Vianza Blog

Metalsmith extraordinaire, Amy Tavern has been making and selling her creations since 2002. She got her start after receiving a BFA in Metal Design from the University of Washington and has seen her business grow from a part-time endeavor to a full-time successful line. Last year, she was featured on the cover of Metalsmith Magazine’s 2012 “Exhibition in Print.” and she recently completed a three-year artist residency at the Penland School of Crafts. Her designs can be found in galleries & boutiques around the United States and abroad, as well as online at amytavern.com. I recently sat down with Amy to learn more about her business and why she thinks it’s been such a success.

Share a little bit about your business. What kinds of goods do you sell? What's your design philosophy?

I make and sell jewelry including one-of-a-kind art jewelry, limited edition and production jewelry, custom and commission jewelry, and wedding rings. I've been in business since 2002 and have been full time since 2005. My work is the most challenging and rewarding thing I've ever done and I absolutely love it! My design philosophy is to produce hand-crafted, well-made, beautiful jewelry that is wearable and appropriately priced; to use my fine art and craft background to make out-of-the-ordinary work; and to use materials that are environmentally friendly and conflict-free whenever possible. My work is made in sterling silver, gold, and/or alternative materials and focuses on shape, line, pattern, subtle visual movement, and thoughtful negative space. Concepts that drive my work focus on memory and observation.

How and when did you get started with selling your jewelry to retailers?

I started right after I graduated from college in 2002. I began by building my studio and then got my business license. Next I thought about the kind of jewelry I wanted to make, who my demographic was, and where I wanted to sell it. I designed a small collection of rings, necklaces, and earrings and made samples of each design. The collection was based on my interests in line, shape, negative space, Scandinavian design, and Japanese contemporary art. It was also based on a desire to create simple, modern jewelry that was fun to make and accessible to a wider audience. I also created a wholesale price list, a bio, a resume, and business cards and put all of these together with my samples in a simple but stylish presentation to show potential buyers. I began selling the work locally by finding a few stores where my work fit aesthetically and was similarly priced. These first accounts were consignment. I began adding more shops over time and branched out to different cities. I also began adding wholesale accounts. I think at the height of my production I was doing 50-50 consignment and wholesale.

You have quite a collection of retailers carrying your jewelry, what have you found to be the most effective way to reach out to new retailers?

I always do my research by reading magazines, looking at ads, and finding shops online and seek out shops and galleries where my work fits both aesthetically and price-wise. I always look to see if other artists I know sell their work their and often contact them for recommendations. I ask these colleagues: Is the store communicative? Do they keep accurate records? Do they pay on time? As long as the review is positive then I send an email to the owner or buyer to introduce myself and tell him or her I am interested in selling my work there. I might mention how I discovered the shop or include some personal information as to why I want to sell there (i.e., I admire the artists they carry or I love shopping there). I include links to my work and ask if there is a specific process for submitting my work. If I don't hear back in two weeks, I will either send a follow-up email or make a phone call. Once I have made contact and am invited to submit, I send my wholesale kit asap and include a handwritten note thanking the owner/buyer.

Do you or have you ever done any exclusive products for specific retailers? If so, can you share some about your experience?

I make my Very Thin Rings for Rare Device in San Francisco (Rare Device was recently featured on Vianza). A few years ago the former owner, Rena Tom, had an idea for a delicate, hammered band in different colors of gold and approached me to make them. I said yes. After they started selling well, I asked Rena for permission to sell them to other stores and she agreed. In 2009 I put my production work on hold to focus on my one-of-a-kind pieces. I did continue to sell the Very Thin Rings, though as Rena and I had a great partnership and they were a good money-maker. Since then the store has changed hands and I continue to sell the rings there.

Can you share any general advice for other indie wholesalers to help them streamline their operations?

1. Keep a list of accounts with complete contact info.
2. Keep monthly books. Set aside a day to organize your invoices, receipts, account statements, etc.
3. Keep a list of orders, deadlines, shipping instructions, and when you can expect payment. I have a calendar that I look at daily to remind myself. My payment policy has always been "payment is due within two weeks of receipt of order." If I do not get paid in that time I always contact the store without hesitation. I give a gentle reminder and have rarely had issues.
4. Come up with a yearly schedule for making new work, producing new business cards and wholesale kits, promoting the work, etc. My schedule is basically as follows:

January - review sales and make decisions regarding what items to discontinue. Design new work and make samples.

February - get new work photographed and send new images to graphic designer to produce new line sheet, business cards and postcards. These materials are ready in early March.

March - contact clients with new work, update website, have a sale to introduce and promote new work on first day of Spring.

April - September fill orders.

August - contact shops regarding holiday orders.

August - October - fill orders for holidays.

November - Holiday sale on website.

December - fill website holiday orders.

Jen Wallace shares her indie life at Indie Fixx where she writes about making, creating, cooking, learning, playing, loving, and pretty much anything else that strikes her fancy.She’s also a freelance writer who writes about everything from indie biz tips to the modern history of the American hemline.

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This is Part 3 in our multi-part Indie Business 101 series. Part 1 was about Getting Started, Part 2 was Tools of theTrade.

Now that you’ve gotten your business in order and mastered a few tools, you want to scale your business. One part of scaling is altering your production so that you can make more.

You have been selling to local stores but want to take your business to the next level by focusing your energies on the wholesale channel. Attending tradeshows and finding independent reps to represent your line sounds fun and doable. But the thought of spending even longer hours in your studio fulfilling large orders for retailers can seem daunting. Especially if your products need long hours of hands-on time. Since you also have to spend a significant amount of time running your business, sourcing materials and supplies, designing new products, processing orders, shipments & invoices, collecting payments – It may seem like you have to be super(wo)man to do it all.

It's not unusual for designer makers to get burnt out in the process.  Having a product that sells itself might seem like a great marketing strategy, but don’t forget that the product doesn’t make itself. All your marketing dollars spent on tradeshows will go to waste if you can’t fulfill orders in a timely fashion. Get organized before you venture into wholesaling and have a system in place to scale production and you'll build trust and confidence with your retailers. They'll believe that you’re a sustainable business, that is going to be around for a long time and that they can invest their resources in promoting your work in their shop.
 

Another key question to answer before your jump into wholesaling is - are you self employed or are you an entrepreneur?.  You can close your Etsy shop for 3 months, travel the world and have your customers wait until you're back. But unlike your customers,  your retailers won't be waiting. That’s the difference between being self employed  and running a business. If you decide on building a real business by wholesaling, be prepared for great success by having a plan and systems in place to support it, for the saying goes “success is when preparation meets opportunity”. Here’s how to get that preparation.

Visualize your workflow

As a creative business person use a visual tool to comprehend the universe of tasks and activities you do on a daily basis, their inter-relations, issues, duplication of effort and the value associated with each task. This can be a huge help to reflect and prioritize. It  will give you the insights where to focus, where you need help as well as highlight the inefficiencies in the process.

So what can you use to create this visual map? My favorite tools are mindmaps. There are many different mind mapping tools available in the market - both free and paid versions. For this exercise, a free tool like Mindjet or FreeMind will suffice.  Need inspiration?

I had Tara mindmap her handdyed yarn business as an example:

Image Credits :: Blondechickenboutique

She reports that having it all layed out like this helps her see both the workflow and the connections between tasks.

Go ahead, map your business. It can be fun and fulfilling and you might start seeing you business in a new light. 

Streamline your production studio

Organizing your studio  like an efficient assembly line, with specific areas marked out for each task, can increase your productivity. When  you need help with one or more aspects of making the product, your part time help can get started easily if all the tools and detailed instructions are available in the respective work area.

Here are some studio shots from Luminology, a candle making studio. The studio looks gorgeous, organized, clutter free and inviting, a place where you can feel relaxed and are at your creative best.

Image Credits :: Luminology

Note the time it takes for you to accomplish each step. This will give you some benchmarks to compare when you get outside help to take over that task.

Consider batching all the post-production/admin work you do and do it on certain days of the week for all customers. Running to the bank to deposit checks or dropping off the packages at Fedex, or returning voice mails –  have a specific time allocated.

Map your Plan B

If your business is humming along, your cash flow is positive, you're signing up new wholesale accounts and generally feeling good about life, you might not think about needing a Plan B. But you never know when life is going to throw you a curveball and if you are unprepared it could undo everything you have worked so hard to build.

Have a Plan B for situations like the following:

- when your computer crashes and you can’t get to your customer information
- you fall sick for an extended period and can’t make the products
- you lose the internet connection for a day and can’t get to your online applications.

Explaining to your retailers that you can’t ship the orders on time because you fell sick will make you look unreliable. Having systems in place to address such scenarios will prepare you for dealing with stressful situations should they arise.

Here’s  great advice from our very own Tara:

“I write all my recipes down, so even my husband could do production if necessary. I write everything down: my shipping system (how I buy shipping labels online, where the packaging is, what's included in each order, what I write on the thank you notes), my passwords to email/blogging/newsletter software, how to email my clients (so he could contact them if something happened to me and an order was gonna be late), etc. I keep it all in a Google Doc that I've shared with him. Any system you have - write it down and track it! You'll be ready if you choose to bring on a production partner or  an employee. “

Do you have your production and post-production recipe down on paper that anyone can follow? If not, its time you did!

Part time help

Assuming that you have mapped out all business activities, streamlined your production studio and documented your Plan B, you should be in a position to decide where and when you need help. It could be seasonal when you are deluged with orders (around the holidays), or part time on a weekly basis for both production and post-production work (like labeling, packing, shipping, invoicing, checking delivery status or sending emails to customers).

No matter how often you need help, having a reliable part time help that is trained to take over some of the tasks (when needed) can be invaluable for your business. This is the kind of “insurance” you should invest in to appear more professional to your customers. This approach works when the making-of-your-product does not need a specific skill that can only be acquired after years of training. If you’re a candle making studio, you can train your part time help to follow your recipe to make candles. But if it is woodworking or pottery or weaving, chances are you cannot outsource the entire process to unskilled help without significant training.

Outsourcing Production

Some of our previous posts on finding the right production partner or responsible production covers this topic in detail. So I’ll skip on the “how” and focus on the “why”.

If your production technique needs skilled labor and/or is labor-intensive, then it makes sense for you find a production partner that specializes in making that product to truly scale your business. I have said this before and I repeat - retailers are less interested in I-make-all-aspects-of-my-product story,  as you can be the single point of failure in meeting your commitments. Instead, build a system where you are overseeing all aspects of the product. Having a reliable production partner can be a huge help for your small business as you can scale up or scale down your production needs to meet demand. This is something you cannot do on your own with employees, unless you believe in hiring and firing as a way to grow your business.

While all these steps might seem overwhelming, take them one at a time. Not everything will be all at once; scaling is an iterative process. As you grow, continue to reassess how you might scale. The goal is not to work IN the business, but to work ON the business. It's the foundation for building your creative empire.
 

How do you plan to scale your production? Share in the comments!

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Welcome to Buyer’s Inspiration Board! Each week, we offer you some merchandising inspiration for your shop, along with a peek at some of the amazing design-led goods you’ll find on Vianza. Sign up for a (free!) buyer account, to get access to our wholesale catalogs.

Merchandising an online store includes more than just updating products.  Since the customer doesn’t get to touch & feel the products in person, you have to make them come alive on your site.  Not to mention, make it as easy as possible for the customer to find what they’re looking for. 

When we think of merchandising an online store, we tend to think about adding new products & photos.  But, merchandising also includes the way your site is set up and how the customer navigates it.  Think about walking into a brick & mortar store.  Chances are, they have different sections set up within the store.  Think of those ‘sections’ as your online categories & the way your customers find items within your shop.

As you’re working on setting up new products for spring, consider adding or revamping the categories you use & the way customers navigate the site.  Some ideas to get you started:

●     Shop by Occasion - We’re coming up on Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, as well as, wedding & graduation season.  Consider adding an option that allows your customers to browse by these occasions.  Make sure to use keywords that people will be searching for so that search engines will find your shop.

●     Shop by Theme - I’m a huge fan of using themes.  For my online shop, onesydneyroad, I found that highlighting products through a specific theme helped generate customer excitement & wanderlust.  For example, one month I had a “beach day” theme - my main images included vacation photos alongside the products I wanted to highlight such as brightly colored foutas and roomy tote bags.  Customers were then able to  imagine themselves taking their new tote bag for a day on the beach!

●     Shop by Color - Make it easy for your customers to accessorize their outfits or home by having your products in color categories. 

There are so many different categories you could use, so play around.  Changing them up makes the store feel fresh & new!

Piper Toth happily traded the corporate world for the online world when she opened her online boutique, onesydneyroad. She authors the blog of the same name where she waxes poetic on the crazy roller coaster ride that is entrepreneurship!

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If you’re a retailer, take a two-minute break and watch how easy the process of sourcing products through Vianza can be. You’ll see how to access your favorite wholesalers’ Vianza catalog, browse their product collections, and learn all about the products themselves.

When you’re done watching, sign up for a free Vianza account and start making your buying easier!

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Howkapow shop in Bristol, England

Image credit: Lilja Jonsdottir

Adventures in Specialty Retail is a monthly interview series with small independent online and brick-and-mortar retailers. The idea behind this series is that you shouldn’t have to reinvent the wheel! Meaning, there are other retailers who have gone before you, who have wisdom to impart and the inclination to share that wisdom.

My interview questions will focus on retail operations – merchandising, inventory management, product ordering, branding and other aspects of running a successful retail shop.

To kick off the series, I interviewed Cat and Rog how from Howkapow. They first opened their doors in late 2010 as an online-only shopping destination, but have also just opened up a Pop Up Shop location in the Cabot Circus area in Bristol, England. Their shop can be described as an explosion of fun and color, and features independently-made goods for you and your home A Classic Cocktaile Tea Towel by Stuart Gardiner. Their goal is to showcase innovative work by talented designers and artists, with the hope fostering future creativity and innovation.

First, what's Howkapow? What kind of goods do you carry and what's your mission?

Howkapow is an eclectic independent shop selling colourful design and illustration for your home and kitchen. We stock ceramics, prints and posters, accessories, jewelry and gifts. Our mission is to bring fun – yet functional – products made by independent designers into people's homes, and hearts!

How do source your products and discover new wholesalers?

We go to lots of trade shows, design fairs, graduate shows, exhibition openings – the list is endless! We also have lots of friends who are designers and illustrators (after spending many years at art school and trading at artist markets), and they make up a large number of the people we have in the shop.

How do you go about identifying who your ideal customers are?

Through experience (having traded at artist markets for four years), research (seeing people's reactions to various products), and on a more technical level, using our Facebook statistics.

You've recently opened up a brick-and-mortar shop after a couple of years of being online, correct? What are you finding is different in the brick-and-mortar world?

People buy a lot more impulsively in a brick-and-mortar shop. We are finding that we're also selling a wider range of different products now – more prints in particular – because people have the chance to look, touch and feel everything.

How do you keep all your wholesale orders, deliveries and re-orders straight? Any tips or tools you can share?

We have a range of very thorough systems in place--mainly Excel spreadsheets and online accountancy software like Sage that we use to keep on top of everything.

Have anything else you care to share with retailers hoping to streamline their operations?

Do your bookkeeping as often as possible to stay on top of your accounts. We do ours daily and it really helps with keeping in control of all our ingoings and outgoings. Do stock takes regularly too. Allocate jobs to people who are better and more skilled than you – don't be scared to delegate. But ultimately, it's a lot about organization.

Rog and Cat How at their brick and mortar location

Image credit Lilja Jonsdottir

Jen Wallace shares her indie life at Indie Fixx where she writes about making, creating, cooking, learning, playing, loving, and pretty much anything else that strikes her fancy.She’s also a freelance writer who writes about everything from indie biz tips to the modern history of the American hemline.

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Welcome to Buyer’s Inspiration Board! Each week, we offer you some merchandising inspiration for your shop, along with a peek at some of the amazing design-led goods you’ll find on Vianza. Sign up for a (free!) buyer account, to get access to our wholesale catalogs.

Now that it’s November, the holiday shopping season really kicks off. And the holidays are a great time for a retailer to give that little extra – it’s a great way to keep customers coming back throughout the year.  Here are some easy and affordable ideas to get you started!

●     Offer free wrapping for gifts

●     Provide gift guides (I’ll be sharing some tips on this in an upcoming post)

●     Provide a personal shopper service - helping your customer find that perfect gift

●     Send a pretty postcard to your regular customers that includes a 10% discount coupon.

●     Offer helpful tips or simple DIYs via your newsletter or blog - topics like holiday decorating, simple gift wrapping, holiday recipes, etc.

The holiday season is perhaps the easiest time of year to let your customers know that not only do you appreciate them, but that you want them as a return customer! What are some of the extras that you provide as a retailer during the holidays?

Images above from top left:  gift wrapping from sunday suppers;  free printable by designs by val, found via creature comforts blog.

Piper Toth happily traded the corporate world for the online world when she opened her online boutique, one sydney road. She authors the blog of the same name where she waxes poetic on the crazy roller coaster ride that is entrepreneurship!

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Photo Credit: aithom2, via flickr

I’m going to be direct and to the point: if you don’t have website, then you need to get one. In this age of desktop computers, smart phones, tablets, netbooks and more, a web presence is essential for any retail business. Basically, not having a website today is the equivalent of not having a listing in the yellow pages twenty years ago. The Internet is the final word on everything and it’s the main tool new customers are going to use to discover your shop. Your competition has a website, I can guarantee it.

Now, don’t panic. This doesn’t mean you need to have a tricked out e-commerce site. A simple informational website is a good starting point. Of course, any bells and whistles you can add would be great too, but you can take this one step at a time. Once you have that basic site up and running, you can decide if adding e-commerce makes sense down the road.

At the very minimum, your website needs the following:

●     A description of  your retail store and what types of products you carry (and this should be expressed in both text and images)

●     Plenty of pictures of your location (both inside and out)

●     Your hours of operation

●     Your address, plus a map and/or directions

●     Parking specifics

●     Contact information

●     Your store policies

That constitutes the modern-day version of a yellow pages ad. Customers doing an Internet search for “[insert type of products you carry] boutiques near me” will find your website. In addition, that customer who came upon your shop after hours and can’t remember what your hours are can look you up and find out. 

Now, that kind of website, while functional, it mostly an “online brochure.” If you want a website that helps you build your relationship with your customers, you might want some of these bells and whistles:

●     An email list sign-up - a mailing list is a great way to communicate with your customers about new products and upcoming events.

●     A featured product section - highlight new product lines and designers

●     A calendar or events listing - if you do openings, trunk shows and similar events, you’ll want that information on your website

●     A blog where you can share background stories about featured designers, inspirational images and glimpses into your shop to pique a visitor’s interest

●     Links to any social media presences you may have, like Twitter and Facebook 

...And once these features are in place, you might want to take the leap into e-commerce, so you can reach customers outside of your city. E-commerce definitely has its learning curve! Here are some aspects you might want to think about before taking the plunge:

●     You’ll need a way to manage inventory, so you’re sure items listed in your online store are actually available to ship

●     Speaking of shipping, you’ll need a designated area for packing items. You’ll need to know shipping rates. You’ll need a source for packing materials. You’ll need branded shipping labels.

●     You’ll need either the time or personnel to keep up with photographing new products, writing product descriptions, and building product listings for your site.

In closing, I want to reiterate that your competition has already has a website and so should you. Great web presences are not built in a day, so it’s completely okay to build yours a little at a time. And if you’re just not technically savvy, find a friend (or even a regular customer) who’ll do it for you affordably. It’s that important.

Jen Wallace shares her indie life at Indie Fixx where she writes about making, creating, cooking, learning, playing, loving, and pretty much anything else that strikes her fancy.She’s also a freelance writer who writes about everything from indie biz tips to the modern history of the American hemline.

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In my last post, we looked at ways you can better capitalize on the way your customers use mobile devices as they browse your brick-and-mortar store. In this post, let's look at how your website can make buying decisions easier for your customers.

Make Customer Opinion Visible

According to a recent study from Binghamton University, consumers are more likely to buy an item if they can see that their peers have bought and liked it – especially with big-ticket purchases.

As I mentioned in my past post, Amazon.com succeeds as an online retailer partially because it also offers a vibrant customer feedback database on every product it sells. As consumers, we know that an online retailer has a vested interest in telling us a product is wonderful, but we perceive that fellow shoppers will give us a more honest opinion.

How might you capture some customer opinions for your own website?

Reviews vs. Testimonials

You have two broad options for displaying customer feedback on your website: you can give your customers the option of entering their own product reviews onto your website, or you can collect customer testimonials and display a curated collection of them on your website. Either option can work well depending on the size and scope of your store.

If, for example, you have a large inventory and sell more expensive merchandise, then a customer reviews engine would provide your customers with a larger volume of specific data – and that helps them make purchasing decisions. Check with your web developer to see if the shopping cart software you're using has a module that will allow your customers to enter their reviews of products. Some carts do and some don't; X-cart has a nice customer review module. Alternatively, your developer may be able to integrate a third-party solution like PowerReviews.

If your inventory is smaller and more tightly curated, then a few well-chosen customer testimonials should do the trick. To collect testimonials, you can use your customers' email addresses (which are collected as they make purchases), and set up a simple "autoresponder" in an email newsletter program like MailChimp or  Constant Contact.  You can enter the date they made their purchase, and the autoresponder will send them a friendly email a couple weeks later, asking how their experience was and soliciting their opinion. They can simply reply to the email, or link to a webpage you have set up to capture their review.

Create Incentives for Customer Opinions

Making the tools available to your customers is really only half of the journey, however. Amazon has been in existence for so long, consumers are very accustomed to leaving reviews there. They may not take the time to do it on your website without a little prompting.

You might, for example, offer your customers a premium for reviewing their purchases – a discount or free gift are often effective ways to encourage participation. It's most effective to offer this benefit during the purchase process, and then you can follow up with the autoresponder a couple weeks later. (Many customers will need more than one reminder.)

Or, you might invest a little of your time to email your customers personally. A genuine email from a shop owner will be noticed much more than an email newsletter. If you're in the early days of collecting customer opinion, and want to build up a collection quickly, this is a simple way to get more responses.

Integrating the Feedback

Once you have some customer reviews (or testimonials) coming in, how do you integrate those into your site? They should display prominently, and in the locations on your website where your customers make their purchasing decisions – namely, your product pages.

Whether you embed a customer reviews engine or place a testimonial on the page, make sure that display is in proximity to a "Buy" button. Make sure any other influencing data is nearby, too - the product's dimensions, sizing information, weight, or care instructions. Think of it this way: when your customer is in browsing mode, she likes to read flowery sales copy and look at pictures. When your customer becomes serious about buying, she wants the "brass tacks" information – and this is where feedback from other buyers comes in.

Which option would work best for your business – customer reviews or testimonials? And what’s the first step you can take toward integrating them into your online store?

Diane Gilleland is Vianza’s Blog and Social Media Coordinator. She also produces CraftyPod, a podcast for creative small business owners.

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Sarah Von Bargen blogs daily at Yes and Yes and offers one-day, one-on-one intensives for small businesses/entrepreneurs/creatives trying to make a name for themselves on the internet.  Blogging editorial plans, social media, pitch letters, and blogger engagement made totally awesome and totally doable.

Which of the above blog posts would you be more likely to read?  The left one, correct?

 I mean, unless you’re into huge blocks of unbroken copy and a total lack of images.  If you are, then congratulations!  Your attention span is triple that of mine.

Here’s the thing about blog posts.  You can write a smart, funny, helpful blog post that subtly showcases your talents or products that will (probably) attract new clients.  But if that blog post isn’t formatted correctly?  Nobody is going to read it.

Here are a few easy ways to make your blog post much, much more likely to get read.
 

1) Keep it short

Less than 500 words for sure.  Less than 300 is even better. Seth Godin’s posts are a paragraph long!  Nobody is ever not going to read your post because it’s too short.

2) Add an image

We all like pretty pictures.  Kyla Roma has a great post about ethical image sourcing shortcuts for bloggers.  Because you do not want to tangle with an angry wedding photographer!

3) Add text to the image

You can use Picmonkey (free! easy!) to add text to any image.  You can pull a quote from the post or just add a funny caption that pertains to the photo.  This makes your post more engaging and if your pull quote is interesting, people are more likely to read the whole post.

4) Use headers/bullet points/numbers/bolding judiciously

People’s attention spans are verging on non-existent.  Make things easy for them by making your post scannable.  Highlight major points with bolding or break up topics under headers.  Then they can scan for what interests them and read the details if it pertains to them.

5) Write awesome titles

You know who knows more about this than me?  Copyblogger.  Here’s a roundup of 11 (!) posts on how to write magnetic titles.

What makes you read a blog post?  Did I miss anything?

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Private labels are everywhere today, but they might seem to be out of the reach of the small retailer. Private label goods are those that you, the retailer, make in collaboration with a designer. The product is exclusive to your store, and is made to serve your own, unique shoppers. But while Target and Neiman Marcus expand their brand with their private labels, the process has been too risky for most small retailers to take on. Until now.....

Target is a great example of using private label goods. They partnered  with Neiman Marcus, who enlisted 24 designers to contribute to its limited edition holiday collection. With their private label goods (Missoni, Mizrahi, etc.) Target takes the upscale cache of expensive designers, and makes them available for the average Target shopper. The result is that Target becomes known for high fashion and great design at an affordable price.

In your shop, you’ve created a brand and a style through the judicious purchase of products that your buyers will love. But what if you could take that great design and tweak it, so it was just perfect for your shop? What if you could collaborate to create the just-right scent, or color, or pillow from a designer your customers already love? The collaborations don’t just provide you with a new source of products, they also strengthen your relationships all around. Your vendors become your partners (and get a taste for the demands of your work), and your customers become loyalists, knowing the you will do anything to bring them exactly what they want to buy.

But the process of creating a private label product can be fraught with risks. You have to find a vendor you trust, who can both incorporate your feedback and ideas and still maintain their own style and high quality. You need someone who will deliver on time (nothing like getting a new Christmas line delivered in February!), and someone who will keep you in the loop throughout the process.

To help you find those special vendors (and avoid the endless googling!), we’ve created a new free matchmaking service. You have the shop + the vision, we have the vendors, manufacturers and the software to make the whole process simple. After one quick phone call, our sourcing specialists go to work finding you options. Then we connect you, and let you work it out. But it’s not an never-ending parade of emails and faxes, your partners will put all their samples on Vianza’s networked platform, so you can see it, buy it and then track it as they come to you. The whole process in one, easy to manage place.

(Interested? Email Megan to get started finding your new just-for-you product)

image credit: NYC♥NYC

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