Creating a Vibrant and Profitable Booth Space

Transform your vendor booth into the star of the show with our expert guest's top tips for success. Discover how to scale your furniture, maximize vertical space, and create layouts that invite visitors to explore. Lighting plays a crucial role, and we'll guide you through using lamps, spotlights, and LED strips to elevate your booth's appeal. Mixing colors and styles is key to avoiding monotony, and we'll share strategies for sourcing unique items that you love, ensuring your booth stands out. Learn how to build valuable relationships with estate sale companies and other vendors to boost your sales and create an engaging shopping experience.

Navigating the resale market requires a keen understanding of vendor margins and shopping strategies, especially when dealing with antiques and decor. We'll tackle the art of sourcing inventory with patience, focusing on items that resonate well in different markets. Managing inventory across multiple booth locations can be a game-changer, and we discuss practical strategies for efficient management. Pricing is an art in itself, and we'll explore how to tailor your pricing strategies to local markets, considering factors like shipping and audience reach. Tune in for insights on negotiating deals, staying ahead of trends, and making smart decisions that lead to maximum profit or quick sales.

Sponsored by The Griffin Antique Mall

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Transcript

Vendor Booth Setup and Shopping Tips

Speaker 1 0:00

So today we're going to be diving into some practical tips for our vendors . So if you are a vendor booth owner and you're wanting some practical tips on how to set up your booth , he's the guy to talk to . He's really good . So give me three tips on how to set your booth up if you're brand new .

Speaker 2 0:20

Okay . So , depending on your size , you know you really need to scale your furniture . So , like , if you have a smaller booth , for instance , like you , typically you want to go vertical , so you're going to , you know , go with narrower furniture , like we have a vendor who you know did basically just wall shelves , so you don't have any furniture on the floor , because you may have a smaller space and you want to get as many smalls in , because smalls is what's going to basically pay the bills and that's the easiest thing to continually replenish and find . And so I always like to think about your um , you know , your foot by intrigue them to come in but not let them shop from the aisle . And so for me it's like if you have a wider space where you can put , like the back of a bookshelf up against the walkway to kind of force people to want to come in and see what's on the other side of that bookshelf .

Speaker 1 1:19

Make it like a , c kind of thing .

Speaker 2 1:20

Make it where you kind of walk through . Yeah , make it where you kind of walk through . And again , it's like I personally , the way I look at it is I don't ever want to have to step over things to get through the booth and so keeping it clean and tidy in the sense that you know you want to have plenty of stuff but not so much that either . I don't love digging through and moving a whole bunch of items to see the thing that I want to look at . So having things visible but having enough interest in there where , again , people don't just walk by , glance and say , oh , got it and keep on going , I don't see anything I like . And just fill the space , fill every inch of the walls that you can , whether that's with little mirrors or hang rugs from the wall to give some like texture and stuff inside there . So my biggest things is figure out your space , go vertical . My next biggest one is lighting . You know a well lit space is like you know , moth to a flame . You know . So I always you know we'll put , especially in corners . You know , if you have a normal kind of booth space in the corners , I always put some sort of lighting . I like to make it interesting , so I'll put , you know , lamps on top of bookshelves or on shelves If you have access with a cord . Um , you know , some people get the little spotlights on my amazon and kind of place throughout , or you can do led light strips , so lighting is huge .

Speaker 2 2:52

Um , and then I would probably say my third tip is you know , have a mixture of like furniture colors and styles . If you're doing furniture , you know so like you wouldn't want a lot of times . If you're doing furniture , you know so like you wouldn't want a lot of times . If you do solid patterns , you know your eye just kind of passes and they look like blocks , whereas if there's patterns , you know it kind of goes , it can go with the flow of things .

Speaker 2 3:17

So I like to mix , you know , dark , maybe dark leathers with some lighter woods , or darker woods with lighter tapestry type material , covered chairs or um , you know . So I like to mix my furniture colors because it kind of creates some interest and it doesn't just look like a brown furniture room , which I love brown furniture but um , it can look in a space as small as a booth maybe , it can kind of just look where it all blends together and nothing stands out . And that's also another key aspect with lighting is you can also put it underneath furniture like desk and kind of give it some light under to show off like if it has cool legs or something . So yeah , I think lighting is probably the biggest .

Speaker 1 3:59

Yeah , lighting is huge . I've learned that , yeah , so those are the three tips for your physical aspect of your booth . And then how to shop . I am not a vendor . I do not come from the vendor world at all . So , hearing you talk to vendors and coaching them , you've said some things that are pretty mind blowing . So I want to go over that . So , when you're shopping , what are some key points ? And if you don't say it , then I'll say it .

Speaker 2 4:21

Okay . So for me , buy what you like . There's very few things that I can think of that I've bought . That wasn't something I would put in my home . So for me it's always so . If you get what you like and you kind of know how and you're pricing it right and stuff like it typically is , that's the stuff that's going to move . You know , if you're buying things just because it's trendy , you know you may get stuck with it , you may not , you know whatever . But for me it's always buy what you like and you know .

Speaker 2 4:56

The other thing is be consistent in your hunting . You know that's a big thing for me is you know whether that's , oh , I only have 30 minutes or I have several hours , but it's like being consistent with the looking . Um is kind of a big thing for me that you know people . Just well , I'm just going to go on Saturdays because maybe that's all work allows me to do and that's great . But you know , if you can carve out out more time , you're going to be more successful .

Speaker 2 5:25

I guess is my thing , um , when it comes to finding those deals , um , and then I think the other thing too is uh , you know , develop relationships with , assay , cell companies , um , just people in general .

Speaker 2 5:41

Other vendors , you know they can . Maybe they have some stuff in their stores that they just don't have room for and they want to clear it out . Maybe you can get a good deal on there . But my favorite is , you know , to kind of start developing relationships with these estate sale companies , thrift store owners , you know , if they're independently owned thrift store owners like , chat with them because they may do the estate sale clean out and they may get some of the things that you know you would have liked to have gotten , but maybe you weren't able to get to that sale . Um , so you know , if you kind of relationship , they can just text you and say , hey , I'm getting a shipment in , here's some pictures of the stuff , um , and then that that helps them out , cause then they're not having to bring it in , sit on it , price it , do all this other stuff If you can go in there , and they know you like rugs . So they just hey , I got these two , three rugs in .

Speaker 2 6:31

I have some more in the garage , and so this is a very relationship based business , and so I think it's also just as important to have relationships like outside of your mall , because that's how you're going to get get those items in . What's the thing that you ?

Speaker 1 6:53

So I think my favorite thing you've ever said is like you make your money when you buy . Oh yeah .

Speaker 2 6:58

So the easiest way . Cause . It didn't make sense to me whenever , because I first heard this from a person who lives in Europe and they've been in antiques for a long time and they kept saying this and it didn't really click with me until really getting into this more and more and more . Because when you buy something like I'll just use , for instances , you know if you're buying an item that you know you can get a smoking deal on , but you know the value is here but like that person just needs it gone , or you're just a really lucky , lucky individual , lucky individual who can find that that thing Lucky individual , lucky individual who can find that thing .

Speaker 2 7:40

You're making your money when you're buying that because the profit margin is just so huge that that's where you're going to make your money later on . If you're buying everything at 20% less than what you're selling it for , you're never going to get ahead , you know . And so you have to shop smarter , because that's where you're going to make your money is , in that , um , in that gap between what you're buying and what you're selling , obviously . But if you're thinking you know what , what are my margins Like ? What is my commission to my mall ? What is my ? What do I want to make off this ? But you also got the . You know there's sales tax when you're buying that item , uh , most of the time . And so you know you have to factor in all these different things and so and you really have to be mindful of you know what's what am I willing to pay for this ? Because also , I'm having to lug this huge piece of furniture and then having to clean it and do all this other you know , glue parts back on or whatever it may be .

Speaker 1 8:45

Even if it's like a small item , like a mirror or something like you know , if it's $50 , can you sell it for a hundred ? Probably not , so you got to keep that in mind .

Speaker 2 8:58

Yeah Well , and that's where it's like a big thing with , like you know , whether it's auction lots or whatever , because you may see , like you know , again a brass candlestick , well you know if you can buy the whole lot of things . And then , but you really wanted this . You know two or three items but you got everything in there . It's like great , okay , well , let's just price everything where we just want to move it . But you know , once you sell that one or two items that paid for the whole auction . Now everything else is profit . So it's kind of being mindful of you know , when you're doing those bulk buys . Okay , I know I can make all my money back on this one thing , then everything else is profit .

Speaker 1 9:31

And so what is the margin that you follow , cause I know sometimes you said like times five .

Speaker 2 9:35

Yeah , is that it ? I mean . So times three or times five is a great um , it's kind of just a great barometer to tell where you are , because you know . So if you buy something for $10 , if you can't sell it , you know and you can kind of pick what , whatever you want to do . So if it's three times , obviously you won't be able to sell for 30 . If you want to do five times , you know you sell for 50 .

Vendor Margins and Shopping Strategies

Speaker 2 9:59

And so if you're able to get the five X cause , again it depends on your market , depends on kind of what the item is , um , but you know , for instance , yeah , I mean , if you bought a brass candelabra for $10 , you know all day you can sell that thing for $48 or $50 . That's a great investment . But if you are buying a brass candlestick for $5 and you know they only sell for eight , Probably not a great way to go .

Speaker 2 10:27

Yeah , I mean , again , it's like if you love it or you just want to use it for this event and then you want to be able to resell it , like go for it , but that's not where you're going to be making your money . And that's where some vendors , I think they struggle in some of these areas where they're buying almost at retail and then they're wanting to go in and they're wanting other people to cover their you know , cover their margins , and that's just not you can kind of tell when you're looking at those items . And so that's just where , again , it's one of those things like there's been tons of stuff that I love , but the margins just aren't there , so you got to leave it . And so if you're not buying it for your personal use or whatnot , this doesn't make sense . So sometimes you just have to leave those things behind and hope you know hope for the better or a better deal down the road .

Speaker 2 11:23

And then , and again it's one of those things where you know I'll scout out , you know , go to a stay sale , scout them out . A lot of them , at least in our area , they do on their last day , you know , 50% off , or maybe some of them do 75% off and some of them you know you can go in there and maybe there's , you know , a set of blue and white dishes and different odds and in pieces and you're like , hey look , I'll take them off your hands for this . They just want it gone yeah .

Speaker 2 11:50

You know , because if not , they're going to do this , or it's going to get donated or it's just going to go back to the family and they're like , we don't want it . You know it's here for sale for a reason and so , you know , throw in a couple other items , that's going to help the you know , the company out by you taking these things off their hands , and then they're going to give you a deal by packaging everything together . You know so , don't together . You know so don't .

Speaker 2 12:14

Sometimes it's better just to not cherry pick all your stuff and say , hey , let me , I'll help you out , you help me , yeah , you give me a deal on all these things and I'll take all of it . You know , um , and so that's kind of my philosophies on shopping and there's just patience , you know , and I typically I try not to buy things , you know , just because like , oh , it's old , I'm going to take it . You know , I try to really think through , like where am I putting it ? Does this have a use ? You know , is this going to be for next , like Christmas decor ? Am I buying it now because I'm going to use it next year ? Or am I making sure that you're staying neutral enough that , whatever the Christmas trend is , you can maybe go along with that . Or it's things that you know that just repeatedly sell each year Like brass candlesticks yeah , right now brass is hot .

Speaker 1 13:09

Yeah , like brass candlesticks . Right now , brass is hot yeah .

Speaker 2 13:18

So what is some advice you want to give to a new vendor or a vendor that's currently struggling with , some advice you want to give them to either keep going or there's this need that you feel at least I did whenever I go into it where it's like I need all these things and then I need to have backups to the things , so when they sell I'm ready to just replace them . So then you kind of end up overbuying and then you're feeling the need to go and get . It puts more pressure on the selling side where you're just like what sales did I make today ? What did I do today ? Because I need to go get more stuff or because I need to cover the fact that I just spent all this money on these inventory and and it's just something that you learn over time but you know figuring out what sells for you in your mall .

Speaker 1 14:09

You know , and that's why a lot of vendors have multiple malls , because this town may sell really well with these things and this town doesn't and that's why I've always said it's good when vendors are in multiple malls , because they can flip their decor and their stuff and it usually works out better yeah , and if it's something that they can , if they can mentally and physically take on , that's great .

Speaker 2 14:29

I think also , um , there's also something that's like , if you know , like I love English antiques and furnitures and decor , you know , then maybe it's like I'm going to go all in on a location which is great to try them out . So you know , maybe you have four booths and then you can kind of fill them out and see , you know , which one sells what I like . Yeah , instead of how can I fit into this mall , how can I go to a place that is me ? And so I think , by really focusing on what it is that you like , what you like to sell , what you like to source and what's available in your area , you know , cause it may be super hard to come across like here . Anyway , it's harder and harder to come across like mid-century modern , like good mid-century modern stuff , not just Tupperware and those things , but like nice quality furniture at a price that you could resell at no-transcript

Pricing and Market Strategies

Speaker 2 16:02

.

Speaker 1 16:02

You know 998 , probably not in oklahoma , you know well , and some people come .

Speaker 2 16:07

You know they either come from other markets , like you know , if you're coming from California , you know we are very different than California and people want different things . And so , yeah , I mean , on that pricing topic , you know I try to really , you know , I'll look at , for instance , if you research it and you're like , okay , there's 11 of them online , here's an average price . But again we're thinking okay , well , they're figuring in some sort of shipping , they're figuring in some sort of you know they're marketing . They also are , you know , with it , let's say , it's on first dibs , they're marketing it to the world , so they have a much larger audience .

Speaker 2 16:52

So a lot of times what people do is , you know , especially newer vendors and stuff they may look at . You know they'll Google in something oh , it's on eBay for a hundred bucks . Yeah , it's on eBay for a hundred bucks , but that's , you know , there's a hundred million people on eBay . So if you're not going to be on eBay , then you have just your market and your market is a lot smaller than eBay . And so , you know , then you got to figure out what would someone pay for this ? And so maybe it's well , you can only sell in your area for $40 . And so kind of taking those things into account and don't just looking it up and say , no , I'm going to use this , but use some judgment , discernment on .

Speaker 1 17:26

And that goes back to when you buy it .

Speaker 2 17:27

Right , if you can't sell it for 40 , then don't buy it , you know , and so a lot of that too it's you know . Then it's figuring out , okay , well , you know , yeah , do I , do I market at something or a price point where I want it Like I want to get this out of it , or do I want to move it ? Yeah , you know . So sometimes you can kind of take a little bit less if you're just like