Selling Photography to Retail

Does anyone know anything about selling photography to retail shops? I'm

thinking about trying to send some samples to a few department stores' buyers.

I've seen where some companies want a price list for merchandise. How do I

price bulk quantities?

To sell photographs to retail stores, you must discount your stuff in two ways: 1) You must discount for bulk quantities, so if a framed 8x10 usually sells for, say $100, then you should mark it down to, say $70.00. And 2) you must allow the retailer to make a 50% profit, so your price should be $35.00 per print. Now, aside from arts and craft stores, how many photographs have you seen offered in retail shops? Further, most arts and crafts are sold to retailers on consignment, So don't look to get rich overnight.

<p>Hello Amy,</p>

<p>First of all, direct contact is better. However, I have a photographer friend that wanted to do something similar to your idea. He had a lot of trouble getting department store buyers to buy into his idea. He then changed his tactics. He approached the decorators in the furniture department. Showed them some prints of his that he felt matched furniture room settings. He would tell the decorators that he would enlarge his prints to 30 x 40 and provide them at ‘cost’ if the decorators used them in the various department store furniture displays. He said that 6 of 9 department store decorators gave him a shot – which provided him an ‘in’ to the store vendor circle. He says that 3 of the 6 stores now carry his prints on their own. His reputation among decorators has also grown dramatically and he says he gets a lot of business from that industry that he hadn’t counted on initially.</p>

<p>Kalem</p>