Should you Discount & Donate? Yes please!
Seriously, you should do this!
Marking many (or all!) of your items to discount on our half-off day is a no brainer! Especially if you want to keep a bit more of your proceeds! NEW in the fall of 2024, Sellers who mark everything to donate and don’t come back for pick up keep 5% more! (65%) . Sellers who don’t mark everything to discount/donate and do come back to pick up their unsold items, keep 60% of their earnings.
The half-off sale is a wonderful marketing opportunity for all of our consignors. It is out of your house! Let us get it sold for you! The idea of half-off is NOT for you to price up your items and then sell them all at half-off. The Half-off sale is a promotion to get shoppers in the door! (And it has the super happy added benefit of getting more of your stuff sold and of us having fewer items to sort!) Shoppers are excited about the idea that they can save big! And . . .they buy tons of full-price stuff on half off day too (40% of the things we sell on half-off day are not marked to discount!) Items that DO get donated, are first and foremost, OUT OF YOUR HOUSE, and they are helping so many families.
There is some psychology in this too. We know this. We study it and we plan for it and we market to it! Many shoppers don’t care about the actual price of the item they care that it says “Discount Yes” on the tag. They feel like they are winning because they are getting the discount. Interestingly, shoppers who shop the presales at full-price also like to buy the things marked “Discount Yes”. They feel like they are winning because they snatch it up first because they know it will be gone on discount day.
Our job as a sale is to make sure that YOU, the consignor, sell as many items as possible, for as much profit as possible . . .right? The way to do that is to price your items to sell well at FULL price, but mark as many items as possible-especially the ones that you really don't want back, to discount and donate. It's out of your house! (We mentioned that, right?!) Sell those last few items at a discount and then let us donate the rest to great charities where they can do soooo much good!
New consignors are sometimes afraid to mark things to discount and to donate. They tend to address that fear by either 1) Marking their items to discount and then raising the price of the item so high that it won't sell until half-off OR they 2) Don't mark anything to discount/donate at all.
BY FAR, the better option is to 3) Mark every item that you are fine with never seeing again to both discount and donate. Price the items well to sell at full price—(most will!) and you’ll keep that extra 5% too! If you do have a few items that you want to pick-up you can of course mark them to discount but not to donate (but then you’re going to want to work at least one shift in order to keep that extra 5%!)
Here's an example:
This is how it might work with 3 similar items from 3 different consignors. We'll call those consignors Nora (N1), Nina (N2) and Ellen (E1). (Newbie 1, Newbie 2, and Experienced 1--get it?)
Item #1 Cute Hannah Anderson dress that Nora prices at $10 and marks to discount and to donate. It doesn't sell at $10 but does sell at the half-off day for $5. Nina prices a similar dress at $8.50 with no discount and no donate. The dress does not sell and it is still on the rack for pick up. The experienced consignor, Ellen, prices that same dress at $7.50 and it sells on the first night. (she marked it to discount and to donate but happily, neither will happen)
Item # 2 A brand new-with-tags Barbie doll. Nora prices at $7 and marks to discount but not to donate. It does not sell-even on half off day for $3.50 and she has to pick it up. Nina prices the same doll a bit better at $6 but does not mark it to discount or donate. It doesn't sell. Ellen knows that there will be dozens of Barbies available at the sale (she herself is bringing 6!) She marks them all to both discount and donate. 4 of them are new with tags. She prices each of those at $5 and sells 2 at full price and 2 on half-off day. The 2 used ones she prices at $3. One sells at full price and the other sells for $1.50 on half-off day.
Item #3 A barely worn Baby Bjorn infant carrier. It sells new for around $79. You can find them online in EUC for $40-$50 and, if it is in nearly perfect condition, it will likely sell for that at the Sail. Ellen knows all this and prices hers at $39 and marks it to discount and to donate. She wants to sell it at full price and frankly, she sort of wants to pick it up if it doesn't sell so that she can sell it online, but . . . she weighs that against the benefit of not having to come back for anything, and the early shopping benefit, and the extra 5% if she donates everything ad decides that the $6 extra dollars she might make on this one item is definitely not a good trade when weighed against all the other perks of donating all. The carrier sells for full price at the New Mom's presale. Nora and Nina both price their carriers at $50. (They are nearly perfect after all!) Nora marks hers to discount but not donate. It sells for $25 on half-off day. Nina does not mark hers to discount or to donate and it does not sell and is available to her when she drives back in to town on Saturday night for pick up. (she does later sell it on FB Marketplace for $45 but has to meet a stranger in the Target parking lot for pick-up--she has a Mocha Frappuccino at Starbucks while she waits and uses up nearly all of the extra $6 she made AND an additional hour and a half of her time—on top of the time she spent picking up at the Sail already!)
So there you have it. 3 consignors, 3 similar items, way different outcomes!
Nora, our first new consignor, sold 2 of her 3 items for $30 and picked up the Barbie
Nina, our 2nd new consignor, sold none of her 3 items and came back to get them all. (She later sold the carrier for a net of $39-after the Frappuccino!)
Elle, our experienced consignor sold all 3 of her items for a total of $49.50 (50% more than Nora, N1!) And, because she marked everything to donate, she didn't have to come pick anything up and drag it back home! Huge time-saver! It PAYS to price well, discount and donate! (Incidentally, she IS an experienced consignor, so she probably also crews with us and gets paid for it, shops early to save even more $ on her purchases, and shares info about the sale everywhere she goes so that she can win contests and earn coupons and feels absolutely joyful about helping to save the planet and helping our charity partners, and helping families clothe their kids for less . . . and, and . . .well, you get the idea! And we didn’t really even talk about that extra 5% for donating everything! Girl, discount it. Donate it. Do it.