Which gallery has the walnut stool?
You make a small range of pieces for galleries and craft shops: stools, side tables, a rocking chair, some boxes and trays. Four galleries hold your work on sale or return, and two exhibitions are showing pieces this season. Each gallery has its own commission rate and reporting. When a customer rings asking whether they can see the walnut stool in person, you are not sure which gallery has it, or whether it sold.
Then a statement arrives from one gallery showing a sale from two months ago. You try to remember what price was agreed for that piece.
Consignment runs on paper
Selling through galleries and shops is a good way to reach buyers, but it means your stock is spread across places you do not control.
- Pieces go out on a handwritten delivery note or email.
- Agreed retail prices and commission rates differ by gallery and sometimes by piece.
- Sales are reported on the gallery's schedule, in the gallery's format.
- Payments are checked against memory rather than records.
- Pieces that have sat in a gallery for a long time are not noticed.
What informal consignment costs
Pieces can go missing or be damaged without anyone noticing for months. Payments may be short or late, and without records it is hard to raise. You cannot tell customers where to see a piece, and you may make a new one when an unsold one sits in a shop that is not the right fit for it. It is also hard to see which galleries actually sell your work.
A consignment record and settlement check
- Every piece is recorded with a code, photos, description, and your wholesale or agreed price.
- Each gallery is set up with its commission rate, payment terms and contact.
- When pieces go out, a consignment note is produced from the records, and the pieces are shown as at that gallery.
- Galleries can report sales through a simple link, or you enter them from their statement.
- Each sale produces the amount due to you, and payments received are matched against it, with differences flagged.
- Pieces that have been at a gallery longer than you set are listed, so you can move, reprice or recall them.
- Pieces that sold are also recorded against your portfolio, so you know what sells and where.
| Question | Today | With consignment tracking |
|---|---|---|
| Where is this piece? | Memory | Location on record |
| What was agreed? | Old email | Price and commission stored |
| Were we paid correctly? | Rough check | Statement matched to sales |
| What has not sold? | Unknown | Listed by time on display |
| Which galleries sell? | A feeling | Sales by gallery |
Stock you can see, money you can check
You know where every piece is and what it should earn. Statements are checked in minutes and underpayments are spotted. Pieces that do not sell in one place can be moved to one where they might. And the sales picture helps you decide which galleries to keep and which pieces to make more of.
Condition is easier to manage as well. Each piece has photos from the day it left, so if something comes back marked or goes missing, you can show what state it was in. And when a gallery asks for more work, you can see which pieces sold there before and what you have available, instead of sending whatever happens to be in the workshop.
Is your consignment stock a blur?
- You are not sure which gallery holds which piece.
- Agreed prices are in old emails.
- Gallery statements are checked from memory.
- Some pieces have sat unsold for a long time.
- You do not know which galleries sell your work best.