Pottery: Wholesale or Retail

That's the question. When I first started making pottery, the thought of selling wholesale never entered my mind. A few years ago, I was approached to sell wholesale and turned it down due to my schedule. When I was  asked again this year I decided to give it a try. Excited to enter new business territory, I jumped right in with confidence not knowing what I was getting into. After doing some research I discovered wholesale usually means that you are selling your work at 50% off the retail price. Retail price?! Wake up call! I didn't view the price I was selling my pottery as a "retail" price, I was just selling it for what I thought was a reasonable offer. Wrong! Now, at this point in the game, you're probably thinking "what kind of business person are you?" Well, to be quite frank, not a very good one. But I am still learning and trying. *smile*

 planters © samos 2012

Now that I know that the price I'm selling my pottery for is the retail price, I have to start from square one with every single piece I have in my inventory. Yes, that's right. I took each piece of pottery, weighed it, calculated the cost of materials, time, and figured out the actual retail price. This was quite the chore, but a necessary one. For years, friends and family have been telling me that my prices are too low. Well, they were right. After figuring out the cost of each piece of pottery, I was stunned to see how much work I've been doing for almost nothing. This was of course the biggest wake up call of them all.

I have since revamped my retail price list as well as produced a wholesale price list that I follow to a tee. And guess what?  My sales have increased and I'm still working wholesale!

Do you have any thoughts or stories to share about working with retail or wholesale?

 I would love to hear them.

 

Hope you are having a wonderful week!

 

samos