pugdog
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Apr 17, 2005, 5:24 PM
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Bead Shops Only - Cooperative for Bead Stores?
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We have a site set up for Bead Shops only, places with an established presence, but we are trying to figure out how best to set it up. (We also have wholesaler and bead shop only posting topics in this forum, again, sort of waiting for the right set up.)
BeadShopsOnly.com
We get a lot of mailings, both email and hard copy on new things, opportunities, and such.
We are looking at bulk-buys, where we can pool resources, and increase variety.
One of the big complaints from customers is lack of variety. Even though we have the most variety most of our visitors have seen, we still often don't have "the" bead they are seeking. The problem comes from having to balance the "best price" against "too much product."
For instance, with Japanese seed beads, to get "bulk" prices, you have to purchase in 100 gram, 250 gram, or half kilo amounts -- PER COLOR! With over 3,000 combinations in sizes and colors, just from one maker, that is a major hurdle for most shops -- especially start ups.
As we cleaned out our store room, and found things we had boxed up and stored away, and forgotten about, we realized how much money we had tied up in sitting inventory, that other shops/stores could use without getting into the same "over stock" situation we had.
One of the biggest problems in start up shops (and many established ones) is VARIETY. For a number of reasons, inventory starts to pile up, with less variety, and more depth. Getting in a strand, or set of beads for $3 (even if you have to buy 25) is somehow more attractive than spending $5 per strand, even if you only have to buy 3. Will you sell 25? If you sell 3, you've made money even at $5 per strand. If you bought 25, if you sell 5 or 6 at a "better" price, you are still in the hole, with all the money tied up.
The *best* alternative, would be to have a cooperative buying program, where buying 25 strands, the strands are divided up between 5 and 10 different stores, who share in the $3 price, but for only 3 to 5 strands.
The same with seed beads. If a cooperative buy of bulk beads was made, then divided up among stores, for a little more money per unit there could be 10x the variety. (a 250 gram package of beads makes 25 10gram tubes).
The idea here is to *NOT* carry the inventory, but purchase it, and divide up immediately, so the carrying costs are kept as low as possible (eg: tied up cash is at the minimum for everyone).
We are doing this on a smaller scale with some of our bulk customers, who regularly use certain products. We'd like to expand it, to let bead shops increase the variety of items (colors and sizes) without having to invest in too much similar product that sits in the back for months or years tying up cash.
We'll buy 10 colors of seed beads a month. That gives us 250 tubes of only 10 different colors, 25 of each.
If we had 5 shops working with us, we could buy 50 colors of beads, and every shop would end up with 5 tubes of each color, for almost the same money.
There are costs -- the tubes to package in, and time to package, as well as the second set of shipping charges, but that is something that would have to be factored in to a selling price any way. And with 5x the selection, your customers won't be complaining, they'll be impressed at the increased selection and varieties. We have a fairly efficient means of packaging up beads, for our own use, and can expanding it a little.
We are open to ideas, suggestions, and hands raised for interest.
We are offered a lot of stuff, at great deals. If we know we can move it immediately, we can get some *great* deals on gemstone beads, metaphysical items, crystals, bead supplies, etc. Many of the suppliers I deal with know that I won't accept 2nd quality, so what we get in is almost always slightly "above grade."
We might even be able to move that "stale" merchandise. What is stale for your customers, may be exactly what a shop 100 miles away is looking for. Our bead exchange has been very successful based on that. Beads that have lost their "luster" for you, are the exact inspiration someone else needs. It's not a way to dump junk. Junk is junk, no matter what you call it. But a lot of _good_ product sits, unmoving, simply because the right eyes have not seen it.
So, let us know what you think, where your shop is, and what ideas you may have for a _RETAIL_SHOP_ buying cooperative. That is -- wholesale buying, but distribution with an eye to a retail shop's needs of product variety, not product depth.
PUGDOG's Rock & Bead Shop
Pittsburgh, PA 15217
(This post was edited by pugdog on May 2, 2005, 7:57 PM)
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