My experience consigning my merch as an artist 👀👀

POV: you happen to be at Suntec after a bad Hinge date and realised Toy Outpost has a new location in the weeb area of the mall AND there's an opening promo!! 🤡

Consigning was not on my business bingo card this year but I don't regret it. This yolo really paid off and I'm glad to add this as an additional (and somewhat passive) source of income!!

Some have asked about my experience and so I'm here to share my 4-month review of this whole thing so far. Spoiler alert: it works for me - but not for everyone!!

---

🍁 THE GOOD 🍁

1️⃣ The location and rent

The only reason why I made such an impulsive decision was because I felt the location was really really good. There was a locker available close to the front of the store at a good eye level AND Suntec has very steady footfall of my target audience. Rent was pretty okay and I felt confident I could make back the rent, and it helped that there was a 3+1 promo when I signed. Proximity to my day job office was also important if I wanted to maintain the locker. Honestly? A no-brainer and I quickly signed during my lunch break the next day.

I wouldn't have taken this up if I couldn't find a locker location I liked. Rental is tiered according to eye level so while lockers higher and lower than eye level were cheaper, I felt like it wasn't worth the effort.

2️⃣ The store's focus

This branch is obviously focused on TCG. So with most of my best-selling items at recent conventions being related to TCG (aka my photocards holders), I felt like it was a natural fit. The Kpop store nearby also helped to make this connection.

Aside from the focus on TCG, I felt that Suntec being a hub for conventions, and by extension tourists, there was potential to expose new people to my brand!

3️⃣ Passive income

Since stepping down on booths, I've also been struggling to find time to update my online store. I'm still struggling with it but having a very passive source of income in the form of consignments has been a godsend. No need to travel for booths or struggle with listings - all I need to do was restock the box once a week during my lunch break.

Although I'm obviously not earning as much as I did at conventions, the revenue generated from this venture has been better than expected. Not bad for a hobby business!

---

🥀 THE BAD 🥀

4️⃣ Hidden costs = pricing higher

I wouldn't say this was a deal breaker but it was a bit annoying haha. I didn't understand this when the clerk was explaining the terms and conditions to me but you needed to pay extra to have your brand social media displayed in the locker. The cost to do this isn't a lot but still, I was a little caught off-guard by it.

Like most consignment stores, a ~10% commission is taken from your sales. Hence, to ensure sustainable profit margins, I've had to increase the prices of everything by $1 to $2 😅😅 thankfully, this hasn't deterred buyers as it is well within impulse buy range but I do feel a bit bad doing so. I've had some buyers (and Toy Outpost staff) come up to me at conventions saying they loved my locker! So I guess it kinda works 😬

5️⃣ SPACE is a pain...

Honestly, the only reason why I have a weekly restock schedule is because I can only stock 5-8 pieces per SKU. It's a happy problem to have because it means stuff is getting sold fast!! But I have to get creative with the layout.

It's hard to strike a balance between stocking the locker while having a good shopping experience 😅 whenever I restock the locker, its ALWAYS a mess from customers moving stuff around. But I guess thats just part and parcel of having a retail space.

Another thing I also had to consider was product security. Since I realised removing the glass door from the box quite literally increased sales tenfold, I've also had to consider how to arrange my space in a way that deters people from easily shoplifting. This means putting more expensive product inside the box, for example. Of course, I have to expect some loss from theft but making a thieves life more difficult is probably the best deterrence I can do.

---

🫠 THE CHALLENGING (NOT UGLY) 🫠

6️⃣ Inventory management is a NIGHTMARE

Ngl, between booth events, online store, and consignment store, it's been a pain trying to figure out how much inventory I need to order 🤡🤡🤡

Since I can never predict how well my events go, I try to stay a bit conservative. But then when I forget to order merch or the physical event outperforms, I have nothing to stock the box with!! It's been a pain, to say the least and I'm still trying to figure this out 🤡

7️⃣ Pricing and product strategy is 🤡

Fun fact: Toy Outpost only allows you to sell licensed and official product. This means NO fanart (which was what I hoped to be able to sell) and only original or reselling of official product. Thankfully, I have a whole line of original merch, so I was eager to test if my original work holds up against my fanart.

Over the last 4 months, predicting what sells has been difficult. Some weeks I can have 0 sales on a certain SKU - and 2 days after a restock, the product is GONE. But it's been pretty easy to tell if an item is completely unsellable or not - and its usually because of price and subject matter. It's quite disheartening that my original enamel pins never sold, though 🥲 and admitting to yourself that a product isn't selling and that you need to remove and replace it with something else is never easy.

The thing about a consignment store is that you're competing with literally everyone else and you're not there to "sell" the product. Hence, appealing to impulse buys is important. Generally, my products under $10 tend to do better than those more than $10. But cheaper products means you need to sell more to make rent... but then you can only stock so much!

---

✨️MY VERDICT✨️

In general, I've had a very good experience consigning my products so far. But I wouldn't recommend this to just anyone.

I think consignments are good for experienced brand owners who need an okay passive income channel. Maintaining a consignment locker like this still requires weekly work and if you're already swamped with online orders or booths, this might not be be a worthwhile channel to invest time and money in.

I wouldn't recommend consignment stores for new business owners. Competition is very steep and an existing social media channel can be helpful in driving sales. Additionally, if you don't have a large product range to swap out underperforming items, it can be hard and ill-advised to create new items in the hopes that it will perform. My advice is to figure out how many items you need to sell to break even on the monthly rent - if you don't feel confident that you can't reach this, then this isn't the channel for you.

Thanks for reading so far! Questions? Let me know 👀👀