Sky Gift Wins With Toys & Jewelry

Sky Gift is a company that focuses on both retailing and wholesaling, and has experienced smashing success with two very different product lines: jewelry and toys. When it comes to jewelry, it’s the Murano glass jewelry, handcrafted in Venice, Italy, that has been a major hit. In toys, an interesting and affordable product from China called, smash balls, has become huge for Sky Gift. There are lots of other items offered by the company, including the Wormie the Worm toy, radio controlled toy vehicles, and the brand new Wander Fly toy. But... 

Closeouts Jump Start Retail Profits

There’s one product segment that’s offering store owners hope in a sluggish retail environment, and it’s a segment that independent retailers are uniquely positioned to put to good use: closeouts. While big box retailers can’t fit small quantities of extremely discounted items into a multi-store strategy, single unit sellers have the flexibility and responsiveness to make closeout products an effective part of their retail strategy. Just ask Danny Kole, owner of Kole Imports. He used this recession to add closeouts to his... 

High Profit Water Pearls

Beautiful glass vases filled with decorative marbles are easy to find on the pages of decorating magazines, but the flowers in those vases dry out fast in real homes. A new product aims to offer the beauty of high decor with the practicality of a long term, low maintenance watering system. This decorative new “Green” resource for maintaining plants and flowers is called, “Water Pearls.” Water pearls are vibrant and colorful. They not only keep your plants healthy, but beautify and decorate your home, office space, or special... 

Bottle Docker

Bottle Docker is a personal bottle beverage carrier, and although it may not be the first, it is one of the most innovative. What makes Bottle Docker different is that it can slip right onto the waist, without necessarily requiring a belt or belt loop to work. It also folds flat, so it can be put in your pocket. There’s a hole at the bottom of the product that allows you to turn the whole thing upside down and connect it with an S-binder to a gym bag or a belt loop, if desired. The company even sells the S-binders to go with it. “What... 

Cornerstone Creations: Helping Through Wholesale

Paul and Linda Cahill got into the business of selling wholesale jewelry for a higher cause than simply enriching their own bank accounts. Rather, they started up Cornerstone Creations last year as a way of enriching the lives of those less fortunate, and so far the company has helped them do just that. Both ordained ministers, Paul and Linda started Cahill Ministries more than 30 years ago, and use Cornerstone Creations as a way of funding their humanitarian efforts in 22 different countries around the world, as well as low-income communities... 

A&W Surplus Finds New Online Home

IndependentRetailer.com recently had the opportunity to speak with Wayne Peckham, one of the nation’s leading online electronics auctioneers, about the recent updates and changes to his web presence. Recently, Peckham launched his very own auction site, http://awsurplusauction.com, and was kind enough to go over the changes with us, as well as the benefits and disadvantages of running his own site. IndependentRetailer.com: What’s different about the site now as compared to before? Wayne Peckham: We were going through an outside source... 

Perfumes from A to Z

The New York-based A 2 Z Perfumes has been in business for nearly a decade, supplying specialty shops, perfume boutiques, web companies, individual traders and all manner of independent retailers with fragrances at wholesale prices since 2001. The prices are highly competitive, and the items offered are genuine designer and boutique fragrances, including Burberry, Roca Wear, CK and many more. By visiting the company’s website, http://www.a2zperfumes.net, you can browse the extensive offering, and even download PDF price lists in a variety... 

Design Your Skateboard With Rough Decks

Rough Decks is a company that specializes in the sale of sporting goods, particularly skateboards and related accessories. However, the firm began via a partnership that grew out of necessity and became something beneficial to all parties involved. Originally, Nancy Wang, owner of Rough Decks, was the owner of a Chinese factory that produced strictly skateboard decks; that is, the oblong platforms on which the skater stands. Her eventual partner, just a friend at the time, was the owner of a factory that produced various skateboard parts, including... 

Online Storefront Solutions

The Intersoft Group helps independent retailers and distributors avoid the pitfalls that can befall so many when trying to go online with sales. As an alternative to companies without the experience, using software that only they control, the Intersoft Group provides retailers with a seasoned partner, and has been doing so since the 1990s. Intersoft does all the work, but the clients also get to own the license to their own online store. “You’re going to invest a tremendous amount of time and effort into this system, so rather than... 

A Taste for Tye Dye

MDM International was started in the mid 1990s by Mark Herman, but when he passed away a little over a year ago, his son-in-law, Marc Ruggieri, stepped in. It began as a shoe company, and somehow wound up being a distributor of tye dye T-shirts. It’s a transition about which Ruggieri can only speculate. “I think he probably just had connections with tye dye guys,” he says. “We had a contract with Hanes T-shirts in the mid-‘90s, we were getting all their seconds. So he had T-shirt contacts already. So when the shoes fell through, the... 

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