259 | Launching Wholesale & Exhibiting at SF now with Christine Herrin, Everyday Explorers Co.
How do you know you’re ready to exhibit at a trade show and begin selling wholesale? Christine Herrin of Everyday Explorers Co joins us today to give an inside look at how and why she decided to launch to the wholesale market and exhibit at her first trade show this year.
Listen in as she shares how selling direct to consumer and wholesale are different, along with a few of the lessons she learned about positioning, pricing and marketing her products to the wholesale market.
You may remember Christine from episode 170 of the Proof to Product podcast where she talked about running her business remotely.
Today’s episode is brought to you by Paper Camp, our 4-week program that takes the guess-work out of selling wholesale. When you follow the strategies and methods in Paper Camp, you’ll not only feel more confident but you’ll reach your wholesale goals faster. Come join the waitlist to be the first to know when we open the doors for the next round of Paper Camp!
Wholesale vs. Retail
Wholesale and retail are two very different business models. From the way you create your products, price your products, and market and sell your products, they vastly differ from one another. Sometimes when you’re shifting from one to the other, you have to go back to the very basics of business to look at what you’re selling, how is it making a profit, and is it worth your time and energy.
Branching into the Wholesale Market
While Christine already had a successful product-based business selling direct to consumers in the scrapbooking community, she was curious about branching out into more mainstream products while pursuing wholesale.
Like many niched businesses, a major roadblock to wholesale came from believing that her products were too unique for wholesale—she couldn’t see them fitting into certain stores. This pushed her to branch into the mainstream products (something she’d wanted to do for a long time anyway) and launch that product line directly to wholesale at her first trade show.
Shifts in Selling Wholesale
When Christine first got started in selling wholesale, she didn’t realize how many things she would have to relearn that were different from retail.
Pricing in Wholesale
One of the first major shifts she had to adjust to was pricing. When pricing in wholesale, it is vastly different than pricing in retail, especially if you’re just selling retail and earning all of the profits. With direct to consumer, you only have to mark it up a certain percentage, but when you’re pricing for wholesale, the retailer is cutting into what used to be profits and now you have to mark it up higher in order to earn anything off of the product. This also made her rethink all of her existing products and the pricing for them.
This mindset shift also allowed her to look at what products would actually become wholesale and what products remain retail only for her to sell.
Product Education
The second shift she had to work through in creating a wholesale product line was communicating education around her products. While the majority of Christine’s clients completely understand how to use her niche and unique products, trying to sell to a retailer who isn’t familiar with her products comes with its own difficulties.
When you sell these types of products, you have to be able to educate the retailer and the potential customer on how they’re used—even better if you can do it with packaging.
Exhibiting at San Francisco Now
As Christine decided to launch her wholesale products, she made the decision to kick off with her first trade show at San Francisco Now (a combined exhibit with Noted) earlier this year. She chose SF Now because it was close to her, would be a budget friendly investment, and offered her a great opportunity to exhibit to her ideal wholesale customers. Through the community of other LABS members, she also felt supported through the experience.
While many of the LABS community were exhibiting at the show, they were on the Noted side. In the SF Now side of the trade show, it was primarily lifestyle brands, which did fit her product line. If she were to do it over, she would have rather been on the Noted side, as she felt that those that were coming into the SF Now side of the trade show weren’t looking for paper products, which was primarily what she was selling.
After launching her wholesale line and attending her first show, Christine did get a lot of feedback on her products—something every exhibitor should be open to on the trade show floor. Since she has spent so much of her time in the direct to consumer space, she had taken that mindset into the show, but learned that she could have gone in with more education focused branding in her booth that showed how her products could be used. SF Now was a great place to test the waters for wholesale—every show should teach you something new.
Today’s episode is brought to you by Paper Camp, our 4-week program that takes the guess-work out of selling wholesale. When you follow the strategies and methods in Paper Camp, you’ll not only feel more confident but you’ll reach your wholesale goals faster. Come join the waitlist to be the first to know when we open the doors for the next round of Paper Camp!
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MEET CHRISTINE
Christine is a graphic designer and owner of Everyday Explorers Co., a line of clear stamps and journals that encourage people to document their lives in creative ways. She started her brand as a way to combine her love for graphic design and scrapbooking, realizing her unique aesthetic and love for travel was easy to translate into scrapbooking and craft supplies. In 2016, she was chosen to be a part of the Adobe Creative Residency program, where she worked on building her product-based business centered on design and documenting. Originally from Manila, Philippines and with a background in publishing, Christine now lives in Berkeley, CA with her husband.
Connect with Katie Hunt
Katie Hunt is a business strategist, podcaster, mentor and mama to four. She helps product based businesses build profitable, sustainable companies through her conferences, courses and coaching programs.
Website: prooftoproduct.com | Instagram: @prooftoproduct
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