Advice On Finding Stores From A Maker With 300+ Stockists

Stephanie Carswell is the owner of Hawthorn Handmade and a beloved member of our Sell Like An Artist community.

Here’s her advice on finding stores.

I worked out the other day that I’ve sold my products to over 400 stockists in 5 years and still have about 300 of those on my books.

Those other 100 stores just didn’t work out. Obviously I target who I approach and I analyse which types of stores work better, but I think I’d go mad if I tried to tell in advance which ones are going to be successful. Don’t lose time worrying about that. So many elements are out of your control.

You could find a retailer who totally gets your product and thinks their customers will love it, but Mercury is retrograde that month and your products inexplicably bomb in that store. You’ve no way of knowing what will happen, so just focus on getting your work out there and do your best to help it succeed.

Sometimes it will, sometimes it won’t but that’s just business. There are so many shops out there with potential for you. It would be a shame not to give your wholesale business the best possible chance.