Selling Your Goods With The Trainyard: Terms & Details

This is a pretty comprehensive breakdown of how selling your goods with The Trainyard works - and what to expect. 

Pricing

We do our best to honour the MSRP for products, especially those at 50/50 wholesale, but may price slightly higher to cover the cost of shipping, to bring in line with other goods, or to account for loss/breakage in certain categories.

Order Frequency

We typically place wholesale orders twice a year, Spring/Summer and Fall/Holiday. Most orders last a minimum of six months in slower seasons, and a large holiday order tends to last through to January, reorders are not guaranteed or may take several months, though we're optimistic! Please send along seasonal updates to your offerings if you have a new product you think would be a good fit. We love hearing about new designs & new products seasonally. These updates are reviewed monthly in preparation for restock orders.

Sales & Order Expectations

Though we continue growing, our capacity and sales are still quite small in comparison with more established businesses and shopping districts. We know that many of our Makers are growing their capacity as well and understand that smaller orders may be the most manageable. We are happy to work with you to find the best way forward. Often it takes up to 2 months for new items to begin selling in the shop and then things pick up quickly, patience is key!

Markdowns & Sales

With the introduction of our Pay What You Can section we are able to redirect many "Lasts" rather than marking them down. Items placed on our sale shelf are typically older than a year, the last of an order or design, or have slightly damaged packaging or are otherwise unable to sell at full price . It will never be just your products placed on sale. Final markdowns may be up to 50% off.

Pay What You Can

We offer an assortment of goods to customers Pay What You Can, at whatever price they can afford. Signage is provided to explain the love that goes into each product, but we do not set a minimum price. It will never be just your products offered, but they may be included. If you have products you would like to offer PWYC please reach out anytime and we can make it happen!

Online Sales

We now have an online store! Whenever available we use photos and descriptions from your website or social media for listings. Not all products carried are listed online, if items have multiple variations or colours they may be in store only items; We are always working to add items to the online store, but a listing is not guaranteed. The majority of our focus and business remains on the in-store experience.

Promotion of Your Work & Social Media

We keep a Maker Guide at the cash desk for our staff team to reference, please send along any tips or need to know details for the care or use of your items, including this on your packaging is ideal!

We try to keep up our with social media posts, but rarely offer solo feature posts. Credit is given for your photos if used, and whenever we can find accounts to tag we will, feel free to comment if you spot your work!

Seasonal Products

We have had limited success with seasonal items so we order these in small quantities. To have seasonal items considered, please send the details to us a minimum of two months in advance of the season or holiday, three months in advance for the Christmas season. We finish our Christmas season buying by October 31 each year.

Line Sheet or Catalog

A formal line sheet is great, but not required if your work is easily viewed on a website or Etsy page. Quantities available, ordering minimums, pricing (retail & wholesale) are what we need to make a decision.

Pricing & Order Minimums

We rarely place orders with wholesale discounts of less than 40%, as lower margins make it difficult to cover our operating expenses (rent, staffing, insurance & fees, damage, breakage, loss, packaging).  

Packaging & Display

All goods should be tagged or labelled with your branding, contact information and any necessary care instructions, prior to drop off. In addition to item tags, we will take a maximum of 15 business cards (should you have them) to be shared upon request. No additional signage is required.

Displays are created by The Trainyard, and changed often to ensure stock is rotated regularly. Branded business specific displays are not required or used in store as with so many businesses represented there just isn't enough space!

Quantity & Delivery

We understand many of the businesses we work with are small, and offer limited capacity for orders, we can be flexible on both quantities and delivery timelines. We do ask that if a delivery is going to be delayed that you let us know as soon as possible so we can plan accordingly. In the event that an order is delayed by more than three months (without contact with us) we reserve the right to cancel that order. Please keep in touch!

When Goods Don’t Sell

Occasionally products we’re excited about don’t have the sales needed to garner a repeat order, or may be included on our Pay What You Can wall, or in End Of Season sales to ensure we have the space and capacity to bring in new products in the future. We will make every effort to streamline future orders to focus on the products that sell best with our customers.