WHAT TO DO IN LIEU OF E-COMMERCE - Retail Council of Canada

What to do in lieu
of e-commerce
BY Erin Francis
august 2012 | technology
technology | august 2012
in partnership with
Business owners have been hearing for quite some time now that they need to be online to compete today. For many
businesses it is a worthwhile investment to develop a dedicated site with established e-commerce capabilities. not only
does this provide you with a better connection with your existing customer-base, but it also allows a small business to
expand its reach. But, what if e-commerce isn’t the right choice for your business? What are the alternative options?
MySTORE had the opportunity to interview Karin nickel, owner of Worth Repeating consignment shop in Bracebridge,
ontario, who uses a combination of existing online sales solutions to build her business and fill in the gap of seasonal traffic.
MystOre: Tell us about Worth
Repeating.
Karin nickel: Worth Repeating is now
in its 16th year, and still growing. It has
a great reputation in our area, in the
heart of [ontario’s] cottage country and
experiences a lot of summer foot traffic
that slows considerably in the winter
months. the store is a consignment
shop for quality home furnishings, antiques
and collectibles. two years ago we
added vintage and antique jewelry to the
range of items we sell. We our customers
people find new homes for the items
they no longer need. Because of this,
Worth Repeating’s business is made up
of people who downsize, upgrade, move,
redecorate and deal with estates.
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Ms: Tell us about how you came to
run the business.
Kn: I was born in germany and have
been living in canada for 15 years. I
used to be in export sales before I came
here. When I purchased my first home
here I furnished it with a lot of items
from Worth Repeating - this is how I
met the original owners Steve and Ann
newroth. Prior to owning Worth Repeating
I worked in the business for two
years. When the newroth’s decided to
retire I purchased the business.
Ms: When did you add online sales
to the mix?
Kn: When I started working for the
business I brought along my knowledge
about e-commerce. I had privately been
interested in eBay and I encouraged
the existing owners to get involved. We
started to put select items online and it
was very successful. Selling online allowed
us to fill in our downtime in the
winter months when the cottage traffic
died down. In fact, we are too busy in
the summer to do the online sales, so
this is strictly a winter activity.
Ms: What made eBay the right
choice for the business?
Kn: When I started putting products
online I was well aware of the cost of
setting up our own commercial website.
Plus, the kinds of products that I
had didn’t suit a commercial website.
eBay seemed a natural fit as they already
had the traffic established. eBay
has been great because it instantly exposed
us to people around the world.
how else could I advertise my goods to
someone in Australia?
Ms: Tell us about some of the successful
sales that you have made
through eBay.
august 2012 | technology
Kn: We came to have a collection of
die-cast model antique cars - about 40 of
them, with a value of $150 - 250 each. We
are located in a small town, and while we
have some local collectors and significant
cottage traffic, it might have taken
us years to liquidate all of them. We decided
to try them out on eBay and were
able to sell them all within two weeks all
over north America. We would not have
been able to reach as many collectors by
displaying them in our store alone.
the highest priced single item we sold
was a Royal copenhagen Flora Danica
soup tureen — the owner thought it
should sell for around $1,200. We put it
online and sold it to a buyer in Florida
for $5,000.
of course not all items are worth
thousands of dollars; however, eBay
provides us a selling tool for items that
are challenging to sell. We just consigned
a large set of Royal Albert old
country Roses china - a setting for 12.
Formal china is hard to sell in large
sets in the store - however, people are
always looking for specific pieces from
a set. they might be upgrading from
six to eight place settings, or trying to
complete the set they already have. We
split up the set, put it online and sold it
in pieces all over the world.
Ms: What other websites are you
using to sell online?
Kn: Aside from eBay, I am also using
etsy. etsy has a different setup and
price structure. the items can stay online
for up to four months (compared to
a much shorter period on eBay). etsy is
geared to items that are hand or homemade,
and vintage or antique. It attracts
a different clientele and has fantastic
creative items for sale. our vintage
jewelry sells very well on etsy.
Ms: How do you decide which items
should go online?
Kn: It really depends on the time of
year. often we will keep inventory
throughout the summer, which allows
us to have great selection for the cottagers
coming to visit and then we will
put unsold items online in october and
they will be purchased for christmas.
In some of those cases I could have sold
the items in question for much higher
prices in the store, but I might have had
to carry the item for a year or so before
they sold. I do a lot of research for a
given product to see what comparative
items are being sold for, but I will often
be surprised by a sale. We had two
small 1902 Shriner candlesticks that I
put online for $9.99 and they ended up
selling for $150.00. If I am unsure, eBay
is great because competitive bidding
will often get the item to market value.
Ms: How do you promote your
online store?
Kn: We do have a website for the store,
but it is strictly informational for people
wanting to know how the consignment
business works. Really the big advantage
to being involved as a retailer on
websites like eBay and etsy is that they
do a lot of promotion already - and if
you know how to phrase the key search
headlines and descriptions - you don’t
really need any additional advertising.
If you’re an independent retailer with an
interesting story to tell about a unique
initiative that’s benefited your business,
we’d like to hear about it. Send your
thoughts and ideas to MySTORE Editor,
Sean C. Tarry – starry@retailcouncil.
org. Your story could be featured in an
upcoming article on MySTORE.
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