Letter template for introducing your jewellery to shop owners

Letter template for introducing your jewellery to shop owners.

One of the fundamental things that most people don’t realise when selling their jewellery to stores, is the fact that shops are not going to stock your jewellery as a favour to you. They have to be sold to and convinced that you jewellery will sell and make them profit.

Here are some ways which will greatly increase your chances of store owners stocking your jewellery.

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Shops are  more likely to stock your jewellery if you suggest a high percentage mark up for them (that is greater than 100%) if you try products with 150% – 200% mark up, then that is a nice profit for the shop owner.

They are much more likely to buy if you present them with a unique selling point. This could be an exclusive range or colour or something else that makes your jewellery different from what is already out there.

You could offer a buy back guarantee (For example if your jewellery doesn’t sell out in the run up to Christmas, you could offer to buy back the stock.)  No one really loses out here. You get your jewellery back if it doesn’t sell and the store owner feels more confident about placing an order with you. If your jewellery is really any good, and you offer a good mark up and the store is the right venue for selling your kind of jewellery, then chances are you aren’t going to be getting any returns back. What you really want them to do is place a medium sized order which sells so well, and offers the store owner such a profit, that the store owner will want to place repeat order with you as soon as possible.

If you don’t want to go and trundle round stores, then here is a letter which may help. Feel free to customize in any way you want. It is important that you first identify the shops which you feel may sell your jewellery. You will have much greater success if these are independently owned.

Dear (insert name if you have it, it is always advisable to make a call first and find out who the buyer is so that you can address them by name.)

I know your shop sells attractive and unique gift items and thought that you may like to take a look at the enclosed. (Enclose a sample piece of jewellery)

I design and make all my own handcrafted jewellery with materials that have been sourced from all over the world, this way I can ensure that my jewellery is unique and different from anything else in the market place.

As you know, the jewellery accessories market is flooded with cheap, mass produced imports which mean that customers are often presented with the same jewellery accessories over and over by different retail outlets; this of course does diminish the value of the product in the eyes of the potential customer and gives retailers such as yourself  less opportunity to make a profit in these challenging economic times.

In my experience I have found that my clients really appreciate the uniqueness of my jewellery collections and this results in high levels of sales and repeat custom.

Recently I decided to branch out and offer my designs on a wholesale basis, and so I am approaching a select number of retailers and offering them the opportunity to stock my latest designs for the Autumn and Winter Season 2009.

My jewellery offers the retailer mark ups of typically 200% with a fully gift boxed presentation, an ideal gift giving solution for the coming Christmas season.

As you can appreciate, to keep the range special, I am only sending this letter out to a select number of retailers who I feel match the profile of the type of customer my jewellery appeals to.

If  a 200% mark up and repeat business appeals to you then please  contact me by (insert date) to secure a viewing of a select range of designs I have set aside for your personal consideration. I am asking you to do this because if you are not interested in seeing the collection I have set aside for you, I need to be able to offer it to another gift boutique that has a similar customer demographic.

I look forward to meeting you and showing you the collection I have selected for you shortly.

Yours truly,

Name

PS If for any reason you feel that this product is not right for you, please feel free to pass the free sample enclosed to someone you feel would appreciate it.

Writing a letter this way does several things.

• It makes an introduction.
• It makes the customer feel specially selected
• It demonstrates an empathy and understanding of a shop’s dilemma of stocking the right product at the right price.
• It gives a date by which the buyer has to take action
• It suggests that if the buyer does not take action the special collection which was intended for their shop will go to someone else.

You may feel that you do not want to give a shop a deadline or be very direct in your approach. However research suggests that giving someone a deadline to act by encourages a response. If you don’t give someone a deadline in this situation, the shop owner may like your jewellery, decide to think about it a while, and then they forget or never get around to calling you. Your letter gets filed away and your jewellery is forgotten about. Giving a deadline in letter like this encourages a shop to take action.

To test this theory, you can send out two different sets of letters. One a straightforward introduction with picture and a price list and the other based on the letter above. Keep a record of who you have sent the letter to and see which list of customers gives you the better response. This is called split testing and is good way to measure how effective your promotional material is.

Lastly be confident in your approach. If you are confident in your product range then your customers are more likely to be also. If you are timid and unsure in your approach then retailers are less likely to take you seriously and have faith in what you are trying to sell them.

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