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Selling My Artwork Wholesale
The Journey to Wholesaling
Let's Define Wholesale, Shall We?
Wholesaling, jobbing, or distributing the sale of goods or merchandise to retailers, to industrial, commercial, institutional, or other professional business users, or to other wholesalers and related subordinated services.WTO - World Trade Organization
According to the United Nations Statistics Division, "wholesale" is the resale (sale without transformation) of new and used goods to retailers, to industrial, commercial, institutional or professional users, or to other wholesalers, or involves acting as an agent or broker in buying merchandise for, or selling merchandise to, such persons or companies. Wholesalers frequently physically assemble, sort and grade goods in large lots, break bulk, repack and redistribute in smaller lots.UNSTATS - United Nations Statistics Division While wholesalers of most products usually operate from independent premises, wholesale marketing for foodstuffs can take place at specific wholesale markets where all traders are congregated.
Traditionally wholesalers were closer to the markets they supplied than the source they got the products from.
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However, with the advent of the internet and E-procurement there are an increasing number of wholesalers located nearer manufacturing bases in Mainland China, Taiwan and South East Asia like Chinavasion, Salehoo and Modbom, many of which offer drop shipping SafestChina,Leading China Wholesaler!Support Dropshiping Serviceservices to companies and individualshttp://top50chinadropshippers.com/comparison/.
Why Wholesale?
I have been making and selling my own jewelry for almost 15 years, but it wasn't until a year ago that I considered expanding my sales to a wholesale level.
Selling wholesale on a large scale basis, or at least much larger scale than I have been requires a lot of preparation. It is completely different than selling directly to the end user.
Selling at art shows and in a few galleries does not require the production levels and duplication that selling wholesale does.
But I have decided that it is time to take my work to the next level and that I would rather do less art shows and more selling through retail stores.
Frankly, I am tired of the hauling, traveling, and long show days. I would like to see an end of that.
Also, by setting up wholesale accounts I, in essence, create a bunch of salespeople to sell my work. That will exponentially increase the number of people that be able to purchase my jewelry.
How to Wholesale
How To Become The Preferred Vendor: 251 Strategies for Doing More Business with Retailers
Amazon Price: $19.95 (as of 11/29/2009)
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Fine Silver and Found Object Jewelry
Research That I Have Done
There were a lot of things that I had to think through and experiment with before I could begin to seriously sell wholesale.My biggest issue was that I was making each fine silver component of my jewelry by hand with Precious Metal Clay, and that took a lot of time. Yet I didn't want to give up the originality that I got by making them by hand.
Another issue was that I needed to have multiples of the same pieces so that customers could place an order for a specific piece and know what they were getting. But I needed to be able to retain enough originality and variety to attract different customers.
So I had to do some research. Precious Metal Clay is fine silver. What I looked into was casting pieces from my PMC originals. A caster would have to make a mold from my originals, then fill the mold with liquid metal to make duplicates. I really had no idea how close they would look and feel.
Casting is expensive because you need to buy a minimum quantity to make it worth the caster's time.
The caster I was talking to was very accomodating. He had never worked with PMC originals before. He was willing to make 200 copies total of any number of originals.
I picked out pieces that were basic and could be made into lots of different items and sets. And I went for it.
When I got the pieces back, I was totally amazed at the quality of the copies. They looked exactly like my originals, exactly.
Now I had to come up with set styles that I loved and could repeat without trouble.
Obstacles and Problems
I mentioned my two biggest issues already, but there were lots of other obstacles.How many products did I need?
How could I reach all of the accounts I needed?
What would my lead time be to create and ship orders?
I needed some money upfront? Where would it come from?
My two biggest problems are always time and money.
Some of these problems I will have to continue to work out as I grow, but I have managed to work through most of the logistics and I am very happy with the designs I have worked out.
I am really looking forward this new twist to my business.
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Fine Silver Dangle Jewelry
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- JaguarJulie JaguarJulie Oct 15, 2008 @ 11:31 am
- Wholesaling your art jewelry? Gosh, this sounds tricky for an indie designer, but good luck with your venture(s).
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- mulberry mulberry Sep 29, 2008 @ 7:18 pm
- Gorgeous stuff once again. Good luck with your wholesale endeavor!
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- vbright105 vbright105 Sep 28, 2008 @ 11:53 pm
- Best of luck with Wholesales. Your Jewelry is beautiful!
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