Merchandising - Sell More Antiques

Competition Increases Sales

Dealers, would you rather be the only antique store in your town, or have a lot of competition? I asked that question often in my recent visit to the Hillsville, Va., Labor Day Flea Market. A surprising number of dealers answered that they prefer to have no competition at all. One dealer even boasted that […]

How to Set Traffic Flow in Antique Shops

Have you ever focused your attention on the way you walk? Do you stand straight with your shoulders back, or do you lean forward? Do you saunter or walk quickly? Have you noticed how the customers in your antique shop walk? Most independent retailers give little thought to how their customers walk and move through […]

What Antique Dealers Can Learn from Wine Sellers

Over the holidays I had occasion to go into a Total Wine store. If you’ve never been to a Total Wine, they’re the size of a major supermarket. The shelves are stocked with rows of wine, beer, and other goodies. I was completely out of my element. Shelves appeared to be filled with thousands of […]

Please Touch the Merchandise

In 2003, the Illinois state attorney general’s office issued a consumer warning that antique dealers should be aware of: Holiday shoppers were told to be cautious of retailers who encouraged them to touch the merchandise and imagine that they owned the items. It seems that touching objects increased a consumer’s risk of buying them. Those […]

You’re Selling Nostalgia, Not Antiques

In the mid-1970s, I took my first sales seminar from what was then the biggest sales training organization in North America. There I learned the most useless sales technique I have ever encountered. For decades, this technique was taught as a way to close sales when a customer simply couldn’t make up their mind. (Ever […]

Why You’ll Love an Inventory SKU System

Keeping inventory under control in a growing antiques business is a matter of “scaling.” Many dealers start with a garage full of items they have collected, and begin by selling at an antique mall or show. As they grow, they may move to a free-standing retail location or sell online. As inventory, customer base and […]

Tracking Media Inventory: SKU, Alphabetize, or RFID?

Keeping track of media inventory is a problem for many resellers. C.K. writes: ” Each time I make a new estate buy I find myself shifting everything around to insert the new purchases into the alphabetical order. Is there an easier way to track my media inventory so that customers can browse what I have […]

Boost Your Antiques Sales with Sidekick Merchandising

I’ve always marveled at fictional sidekicks. A good sidekick lends perspective to enigmatic heroes and helps us to know them better. How well could we understand the complexities of Sherlock Holmes’ mind without having Dr. Watson to ask the questions we are thinking? How much more dignified is Andy Griffith when compared to simple-minded Barney […]

Smells Sell

Sometimes the antiques business stinks. Not the buying and selling part, but rather the smells that can accumulate in a store filled with used merchandise. Few things are more off-putting than to walk into a store and inhale the mildewy stew of odors that can be created by rooms full of used goods. Have you […]

Tell a Story With Your Merchandise Tags

Good merchandise tags offer more than a price; they create expectations and help you sell more. If you tell a story (briefly, of course) on your merchandise tags you will engage your customer and sell more. The best story I’ve heard to illustrate my point follows: Sitting in his cell awaiting trial for treason, Van […]