Does anyone do home parties to sell their jewelry? kar
I did home parties for 2 years. They did pretty well during
December, but lousy the rest of the year. I tried a couple of
different ways of scheduling them. Set times during the afternoon
and/or evening, and open-house style from noon until 9 pm.
The set times worked MUCH better. People knew what time they
were supposed to show up. With the open-house, I think they just
kept putting off going until they ran out of time.
Sales from parties ran from a scarey low of $65 to a high of
just under $2000. I gave the hostess a credit equal to 10% of
sales for having the party.
Karen
Does anyone do home parties to sell their jewelry? kar
Hi, I don’t do Home parties per se…but I am having a holiday
“Studio open house” We make it a charity event and if the folks
bring new toys or warm childrens clothing to donate to
Salvation Army we give them a discount on their art purchase.
Karen
@Karenworks
Karen:
More info, if you please, as December will be upon us soooooon.
What did you try to sell at the parties? What kind of parties
worked best? What kind of people got invited? Ply them with
alcohol to loosen them up? Have small dolllar items to get them
to spend SOMETHING even if they didn’t want to buy your latest
masterpkece? Etc., Etc0. “Price point” ( forgive the
expression ) at $30, $100? Silver, gold? Help, help! Thanks!
More info, if you please, as December will be upon us soooooon. What did you try to sell at the parties? What kind of parties worked best? What kind of people got invited? Ply them with alcohol to loosen them up? Have small dolllar items to get them to spend SOMETHING even if they didn't want to buy your latest masterpkece? Etc., Etc0. "Price point" ( forgive the expression ) at $30, $100? Silver, gold? Help, help! Thanks!
Here’s what I did… I had postcards printed up that said “Full
Moon Gems and _____________ (the hostess would fill in her name)
invite you to a private jewelry show”. It went on to tell a bit
about what kinds of jewelry, beads, earrings, pendants, etc. Then
it had a place for the hostess to put the date, time, address.
She filled it all out, and paid postage. The cards were printed 4
to a page on cardstock; not at all expensive. Most people invited
friends and neighbors, much like tupperware or basket parties. A
few did shows at the office for co-workers. These did poorly.
Hostesses provided a variety of drinks, coffee, tea, punch,
sometimes wine, and assorted “nibbly foods” and desserts.
I sold a variety of things at these shows. At the time, I was
closing out a line of bead necklaces, and those sold well at $50.
They were 28", continuously strung and knotted, using about 3
different types of stones on each. They came with little
booklets that told the gemlore of the stones in each necklace.
My main line is one-of-a-kind fabricated sterling with stones;
art jewelry ( I hate that term, but it seems accurate). At that
time, prices ranged from $35 - $175. Sales were pretty even
across the board on those. Different people came, wanting
different things. One thing I learned fast was that I was
under-pricing.
The only serious loser was my attempt to pop stones in Tripps
mountings for 6mm stud earrings and pendants. I couldn’t sell
these at cost! Every store in the mall has this stuff at
rockbottom prices. My better quality stones didn’t impress
anyone. In the end, I melted down the silver, and used the
stones in other pieces.
I hope that helps,
Karen
At our home parties we sell jewelry we have designed and
fabricated, some that we have purchased at local wholesale shows,
clay pieces that i make, rough stones that my husband collects,
and artsy oriental pieces that we find in our local chinatown.
I,ll sell anything except my kids! We distribute flyers all over
the area, and sometimes ads in the newspaper(although that did
not seem to draw customers). Mostly we have repeat customers.
But working full time makes it difficult to schedule home parties
very often. any suggestions? enough info?