wholesale merchandise, selling techniques

Prior to starting crystal image the owner sold Laser engraved crystals and various other products directly to the public at fairs, festivals and also has experience with mall push cart / kiosk sales. He also has 17 years of sales and marketing experience prior to his envolvement in retail.
The following sales and display advice is taylored for the sale of our laser engraved crystals however the same methods are effective in selling any product.

Example of our sales methods success:
At the 2003 ????? State Fair ( our last retail show) one of our booths was selling laser engraved crystal and lighted bases.
There was 2 other venders selling crystals at similar or lower prices. The other vendors had 15 to 20 poorly selected designs poorly displayed. These vendors had told me that they were disapointed with there crystal sales.
One vendor had about 20 designs displayed in a glass case where the shoppers could not touch. ( this kills sales ) People must be able to touch with out asking. You may be concerned about theft. We will talk about this later on.
Another vendor had about 10 designs sitting on a table, no lighted bases, with a bunch of other misc. stuff. ( to sell volume of anything you must dedicate at least 4 feet of table space or your product will never be noticed. Display in volume to sell volume!

OUR DISPLAY:
We dedicated an 8 foot table raised about 8" with 1-1/4" pvc extensions. On step risers ( purchased at walmart ) with black fabric we displayed 140 well selected laser crystal designs. At the top of the step riser we had a shadow shelf the length of table to create a dark spot to display 10 crystals on the lighted bases. With proper pricing and upselling techniques we sold $12,000.00 in laser engraved crystals and lighted bases. The samples on display were labeled with our item numbers to correspond with our numbered stock in the back. Yes, some of the sample were damaged and a few were stollen. Out of 140 samples 23 were damaged and 3 were stollen, but when you sell $12,000.00 who cares! Samples are also used again and again.
Our other booth: Was 10' x 10' completely consumed with baseball caps. Nothing but baseball caps displayed high and wide. We sold $6,000.00 worth of baseball caps at $6.00 each.
The end result of the show was $18,000 in sales and $12,000 in proffit after all expenses!
At most shows we would set up 10' x 40' and would sell only 5 to 6 products and always do very well. If your not noticed you can not sell. A little barking out your great deals never hurts.