Advice needed from anyone who knows anything about selling their products to retailers...

[LadyMacbeth]

Right... my jewellery is ready, it has been road tested and thoroughly approved by family, friends and friends of friends. I have had a pretty successful time selling it to people I know. I now want to see if any retailers are interested in buying it... however I'm scared to take the next step as I'm unsure about a few things...

1. How do I approach the shops? Do I just phone and ask if they want to see my stuff or would I be better off just sending them some samples/photos and a covering letter?

2. When setting a SRP should it be based on the wholesale price or should the wholesale price be based on the SRP? What percentage mark up is acceptable and generally used?

3. Do retailers care that much about exclusivity? Say I was to approach two or three shops in Bristol/Bath, would they get 'funny' about my products being sold to more than one shop per city?

Sorry if it all seems a bit garbled - I hope I don't sound completely naive... I've been trying to figure this all out the last couple of days and then it dawned on me this morning that the Mumsnet Gurus might have a few answers!

DD1 has a friend coming over in a minute so I may not post much this morning but I would like to give my sincere thanks in advance of any advice offered - I would be most grateful!

What scale are you looking to produce on ? The major companies will have a jewellery buyer who should be your first point of contact or perhaps exhibit at a trade show. You need to plan a realistic wholesale price, to cover all your costs plus a profit for yourself. Typically a mark up to retail price may be over 60% (so something costing you £10 might retail at £25), then work out if you are in the ball park in line with similar products.

Thanks for your advice, LIZS.

I will be initially targeting small boutique-type shops... I'll leave the 'major' retailers for when (if??!) my business has taken off and any start-up glitches are running more or less smoothly (plus I have v little time ATM what with young children still being pre-school). But your advice RE larger retailers will, I hope, come in handy when the time comes!

from posie gets cozy wrote a piece on this ages ago that i mentally filed for future reference. she's in the us, but i think most of what she says still applies.

if you are a maker then you can get a lot of excellent advice from the crafts council on this

jewellery has a much larger mark up than most retail products..commercial jewellery can have a mark up as high as 300%

look at the trade shows eg the autumn fair, top drawer etc as they do have spots for new designers (but still not cheap0 also depending on age princes trust livewire and for everyone business link

be prepared for a lot of no thanks from retailers

you need a contract if they make you do sale or return..crafts council has advice on this

do go to the trade shows and look at the competition and chat to them,

Thank you

Thank you

Thank you

I am in the midst of playdate and will read in depth later.