How would a business owner sell to local stores?

[wjp09]

Hello,
I am a small business owner and I sell sports memorabilia such as Team Jerseys for NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB, as well as Soccer teams. I started out selling to friends and family but I have since taken my business online as I feel it creates a more professional look. cheapojerseys[DOT]com

There are several local stores that sell Sports Jerseys and I got the idea to try and sell to them.
How would I go about approaching the owners and what would I say to them?
I have samples of my products to show them but I have no idea how to sell to a store. I usually sell them for 50 dollars and make a profit off of that but I know a store would not likely pay me 50 a jersey. What are some possible solutions?

Also I was thinking of bringing flyers/Business cards to Bars/Sports Bars. What places would you recommend I bring them to.

 

[smedrik]

I would actually suggest starting smaller by going into independent sports / memorabilia dealers and offering to fully merchanside your product and as part of a consignment deal. Offer a good variety of product to install and offer 20-30% of the proceeds of the sale. This way you set the prices, maintain control of your inventory and get your product in store and the shop owner doesn
t have to tie up money in inventory and gets a cut of the profits. it is win / win for everybody.


Just approach the owner with product samples, and example of what the display will look like and the pricing structure.

make sure you full research what terms you want in your agreement and preferrable have a lawyer draft it.

Shop owners are usually very receptive to having inventory which they do not have to pay for an earns them money.

The alternative is to put together a product catalog and approach purchasers or owners. The drawback of this when you are still small is that you order volume is unpredictable, also you never really know what and how many an individual store will order. Nothing will sink you faster than just starting out and having your first order come through at several thousand units which are currently not in inventory. Also with a "wholesale" agreement most places will want 30 day terms (after all they haven't sold the product, how are they supposed to pay for it?), which means that you are having to carry the burden until they finally cut you a check for merchandise the purchased. their money problems will become yours. With consignment they don't have any expenditure thus, you can very easily and reasonably request COD, which will help with cash flow down the road.