Is consignment worth it? We set up TWO new stores and answered ALL your questions! / full vlog, q&a

Añadido: 2026-05-22

[00:00:00]In this video, I'm going to walk you through setting up both stores, break down exactly what consignment is and how it works for a business like ours. Hello and welcome or welcome back to our channel. My name is Elena. I am the co-owner of a 7figure accessory business that I run full-time with my husband Drew. We have been running Frederick Family Co. for 2 years now and have been full-time for 7 months. Honestly, the journey to get here has not been easy.

[00:00:26]Before this, I was a therapist and Drew was in corporate America and we decided to take a leap of faith and bet on ourselves and it's paying off. We sell accessories like lanyards, wallets, candle cases, phone cases, coffee sleeves, makeup bags, basically anything that makes your everyday life feel a little bit more fun and a little more you. We sell online through our website and Etsy, and we also do vendor markets on weekends, so we stay pretty busy. And speaking of staying busy, we just got into two new consignment stores. And honestly, I've been wanting to make this video for a while because I feel like consignment is one of those things that a lot of small businesses, including myself, are curious about, but not many people are talking about what it really is. So, in this video, I'm going to walk you through setting up both stores, break down exactly what consignment is, and how it works for a business like ours, give you our honest thoughts on whether it's worth it. I did post a Q&A on our Instagram story about consignment stores. So, I'm going to answer all of those questions at the end. So, if you've ever thought about getting your products into a physical store without the commitment of wholesale, I hope that this video is helpful. When I first started our business, I did not know that vendor markets or consignment stores existed. But basically what it is is you bring your products to a store.

[00:01:53]Most stores give you full control over your own space. You sign a contract and they sell your products for you and you get a cut of each sale. What I did not realize is at first is that you still own the inventory until it actually sells. So you could go and put things in, you can go and take things out at any time. The store is not buying from you upfront. They're just holding it and selling it on your behalf, which is totally different for than wholesale.

[00:02:18]For most of the stores we're in, the split is 9010. So that means that the stores keeps about 10% of every sale that we make and we get to keep the rest. So we're keeping a large majority of every sale, which is honestly really good because it's better than wholesale margins. And what makes consignment stores so appealing to us is that we don't have to be there. So, while it's still active, it's also passive. The store has their own employees who are bagging and ringing customers. So, we don't have to physically be there to make sales, which is what makes it passively active. Our products are just sitting there in the store and then the store is doing the work for us, which is huge when you're already juggling everything else that comes with running a business. We are currently in five stores. We were in seven, but two of them did close. Five stores means five different locations where our products are making sales without us having to physically be there. So, something else to know is that most consignment stores are going to have you sign a contract.

[00:03:19]And a lot of contracts we have signed are for a full year, which feels like a huge commitment. So, it's definitely something you want to go into knowing what you're committing and making sure that the store feels like a good fit before you sign. Some stores will do monthtomonth, some stores will do six months, some stores will do three months. Every single store is different, so you really just want to understand what the contracts is. And I'll answer more questions about that at the end.

[00:03:44]The only thing that you have to do after you get set up is really staying on top of your inventory and make sure everything is tracked correctly. But honestly, compared to everything else we have going on, it's pretty low maintenance. So, this week we're setting up in two new stores. So, I want to tell you a little bit about those stores.

[00:04:00]Local Focal in Charlotte actually reached out to us directly, which was so cool. We got a message on Instagram from them and then another small business friend recommended the Lazy Daisy in Virginia Beach. After local focal reached out and the Lazy Daisy, our friend reached out about them. I did look at their Instagram, you look at their Facebook, look at their reviews on their stores. Kind of just really look to see if it's a fit for you. For local focal, since it is in North Carolina, we did go visit before we signed any contract. We looked around. We saw that the vibe was very similar to us because they are a fullear commitment. So, I really wanted to make sure that what we were getting into. You also want to ask a lot of questions which I'll review at the end. Just the questions that we do ask Lazy Daisy. They're they are monthtomonth. So, I didn't feel like that bad about like their vibe's a little bit different than ours, but I think it's still a great gift shop. And with them being monthtomonth, I didn't feel terrible about just signing up. So, you always want to make sure that you do your research before signing up. Another thing that we always do is talk to other vendors who are already in the stores because that is something that experience that you can't get from social media. And so when you hear someone else's experience, it's really helpful. We have unfortunately been burned by stores. We were in seven locations, but the Painted Tree filed bankruptcy and we had to retrieve all of our items the same day. And we also had that happen at a store called The Hive.

[00:05:26]We were set up in both of their locations and they also filed for bankruptcy. So, there's always a risk when you're setting up in stores, which is why it's so important to do your research, do your due diligence, and I think that's something that I didn't fully do when we set up into these other locations. The good thing is you do get all of your inventory back, but you might not get that month's sales, which does suck, especially if you're doing well. We also lost two large income streams for us overnight. So, that did stink. Um, so going into these two, we really wanted to make sure that they were established, they had good foot traffic, and that the vendors were happy there. But at the end of the day, Drew and I both have the same mindset, which is let's just try it. If it works out, amazing. And if it doesn't, we live and we learn and we move on. And that's kind of how we operate. And honestly, it's gotten us pretty far so far. So, we just keep doing that. I want to take you guys into a little bit more with these two stores. I did film the entire setup process for both stores. So, I'm going to show you guys everything. We did local focals in Charlotte on Thursday and then we drove out to Virginia Beach on Sunday for Lazy Daisy. So, you're going to see both setups back to back and then I'll come back at the end and answer some of those Q&A questions.

[00:06:37]Okay, we have the car all packed up.

[00:06:39]We're going to be using that cube storage there and then all of our product is in bags. We just got here so we're going to bring everything inside.

[00:06:46]Okay, so we are wallpapering right now.

[00:06:48]When I say we, I mean Drew. Drew is up there wallpapering. Uh, we have to cover up like if you guys could see the pink, that's what we have to cover up. So, we got some gingham wallpaper. So, we're trying to cover that up right now.

[00:07:02]And now it's on.

[00:07:04]It's >> okay. Everything is wallpapered. We're going to cover the bottom here. So, we didn't wallpaper it, but I'm going to stick things on here to hang up the lanyards. And then we're putting a shelf right here.

[00:07:19]I'm so excited.

[00:07:47]You didn't have to grab my water, did you?

[00:07:48]>> I didn't grab any of the orders.

[00:07:52]Not even yours.

[00:07:53]>> No, I didn't really.

[00:07:56]>> I'm just going to sip yours.

[00:07:58]I'm so glad I found these.

[00:08:02]>> Okay, I'm going to finish sticking all of these and then I'll come back when I'm ready to hang them.

[00:08:08]>> My energy to do this today is thank you to Bloom. I've been obsessed with their energy drinks set. This isn't sponsored or anything. I just really love their energy drinks.

[00:08:18]but blue if you're listening.

[00:08:21]Okay, we have all of the hooks hung. I was actually able to fit 30 hooks, but I only brought 23 lanyard variations. So, I think I'm just going to leave the top row empty and just mail them some more.

[00:08:32]Or maybe we'll bring some more. I don't know when, but maybe we will. But I'm going to hang up all of the lanyards now.

[00:08:41]You laughing at me? So, I got these hooks on Amazon, but I will link everything in my storefront. So, I just try to hide the barcode so that you could see the patterns.

[00:08:52]This is actually working way better than I thought. I didn't know if they were going to stick or what. Um, but actually really happy with the way this is working out because this white thing was here already and they said we can remove it if we wanted to, but figured we could try to work with it if it worked. So, Drew had the idea to try to find like adhesive things and that worked out really well.

[00:09:25]So, I brought our 23 most popular patterns. Right now, I bought a lot of florals because of spring, but eventually that will kind of switch over. I'm noticing a big big interest in like the cottage core vibes.

[00:09:42]I'm not mad about it.

[00:09:45]I actually saw something on like fair social media this morning that searches [music] for cottage gore are up like 150%.

[00:09:55]>> From this time last year and my vibe I feel like it's kind of cottage corey. So I'm very happy about that.

[00:10:09]Some of these items still have barcodes from when we were in the painted tree.

[00:10:14]Um, if you didn't know, the painted tree abruptly closed one day and so we had all of our items. So, we have a bunch of stuff that was already tagged from there. So, we're trying to figure out if we could just barcode over it or we have to take all those barcodes off.

[00:10:29]>> Yeah, take them off.

[00:10:31]>> Take them off.

[00:10:33]>> It's going to be in the way of when I try to scan the other one. They can scan. What do you mean?

[00:10:41]>> Look how long this barcode is. This tie doesn't reach.

[00:10:44]>> Let's see. Damn. Then I should have had Sarah like rip them all off.

[00:10:49]>> I would have.

[00:10:49]>> My bad.

[00:10:51]>> Even the phone cases. I think I could remove them. No, she did.

[00:10:54]>> She probably is up there then.

[00:10:55]>> Huh?

[00:10:56]>> Oops.

[00:10:58]Actually, maybe I brought more than 23 lanyards. I don't know anymore.

[00:11:06]I have I have more than 23 lanyards here.

[00:11:09]>> Yeah, you said that. I was like So like if they had anything, just remove them and put a new one.

[00:11:17]>> Yeah, cuz their tags are different.

[00:11:20]>> They're just longer. If they were the same length. I agree. I didn't realize they were so much longer. Wait, they said that barcode was long.

[00:11:26]>> Yeah, this barcode's really little.

[00:11:29]>> That's how the which one which was too?

[00:11:32]>> Ashes.

[00:11:33]>> Yeah. or small like at least >> we make the barcodes for those so >> Oh, that's why we use a small one.

[00:11:39]>> Well, the system generates it, but this is the same system. So, I thought maybe it would print the same.

[00:11:45]>> I like it though cuz it prints our booth number on it.

[00:11:59]So the first store that we ever set up was the hive and that tagging process. Do you remember that was a nightmare we brought? So we had a lot different products. So that was in what November of 2024 we did.

[00:12:17]That >> was PA. Yeah, that was in like November of 2024 and we had like completely different products. We had a lot smaller products. We had lanyards, barely had wallets. Um, >> we have wallets >> except we barely had like now we have like a lot more.

[00:12:36]>> Um, but I brought way too much stuff and we were there, God, how long were we there?

[00:12:46]>> Just stick it onto the I think we were there for like 10 hours, eight hours, the whole day barcoding. I was sitting on the floor at one point barcoding. Um it was that was an experience. But that was our first first store. Unfortunately, the owner pulled a painted tree and went bankrupt and >> right before the >> Yeah. So that happened in January. G um closed down, not really closed down, but we went like 3 months without getting payment. We were owed over like $2,000 from her. And then she just kind of ghosted everybody and hired a law firm.

[00:13:34]She's claiming bankruptcy, closed all locations. But anyway, while we were there, it was fun. And the setup was fun. Setup was not fun. We didn't eat anything all day and then Drew had to go.

[00:13:52]Do you remember >> these are not the right size, Elena? Oh, so then after what was our next store? So that was in November of 2024.

[00:14:09]And then we set up I think the next one was Tinker and Trade in Philadelphia. We're still there. Cass is amazing.

[00:14:19]>> What?

[00:14:20]>> March or something like that, >> right? Yeah, like March.

[00:14:23]>> Or was it I think it was April cuz we got back from Florida.

[00:14:27]>> We're going to Florida.

[00:14:29]>> March or April of 2024. Probably March.

[00:14:32]She's probably right. Um and that one went a little better, but we were still there for like 9 hours. cuz like we were there open to close because >> or was there open to close >> at that point what we were doing was tagging everything as like this would be like black tan flower Kindle like we did variations for every single thing which just wound up being a lot. So we set up there in March of 2024 and then we went into Honeyroot Collective. No, didn't we go? Oh, no, that's right.

[00:15:08]>> Then April 2024, we did Honeyroot Collective. No, you're right. You are right. Because then after we got back from Florida, we went to Artisan Milco in Lancaster.

[00:15:20]>> That's I remember. I was like, >> yeah. So, like there was like three months where we set up store. So, it was Tinker and Trade. Then we did Honeyroot Collective in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, and then we did Artisan Milco in Lancaster.

[00:15:32]>> So, we're still in those three stores.

[00:15:33]And then we added Artisan Milco in her lits location. We love Artisan Milco and Ashley. She's amazing. Okay, I need more tags.

[00:15:45]>> Oh my gosh, you guys are the best. Thank you so much.

[00:15:48]>> Anything else?

[00:15:49]>> I think we're pretty good on labels. I'm going to need some more things printed, so I'll submit those and I'll let you know when I do.

[00:15:55]>> Thank you guys so much.

[00:15:57]>> The workers helped us barcode all of our phone cases. actually made my first YouTube video was when we set up in Tinker and Trade and I gave some like tips or tricks into setting up in stores.

[00:16:06]>> This is not posted.

[00:16:07]>> It is posted. That's our first first video. And then I thought I was going to get into YouTube after that and then I gave up. But >> 9 years later, here you're >> always vet. Um it's kind of hard sometimes. It is a trust game, but ask questions like talk to other vendors.

[00:16:26]The theme that we noticed with the two stores that did ultimately wind up filing bankruptcy on us is that they had issues paying people before.

[00:16:37]So like the hive, we didn't get paid for about 3 months before they like officially filed bankruptcy. So we probably should just pulled our stuff out. Um so if there's ever any lapse in payments, just don't set up or pull your stuff out is what we're learning. And then Painted Tree also had some issues in like October.

[00:16:59]They said it was a system issue.

[00:17:02]>> We joined in when did we join? March. So they >> March of this year and the close of April this year.

[00:17:10]>> So they said it was a system issue, but they did a lot of people back pay and when you get behind as a business, it's really really hard to catch up. And that's Drew's motto.

[00:17:19]>> You always say that.

[00:17:21]>> Yeah. So just kind of vet, talk to other vendors. You can ask the questions. I think like for me, I get shy asking questions to the owners. Drew does not, but that is their jobs and he reminds me of that. So just ask questions, talk to other vendors about what their experience has been in the stores because as you can see, it's a lot of work. There's a lot of prep and there's a lot of time that goes into it and you want to make sure that you're making your money and you actually get paid right now. So, but there's also a lot of ups to stores. Like after you set up, the hands-on work is pretty minimal. So, the stores will sell your stuff and they will bag everything, they will like take care of the customer experience for you.

[00:18:05]So, while it's not completely passive because you do have to mail in restocks and you have to do this when you first set up, it does be kind of become passive income. Um, but it is a great way to reach an audience that you wouldn't [music] have reached.

[00:18:21]So, I hope that that's helpful.

[00:18:24]I hope that um if you're looking to join a store that you [music] do because they yes, there are bad experiences just like with everything. But we've had some pretty good experiences, too.

[00:18:37]>> So, we put pouches on the bottom here.

[00:18:40]I'm hoping I can also display them on the top a little bit to show them. But we're going to put wallets here. And then Kindle cases can go here. I'm going to add like a there. But these wallets, too.

[00:18:53]>> Yeah, >> I think we'll have room on here.

[00:18:57]And then we have 81 12 Kindle cases.

[00:19:00]It's fine. I should know what it's for.

[00:19:03]>> Why can't you try the other way? Oh, it's going to >> It doesn't fit.

[00:19:12]I guess I could do this, but then you >> No, someone's over like >> like that.

[00:19:22]>> It looks better. So, >> I mean, you could see it like >> Yeah, that's fine. I just had a tag cuz they're they're a dollar more.

[00:19:36]Not right there. Yeah, but then you can't fit those up here. If I went this way.

[00:19:47]>> Okay. So, >> so then we can at least see one of them.

[00:19:59]At least see.

[00:20:00]>> So, then they're going to think they're all Slims.

[00:20:02]>> Oh, >> it says it on the tag, too. Slim can't see.

[00:20:07]I mean, I can also just move these, too.

[00:20:09]>> What do you mean?

[00:20:10]>> Just take them off and just move them to the [snorts] >> making difficult.

[00:20:20]>> I tried them on our cubes at home.

[00:20:22]>> Go ahead.

[00:20:24]>> Okay, so we got the Pro Maxes going down here.

[00:20:36]They don't need 15 Pro Maxes.

[00:20:45]>> And then the 16s and 16 pros.

[00:20:52]15s and 15 pros there. Not ideal that they're so low, but sometimes Sometimes that's the space you got. And then 17 and 17 goes here.

[00:21:10]I could put them like in the back.

[00:21:21]>> I think that's what I tested at home.

[00:21:24]>> Well, that does me. Yeah, that makes sense. Is that the only one? Yeah, >> we didn't bring that many.

[00:21:31]>> No, I know you.

[00:21:36]>> They're on our website. Which one?

[00:21:38]>> 15 for max. They don't sell that much at markets anyway.

[00:21:41]>> You have so many pouch bags. Obviously, you can either do one or two things. You can scatter the pouch bags and put a few in each cell.

[00:21:47]>> That's a great point.

[00:21:47]>> And then put it next to it.

[00:21:49]>> I love that point.

[00:21:52]>> That's a great point.

[00:21:56]Oh, yeah.

[00:22:01]>> Yeah, cuz I mean I think >> Yeah, know you're right.

[00:22:03]>> Let's see. I mean, see if they can move.

[00:22:06]>> Okay. I think it looks really cute. I want to put like sample so our lanyard wallet sets can [music] get sold together.

[00:22:16]So, I try to display a sample.

[00:22:21]Okay, we are all done setting up. So on the bottom we have our phone cases [music] and then we have Kindle cases and some extra pouches. We have our wallets up here.

[00:22:37]Focus. We have our wallets here and here. And then we have slim can sleeves, coffee sleeves, and our new pouches out for display. We modeled the wallet. And then we have our lanyards here. I think it came out so good. We always include, see if I can get you guys a closeup. We always include a who we are, a picture of us, a QR code to scan for our social media, and then like a little, you know, kind of description with all of our social media for everybody.

[00:23:12]>> So, yeah, this is our booth.

[00:23:23]Okay, so it is 2:30 now. We just finished setting up. So, it took us about 3 hours to set up, but I thank you guys so much for coming along and setting up with us. Okay, it is now Sunday and we are setting up the second location of this vlog. We are at the Lazy Daisy in Virginia Beach. The Lazy Daisy is a franchise. They have nine locations within Virginia and this is one of their locations. From what I've heard, it is one of their bigger locations. I don't know anything about Virginia. I don't know anything about the store. Um, I did kind of look into it and I talked to a friend who is here and she's the one who recommended that we join the store. We are excited to be a part of it and I'll take you guys along. It took us about 3 and 1/2 hours to get here, but the store is super cute. It's definitely different than other locations we've done. This is our situation. We are not allowed to change this wallpaper. So, kind of not my vibe, but that's okay. We're going to put some bookshelves in front of it. Drew already started bringing in the bookshelves. So, we're going to do two bookshelves to kind of cover some of the wallpaper here. And then we're going to put a table. So, so our space here is a 10x6.

[00:24:37]And I'm was a little worried. So, I only brought our 4ft table. And I'm glad I did cuz I don't think a six foot would have fit here.

[00:24:51]>> I mean, it's going to stay open so it's not the end of the world.

[00:24:53]>> I know. I'm just trying to figure it out.

[00:25:10]>> You buy the Yeah, >> I will help you as best as I poss.

[00:25:24]So, grab from here and then pull. I'm going to rotate it up up square up.

[00:25:44]Come towards me a little bit.

[00:25:48]>> You're in my holes.

[00:25:49]>> You are?

[00:25:50]>> Yeah.

[00:25:57]>> Just hold up.

[00:26:13]>> [snorts] >> We're saying [snorts] I thought about bringing the 6ft table. So glad we didn't like to out there.

[00:26:35]You can go. Right. Cuz >> I don't know the gray.

[00:26:41]>> Yeah, we have that gray ant. I don't fully remember what we did.

[00:26:47][snorts] >> So just going to lift it.

[00:27:03]Oops.

[00:27:08]Oh, I really need to go back to the gym.

[00:27:20]And there.

[00:27:25]We're going to slide that into the wall there. They should be able to fit.

[00:27:32]Okay.

[00:27:33]>> Comes in for her.

[00:27:34]My commentary from the peanut galley.

[00:27:37]Oh, they fit. High five. We did it. You did it. Okay, that was What was that? [laughter] Our new pouches. So, we have green stripe. I think I'm going to put How am I going to do this actually? No, that is the question. Let's do pouches like this.

[00:28:04]So for this store, they don't have like a system. So we had we were assigned a barcode. Think you guys can see that we were assigned a barcode and then we had to put the product the product name, the price, our business name, and then my name. And I didn't have labels big enough for all of that. So we were actually supposed to set this store up on Thursday, but because that's different than most of the other stores that we do, we weren't able to get set up.

[00:28:37]I use a Nommo, I think that's what it's called, label printer. And I'll also include that, but it's super convenient.

[00:28:46]I use that for all of our stores. A lot of our stores use like Consigner Access or Ricochet for their platforms. This one just didn't. It seems like they just manually enter every sale. So, that's different.

[00:29:04]No, I think just uses your phone. So, we use almost the same system for phone cases for the market that we use for stores. It's just the easiest way and we know it works.

[00:29:20]So, I buy all of these bins from Target and we have so many in our garage. We actually are running low because we've set up so many stores. Okay.

[00:29:31]Just going to fix that one [snorts] here. Let's see.

[00:29:38]>> Yeah, cuz there's only two bins. So, we only brought Kindles for the Paper White 11 and the Paper White 12 for now.

[00:29:44]>> Yeah, for now. We ran out of tags.

[00:29:47]>> We will have them.

[00:29:49]>> We could just do this.

[00:30:00]I should have just put the pouch bags last.

[00:30:07]>> You said it's a little low.

[00:30:10]>> Oh, you're saying mix and match the shelf.

[00:30:14]>> It's fine.

[00:30:38]We have pouches.

[00:30:41][snorts] We just do like all pouches on the top and bottom.

[00:31:13]No. And then wallets. And then wallets could go here because we can display them. Like we could put like a sample what it looks like on the board with the lanyards on the table with the lanyards.

[00:31:48]Just literally we can bring some laptop sleeves next time.

[00:32:00]Well, we're going to bring more Kindles.

[00:32:02]So then this would go down and then when we have more coffee sleeves stock, we could bring more coffee sleeves. We're going to put the lanyard board on the table. So, we're going to use the same lanyard board that we use for the markets. I think the hard part about like living far from stores is that you don't get to go come see them in person.

[00:32:21]Like the one in Charlotte, we were in Charlotte, so we were able to see it in person. So, I was able to really like understand our setup and stuff by the time we did go in to set up here. I received a few pictures, but pictures don't really tell you until you see it.

[00:32:39]So, I would have brought more things for the shelves, and I would have brought another lanyard board, but we can always come back and add that stuff later.

[00:32:56]What the hell was that?

[00:33:01]>> I don't know what I just did there.

[00:33:04]I know it makes feel like it doesn't stay when I do that.

[00:33:13]Well, maybe we could put the picture frame of like who we are here too, I guess, to fill up the table a little bit.

[00:33:25]Working on our summer patterns and our photographer, who's also our neighbor, is taking pictures of them.

[00:33:32]So, I'm definitely going to bring some summer patterns here since we are by the beach. So, we're about like 15 minutes from Virginia Beach. So, that's something we always look at when we come into stores is like, is the location good? You don't want to go into something where it's in the middle of nowhere. No one's shopping. Like, Virginia Beach is a pretty well-known beach town. People do come here to vacation. People come here to live.

[00:33:55]Like, it's also like in a shopping plaza. So, there's like food, there's a Planet of Fitness, there's a UPS. Like it maybe isn't the busiest plaza, but >> the GameStop. Drew was very excited about the GameStop. Are they still open?

[00:34:08]>> Oh, I'm sorry.

[00:34:13]But you always want to look to see what's around.

[00:34:19]Okay.

[00:34:21]Wow. We might be out of here in like what? 30 minutes. Record time.

[00:34:28]>> Oh, an hour.

[00:34:30]people.

[00:34:31]>> I was grateful that I was able to tag everything at home even though the tagging system was a little different because it saves so much time than having to be at the stores for hours tagging.

[00:34:46]Did I not bring enough lanyards?

[00:34:48]>> You should.

[00:34:49]>> Well, that wasn't the intention.

[00:34:54]>> That's it.

[00:34:55]>> No, I got more but nothing. Not that many.

[00:34:59]I thought there were 18 hooks on this thing.

[00:35:04]>> Yeah, you only have four more hooks open.

[00:35:07]>> Oh, I thought like that me nervous now.

[00:35:25]I should have brought one too many.

[00:35:30]I only have two hooks left.

[00:35:35]>> We'll combine these two monos.

[00:35:37]>> You got the bottom one.

[00:35:38]>> Yeah, put the bottom one on the table here. These tags are so >> ugly.

[00:35:48]Just ruins the Okay, laser board is done. Since we put the wallets here, we're going to lay out like a few just so people could see what the sets would look like.

[00:36:04]Let's do a tulip. People aren't understanding what's happening here cuz normally the lanyards go right next to the wallet. And I always bring this about us sign. It has our information, our Instagram, a picture of us, all of our social media and ways to shop, and then just a little bit of a story about us.

[00:36:24]I'll put that right there.

[00:36:27]And that's it. Wow, that was quick.

[00:36:30]Okay, we are all set up. So, we have the bookshelves here. We lined the top with cosmetic bags. And then we have slim cans and coffee sleeves, Kindles, and some more coffee sleeves. We're going to add some more coffee sleeves, but we're really out of stock on everything. And then we have phone cases. here. Our wallet for the sets here.

[00:36:55]And then we put our about us sign here.

[00:36:58]We displayed some of those wallet lanyards.

[00:37:02]And then our lanyard board.

[00:37:05]Okay, our space is all set up. Thank you guys so much for coming with me to set up our second store. I am happy with the way it turned out. some of the furniture and stuff wouldn't be my first choice.

[00:37:16]But that's just the reality of being in stores is you're in their space, so you have to make it work. And with the space that we have, I think we did pretty good. So, I'm going to do like a recap, try to answer some questions that I think you guys might have when we get home. Okay, so that was both setups. I'm not going to lie, getting two stores set up in one week was a lot of fun, but also really stressful. So, I'm really glad it's done. It was worth it, and I can't wait to see how they both do. I know this video is really long, but I wanted to get into the Q&A because you guys ask so many good questions on my Instagram. We did receive a lot of the same questions, so I kind of just combined them to make everything flow a little bit. If you have a question that I don't answer, please feel free to leave it in the comments for me. I'm happy to still answer any questions and help in any way that I can. But you guys asked so many good questions on Instagram. First was, what is consignment and how does it work? So, a consignment store is owned by an individual, but inside there are multiple vendors, all with their own separate sections. So, it's almost like a vendor marketplace. You sign a contract with the store, you set up your space however you want, and then every store uses a little bit of a different system, but basically, you put your inventory into their system, track their sales, and that's how you get paid out.

[00:38:30]Most of the stores we're in are in a 9010 split. So, we keep 90% of the sale and the store keeps 10, but we do have some stores that are 80/20. We have one that's 50/50. So, it really does vary by store. Most stores pay out monthly, some do direct deposit, and then some do check. So, it kind of just depends on the store. The next question was, how do you find these stores that want our stuff? Um, a lot of stores we have found through social media, whether it's them reaching us out to us directly or another small business friend recommending them or even tagging us in something. I've also had a few friends like set up in a store and then I'll message them and ask them about it. You really have to ask questions. I will also Google stores, but honestly, it's so niche that it could be really hard to find them. So, that's why social media has been the best bet for us. Um, I also want to be real with you guys. Not every store that we've applied to we've been accepted in. And that's just the reality of it. A lot of the stores that we're in now have reached out to us directly. So that's been really helpful. So having a strong Instagram presence is so important because it puts you on their radar. The next question was tips for scooping out the right stores and how do we decide if it's worth it? Research, research, research. I cannot stress this enough. Look them up on social media.

[00:39:48]Check their Google reviews. Look at their Facebook. Most importantly, talk to other vendors who are already in the store because they're going to give you an honest picture of what it's really like. When it comes to deciding if it's worth it, we look at the location. Is it a busy area? How many vendors do they have? And what is their rent? Right now, most of our rent ranges from $70 to $350 a month depending on the store. So, we always want to make sure that we're making at least that before we commit. I love this question because I would have never ever thought of this when we first started, but is consignment worth it if you are just starting out? Absolutely.

[00:40:23]It's honestly such a great way to get your brand in front of people who would have never found you online. I would say to start with one store, get comfortable with the process, learn what sells, then you can expand from there. So, I try to be pretty transparent about money and what we make as a small business, especially at our markets. And someone asked about how much we make monthly at consignment stores. So, this honestly varies depending on the location. We have some of our smaller locations where our rent's like $70 a month and we make about $200 a month there. So, we're not making that much, but again, it's we don't have to be there. So, even that $100 that we do make is worth it. But then we have some of our bigger locations where our rent is $350 a month, but we're making $1,500 even in a slow month. So during the holidays, we could be making $2 to $3,000 a month.

[00:41:12]That is the anomaly. Like that is not the norm. That one store is in a great location. It's Artisan Milco in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Is right by the Tanganger Outlet. So we do super super well there. So the reality is that it depends. It depends on the store. It depends on the location. It depends on the shoppers. It depends on how many other vendors there are. So I would say that we range from about 200 a month all the way up to $1,500 a month on average.

[00:41:38]You really just don't know. Can you ship to these stores or do you have to drive out to restock every time? So, most of our stores are out of state since we just moved to North Carolina. So, that was something that we asked about before we signed anything. We knew that we wanted to be able to ship our inventory.

[00:41:54]And most stores will let you ship your inventory, but I just say to ask them.

[00:41:58]They have their own system where you can track inventory and you can see what's moving without having to physically be there. And sometimes I'll just reach out to the store owner directly, ask them to send me some pictures of our space, and then I can see what needs to be restocked. And from there, then I am able to barcode everything and send it to them. Every store has a different policy. We were about to set up in a store in New Jersey before we moved and they didn't want us to ship things, so we had to tell them we couldn't set up.

[00:42:27]So mo again most stores will be okay with you shipping things but it's just important that you ask what their policies are on that for a store like local focal where we just set up we're allowed to send two boxes a month. You send them the boxes they put it in your space for you and then they take pictures of it so that you could see that and you're allowed to send them two a month and then anything on top of that you have to pay for. So, I feel like that's pretty reasonable, but you just want to ask ask the stores what after you get accepted. Um, ask the stores what their policy are. Most of the time they'll see that you're out of state, so they'll like kind of know and if they don't want out of state vendors, they just won't accept you. That is that has happened to us a bunch of times. How do we keep track of our inventory across five stores, now seven? So, every store has their own system where you can barcode your products, track your inventory, and your sales. Most of the stores that we're in use either Ricochet or Consign Cloud. And once you get the hang of it, it's pretty straightforward.

[00:43:23]You see your item and then you see your inventory number. You can track your sales like live. One of our stores does have like a delay of 24 hours, but you could track your sales live so that you could see what's selling. For us, we have so many different variations, which is why I do ask for pictures from the owners and kind of just like make sure that I'm sending designs that are selling. So, like we just put in lanyard and I can see if a lanyard sold, but I don't know exactly what pattern that is.

[00:43:50]And that's a personal thing. You can name it by pattern. It's just a lot of work for us. So, that's why I ask for pictures, but you can track your inventory online in real time with all of the stores that we're in. That's also important. What system do they use? You want to understand that before you sign your contract. How do you decide what products to bring into each store? Um, you want to stick to your three to five, seven maybe if you're feeling crazy, best sellers at first and then build from there. Don't walk in with everything you make because it gets overwhelming really fast. Start with what you know will sell and then once you see what is selling in that specific location, you can always add more. Like I said, our first location, I brought way too many product. I brought everything that we sold and I printed almost 500 labels. It was just chaos.

[00:44:31]So, just start small. You can always add. What has been the biggest hurdle with consignment? [laughter] Uh, actually learning how to actually set up. I talked a lot about it in the video, but the first consignment store we ever set up, I had no idea what we were doing. We were there for almost 9 hours. Brought way too much stuff. We had way too many barcodes. I had no plan going in. So now I really try to map out my space ahead of time. Figure out exactly what I'm bringing. Figure out exactly what furniture is going where.

[00:45:00]Have a game plan so that I'm not spending my entire day at the store. But also, our biggest hurdle sometimes is getting paid out. I talked about it really briefly, but we were in two stores that did file for bankruptcy. Uh, we were not paid out from those stores.

[00:45:14]And so, what I learned there is that you really, really, really, really, if I could preach anything in this world is talk to people, network. Um, you have to talk to other vendors. Something that I wish I would have done more of when we were going into the painted tree is talk to other vendors because apparently there were payment processing issues. I was told that it was just like a system adjustment thing, but that hinted at a bigger problem that people weren't getting paid out. So, they had back pay to pay and then they just got to the point where they couldn't back pay anymore. So talking to people, understanding how is the store performing, and don't be afraid to ask questions. I've said that I I've definitely repeated myself a lot in this video, but I hope that these messages like really stick. Um Drew is a huge advocate for asking questions. That is their job. You don't just have to accept what they say and say yes. So, like really really understand uh what you're getting yourself into because like I said, we also were in another store, the Hive, where there were some delays in payments and we decided to give them the benefit of the doubt and stick it out.

[00:46:20]Don't do that. Just pull your stuff out.

[00:46:22]If they miss one month payment, pull your stuff out. If they miss two months, like definitely get your stuff out. We were on about like four months of no payment and we were giving them the benefit of the doubt. That was my fault.

[00:46:33]Um, so pull your stuff out if you're not getting paid. Don't put your stuff in if there's any payment issues in the past.

[00:46:39]I went on a tangent and I think I just answered the next question. So the next question was, what do you wish you knew before getting into consignment? So I kind of just answered that, but just to kind of like recap it is, I wish I knew that these stores could just abruptly close. So talk to vendors. I wish I knew like going in about setting up and really just making sure that everything was cohesive. I wish I knew how important your Instagram presence was into getting into future stores. I wish I knew how much planning goes into it.

[00:47:07]It is not an easy process. It's worth it, but it's not an easy process. So, just really like understanding like the upfront is a lot. There's a lot of work that goes into it, but then once you get set up, it becomes passive passive active. Um, so just like kind of know those things and that the stores might not be for you, and that's okay. You don't want to go into a store if you sell mugs and there's 10 mug benders, right? So, also making sure that they curate their store. That was just a random thought that I had and now I'm adding more to this video. But I'm going to kind of just like wrap it all up. I think that's everything. I hope I answered everyone's questions. Thank you guys so much for watching. I hope I really gave you a good look at what consignment actually is, what it's like to be a small business owner in a consignment shop. If you have any other questions, if I wasn't clear about anything, please feel free to leave them in the comments. I will do my best to answer every single one. And if you're not already subscribed, please consider subscribing so you don't miss anything.

[00:48:05]We share a lot of live updates on our Instagram so you could follow us over there at Frederick Family Co. And I'll post more about how our stores are doing. I also will be linking things that we used in the store in our Amazon storefront so you can shop there. But thank you guys so much for watching.

[00:48:21]This was a very long video and if you're still here, thank you.