Catering Your Store to a Niche Market

When you start up your consignment store, one of the biggest decisions that you need to make is what kind of market you are going to cater to. Many consignment stores choose to hit as many potential customers as possible by offering a wide range of items. While this is a good strategy, but it can be a lot of work managing every type of merchandise, rather than a few select types. For this reason, there are many consignment shop owners who choose to cater to niche markets, rather than offering a one-stop shop to all.

Types to Choose From

There are several different types of consignment store merchandise that you can sell. There is also no reason why you can’t sell a combination of a few types if you feel they fit together nicely.

1. Antiques: The sale of antiques is big in North America. What was once old is new again to many people. Many decors actually center on antiques and bargain hunters know that consignment stores are an antique gold mine. Some antiques that you may sell include furniture, glassware, collectibles, lamps, books and kitchenware.

2. Books: Everyone loves books and second-hand books tend to be widely sought after. Many readers would rather spend two dollars on a used copy of a book than buy it new for $10 to $20 at the bookstore. As a second-hand bookstore, or consignment book store, your life will revolve around books. There is a lot of business in books as people read more now than ever before.

3. Clothing: Probably the biggest area of business for any consignment store is clothing. By specializing only in clothing at your consignment shop, you can take in a lot of money without having to stock anything else. People need clothing and the bargain hunters out there know that there is plenty of nice clothing at consignment stores.

4. Music and Videos: As technology changes, what was once new is now old and easily replaced. That being said, there are many people out there who still buy vinyl records, or who prefer watching movies on VHS. Those who aren’t fans of new technology can be your biggest customers with this type of consignment store. However, that doesn’t mean you won’t still sell CDs, DVDs or even MP3 players. When new technology comes out, there are always those who buy it right away, and there are always those who are happy with older models of new technology.

5. Sporting goods: Every year, millions of kids, teenagers and adults enroll in sports programs. With each enrollment comes the need for equipment, and that is where a consignment store can come in. By stocking skis, hockey equipment, golf equipment, baseball equipment and anything else relating to sports, you can make good money by capitalizing on the bargain hunters out there looking for sports equipment. If someone wants to try golf for a year, they won’t buy new clubs, they will buy used clubs. You can do great business by stocking a year-round supply of sporting equipment.

By choosing to specialize in certain areas of merchandise, you can make it much easier for yourself to manage the consignment store. You will be able to know what you sell and what you don’t sell. You won’t have to worry about people seeing the consignment store as a place where anything and everything is dropped off to be sold. When you specialize, you make yourself a much more valuable shopping destination for those niche clients looking for a good deal.

Knowing the Difference is Important

There is often a great deal of confusion between re-sale, consignment, thrift and second-hand stores. Usually, consumers will see these types of stores as one and the same, but they are not. In fact, there are some vital differences to these types of stores.

Second-Hand and Thrift Stores

Second-hand stores come in many different varieties. Generally, they are based upon the types of merchandise they sell. If you own a second-hand store, you will want to focus on a certain type of merchandise. There are some second-hand stores that are much more generalized, which broadens their customer base.

Some of the types of second-hand stores that can be found include antiques, books, clothing, electronic, music and video and sporting goods. What you sell within a second-hand store is completely up to you as the owner. Thrift stores work on the same principle as second-hand stores.

Consignment Stores

Consignment stores work in a different manner than all the rest. With consignment store, a business owner will get their merchandise from clients and sell that merchandise for a profit. Generally these stores get about 60 percent of the sale, while the consignor will get about 40 percent.

These are popular stores to run because they take little investment in order to build up an inventory. As well, there is no need to pay for any product unless it is sold, which brings down costs greatly.

Resale

Unlike consignment stores, which get their merchandise from clients and sell them, resale store owners buy used items and sell them. This means they have to buy the items first, which can increase start-up costs. While this type of store requires more investment up front, profits can also be very good because there is no splitting of the costs.

The Benefits of These Stores

Some benefits that these stores enjoy include the fact that there is more freedom for the business owners. They can stock whatever they wish, sell it for however much will bring them a profit and there is a lot of profit. There is also a great deal of interaction with customers, which is great if the owner is a people person and wants to help others. These stores are also good for the environment. Instead of allowing items to go to the landfills, second-hand stores act like a recycle depot, allowing others to pick up what they need, at a cheaper price than buying it new.

Its the ability to be your own boss that’s what causes many people to get into these businesses. They have no one telling them what to do and they make the decisions on what is stocked and how much of a profit they can make. The income potential that can comes from generating revenues on used goods is a big benefit of these types of businesses. There can be a lot of mark-up on these items. A store owner can buy something for two dollars at a garage sale and sell it for six dollars, making three times the profit.

Lastly, these stores can be started right away because no training is needed to sell the items and there is a good quantity of used items out there that need to be sold. All one needs is a small budget to take advantage of flea markets, eBay and garage sales, along with some space to store the items.