Tips for Selling at Boutiques

  Picture Courtesy of The Velvet Boutique

 I have only been designing jewelery for about four months now and everything has been new to me! I kinda got a bee in my bonnet after making a big move to another state and losing all my clientelle (sp?) I had gotten in the first three months so I bravely started just looking online at local boutiques and calling around to see if they would be interested in selling handmade jewelery. After making several phone calls I found one boutique that featured handmade jewelery.
My advice if you're going to sell in boutiques:

1. Before you meet with them make sure you look at their website or go into their shop to make sure that your items will mesh with their style.
2. When you call them make sure you talk about their commission, i.e. how much you're going to make with each sale and make sure you talk about possible sales promotions etc in their store and how much that will cut into your profit.
3. What I did when I went into the boutique was I had all my jewelery individually bagged so I could easily show my individual designs. I carried all those bags in an antique sewing box. It just added a little touch of my style I thought.
4. Be prepared to talk about your techniques, the materials you use, your process etc. basically everything you would talk about if you were selling to a customer.
5. I showed the boutique a huge number of my designs and they probably took about half of what I had. I took a picture with my cell phone of everything they took and then when I got home I made a list with descriptions.
6. The relationship I have with the boutique I work with is sort of trust based so I don't have any contracts etc. I just have a list and those pics I took. I'm not sure if this is the best for everyone but so far its worked for me with this particular boutique.

 Picture courtesy of FireSpice

The nice thing about boutiques is that they're usually small and the owner is generally just like you a small business owner so don't be intimidated. They're usually very friendly and just as interested in you as a business relation as you are in them.

Here's a link to the website of the boutique where I sell my jewelery, located in Chandler AZ.
The Velvet Boutique