desk is for ladies.

Booth vendors are generally creative people.  We love re-purposing things.  We could care less what an item is called. We'll buy an item and use it any way we choose.

Not all of our customers are like that.  Many are far more timid when it comes to decorating.  Some are afraid to buy anything but a bedroom suite because they don't have the confidence to put different pieces together.

Our more timid customers might see that desk and, at first glance, think it would look nice in their home office.  But when they look at the tag to check the price, the word ladies might make them worry that the desk is too feminine.  Maybe it wouldn't work for the family after all.  No sale.

A nice name is wonderful.  Details are nice.  But be very careful about not using a name that will limit a buyer's imagination.

A couple of other examples that come to mind (because I've seen them used recently) are "gentleman's chest" and "youth desk".  I recently saw "youth desk" used on a tag for a normal sized desk that most anyone could use.

PS - I kept thinking that "ladies desk" should actually be "lady's desk".  I did a quick search and saw both ways used.  "Ladies" seemed to be use a little more and I saw it used by a few companies that surely knew their stuff, so that's what I used.  If anyone sees a definitive answer, I'd love to know!