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What Do You Do To Make The Customer's Buying Experience Fun/rewarding?


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http://www.nashvillewraps.com/shopping-bags/recycled-shopping-bags/c-001155.html

 

I like a wider bag because it lets a lot of pieces lie flat in the bag vs on the side. The Regal (9 in wide) and Filly (7 in wide) hold most of my pieces. I did see a really nice bag in U-Line called the Carry Out (10 in wide). BUT the freight was was too much. And if you compare prices, Nashville Wraps is cheaper on the same exact size bags. I was actually astounded at the freight charges from U-Line.

 

Another thing I use is the Brown Craft Roll with a paper cutter. This drastically cuts down the time involved versus using (free) newpaper. If you wrap on the diagonal you don't use much. I use the 50 lb and one wrap around satisfies the customers. It looks nice. I top each bag off with some brown craft tissue and attach a little curling ribbon. I buy all supplies at Nashville Wraps. Most corporate orders expect some sort of packing. Below is my largest order (250), all dressed up and awaiting pick up.

 

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^ 250 is not a "typical" order.     Two examples from yesterday's sale's:

 

1.  $30 bowl for wedding shower.  3 easy steps.  Cost:  2 ft 50lb craft 5 cents, Regal Bag 32 cents, 4 pieces of tissue 6 cents, 3 yards curling ribbon 2 cents

Total cost 45 cents (1.5% of sales value)

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2. Phone order for 25 $6 la petite dishes for party favors $150 sale cost: Paper leopard bag 8 cents, 2 pieces tissue 3 cents total 11 cents x 25 = $2.75 1.8% of sales cost

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Final step: 2 large plastic shoppers to hold the 25 small packages (32 cents each), making final cost $3.39 - 2.2% of sales price

 

This customer will make a 2 hour drive next week to pick up this order. I can imagine her carrying her two shopping bags of party favors as she strolls into this party being hosted by 25 of her friends. I can NOT imagine her clutching a variety of used "Thank You" and Walmart bags, with favors stuffed in newspaper. She specifically asked for "those little leopard print bags." Overall the 2.2% is a little high for my liking. My packaging cost run about 1.6% of sales. Every package has a business card placed on the inside of the wrapping so when the gift is opened, it is the first thing they see. They know the pottery is food, oven, dishwasher and microwave safe. But more importantly, they see the location and business hours of the studio showroom. A large portion of my customers have received a Dirt Roads gift and follow up with a visit.

 

All supplies purchased from Nashville Wraps.

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When I did shows in Central PA years ago, I was a lousy salesman. However, I was lucky in that my wife was an excellent salesperson. I would stand outside of the booth often, watching the crowd, moving in when things got busy, but often talking to customers on the side or where the talk would not interrupt traffic. My wife would often man the booth, with a friendly smile, answering questions and such until someone wanted to know more than she wanted to say, so she would introduce them to me, and I could continue on the conversation that they seemed to want to have. In the end 50/50 that they would buy. Did they feel welcome, questions answered, learn about me and pottery?  Definitely. Did I see any of them in the future? Always, and often made a sale.

 

Back then I had a stamp made with my logo, and business cards. I used the stamp on brown bags, and included business cards on sales. At the same time specialty items that people did not understand (french butter dishes) I would include a description/explanation of the pots use.

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(specialty items that people did not understand (french butter dishes) Pres said-

 

I like to tell my customers to listen to the sea with the french butterdish held up to thier ear-You can hear the pacific with the top and the Atlantic with the bottom

 

I post a sign with the instructions over them on the display as well as each one comes with instructions inside-that said I spend way to much time talking about them as nobody reads much anymore.

Mark

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The butter is in the lid which is basically an upside down cup. It hangs upside down into the bottom portion. You have to soften the butter a bit to fill the cup then you add a little cold water to the base. It's supposed to keep the butter fresh and spreadable.

 

Terry

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Yep, the water in the base is supposed to seal the butter off from the air to keep it fresh and protect it from absorbing odors, while still staying soft and spreadable.

I had a little chuckle at your "feeling cultured" comment, since I work in a bakery and am opening boxes of cultured butter all day long :D

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We sell mainly at rennasaince fairs and science fiction conventions, with just a few street fairs, so we are more "in character" than just vending. We have lots of banter, some set pieces we trot out frequently because they make folks laugh, plenty of jokey set-ups we can use to engage. Given that we are a secondary reason the customers see us-they come for the fair experience, not to buy crafts- we aren't shy about calling out to wandering people " no need to wander past! There's plenty of pottery to fondle over here!" It really helps that there are usually two of us, so if a customer wants to chat, we can keep up other visitors.

I am working on getting us to use better packaging, but it's slow going.

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Yep, the water in the base is supposed to seal the butter off from the air to keep it fresh and protect it from absorbing odors, while still staying soft and spreadable.

I had a little chuckle at your "feeling cultured" comment, since I work in a bakery and am opening boxes of cultured butter all day long :D

cultured butter  next new thing for Babs What is that?

Gonna be one educated puppy here 

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It's just butter made from cream that has been given time to "ripen" - similar to the process for making yogurt. A specific bacterial strain is added, the cream is incubated at a set temperature range for a certain period of time, then is cooled and the butter-making is done. It's supposed to yield a more flavorful probiotic butter. I don't notice much difference, but I'm a pretty plain-food kind of person :)

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  • 2 weeks later...

My Bags arrived! I am very pleased. I filled them up with an assortment if pieces and they hold a lot! You can see the 3 styles I am trying out. I went with bright yellow bags in all the styles. I added a card with my information on it then I poked a hole in and tied some purple curly ribbon to. I plan to have a bunch of these card and ribbon set ups dne up before a show and then during I will staple it along with the customers receipt underneath to the bag. The paper bag I got said it could be run through a regular printer and it can! I did my logo up in black and white and printed it right on the bag.

 

As you can see my logo colors are lavendar and yellow and I am hoping these colors will also catch people's eye at festivals. I did a breakdown of the per bag cost including shipping and it's really reasonable. The plastic are .06 per bag for the large tshirt bags, .01 per small 9x12 plastic bag, the paper are .10 per 81/2x11. The paper is more expensive but I don't have to add a card and ribbon to it. The card and ribbon I am guessing costs about .05 each for a yard of ribbon and 1/6 of a sheet of printed card stock printed on both sides. I will price online to see if I can lower this by getting the cards done commercially won't know that until I do some comparisons and such for printing double sided color on card stock.

 

I will use these bags for awhile and then decide if I am going to stick with them or change them if for some reason this set up doesn't work.

 

Thank you for the help in finding these bags! I can hardly wait for my next show so I can use the pretty bags for my sales!

 

Terry

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  • 2 months later...

I read the entire answers before going to my first sculpture show. The information was very useful. Thank you very much.

 

Most of the sculptures displayed at the show were bronze, but some artists were putting live flowers or candies in colorful wraps. They seemed to have brightened the otherwise dull atmosphere of the booth. On my business card holders, I put not only my business cards but also thank-you notes, photos, small greeting cards, and recipes. Thank-you notes are printed in different languages. I did the same on my message holders. In my spare time, I folded origami bags out of newspaper. People were not distracted by it, but the environmentally-conscious wrapping method was well received by my customers. I also printed the explanation for each of my sculpture.

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