New Wholesale Account and the Benefits of Group Marketing

As mentioned previously, I am a juried member of the Artisans of the South Carolina Cotton Trail, http://www.sccottontrail.org/artisans.html, a group created to promote, market, and support local artists. Last week I took a selection of work from several of our members to a tourist-oriented store, with great success. This morning I took a different group of work to a high-end gift shop.

The gift shop, Porter’s Gift Shop in Florence, SC, http://www.portersgiftshop.com/ bought the most expensive painting, and almost $900 wholesale value of my own work! Whoooeee! Plus they want me to do a trunk show leading up to Mother’s Day!

They were excited to have local work by our group. I think the fact that we are a juried group made a definite positive difference in their willingness both to set the appointment to look at the work, and to purchase a substantial amount.

Even though we are less than a year old, we are already getting a regional reputation as a group of high quality artisans, which is fantastic!

I would highly suggest you look into starting your own artist group if there is not one in your area. I belong to two – the North Carolina Society of Goldsmiths, http://www.ncsg.net/,devoted entirely to smiths, and the Cotton Trail group, which is much, much broader!

Both have been great career supports for me.