Wholesale and Shows

Hi Carlos,

Welcome to our forum.

You ask some hard questions. The lines between retail, wholesale and even between retail and distributor or manufacturer are very blurred by the internet.

When we had a retail bead store (from 1972 to 2000) our retail price was twice the wholesale price. Or rather, the retail strand or gross price was twice our wholesale price. This came out of the typical "Keystone" markup used by many gift and jewelry stores.When we sold small quantities such as each, pair or dozen the markup was even higher. Let me give examples.

We bought findings for $5 a gross from the manufacturer or importer. We marked them retail at $15.00 a gross, 1.50 a dozen and .15 each. We sold a gross wholesale for 7.50. We tried not to sell smaller quantities to our wholesale customers but that did not always work.

If you do not mark your goods up that much from cost to retail you can not sell at 1/2 or "keystone" because that may be below your cost or close to your cost.

You ask about taking a deposit when they order. If you are making a special order for them, then , yes, get a deposit that comes close to covering your cost in case they do not accept or pick up the special order. If you are special ordering for your wholesale customers you could add a % markup to the cost to cover the order, say, 25 or 50% over your cost.

When you say you "want to start going to bead shows" do you mean that you want to start selling at bead shows?
Most bead shows are basicly retail shows open and selling to the public. Many (but not all) vendors offer lower prices (10%, 25% or 50% off) to wholesale customers "in the trade" who are buying for resale with a tax number.How direct you buy and what markup you use controls what discount you can offer.

One of the advantages of keystone or 50% off to wholesale pricing is that items do not need to be repriced for the retail store to sell them. It is easy to just put them out to sell. Even if your store wants a longer markup than simple 2x, you can still sell strands and bags at the marked price as you work with them. Your customer admires them on your counter and wants to buy them. You can appear very nice by allowing them to buy at the marked price when you say I haven't repriced them with my markup yet but I'll let you have it for that price. Keystone pricing just makes things more convenient.

On the other hand, there is so much theft of loose beads from a retail bead store that many stores need to markup 2.2 or 2.5 times to make a profit and keep the doors open.

Does that begin to answer your questions?