Summer Internship 2013 Britney fontenot
Luxury Garage Sale is a high end consignment that provides a service by selling new and gently used designer items. These items range from current designer clothing and accessories to vintage. Luxury Garage Sale makes sure that customers are buying designer items that are 100% authentic.
Luxury Garage Sale is a company owned by Brielle and Lindsay who are childhood friends that always had loved collecting clothing and accessories. After a while Brielle and Lindsay started to sell their own items and realized that their friends needed this too. Finally it dawned on them into creating their consignment store, Luxury Garage Sale.
Production Process
At Luxury Garage Sale there is a process that each product goes through from the moment the consigner hands the product over to the moment the product gets shipped to the customer.
1. The consigner will bring the items to the store or Brielle and Lindsay will pick up the items from the consigners house. 2. LGS Staff will evaluate the items to see what price would fit best for each one. LGS Staff will also check the authenticity of the item. 3. The items are separated into two different categories, sold directly in the store or sold online. 4. All of the items will be put into the system that is used called Seller Vantage. After putting each item into the system, they will then be tagged. 5. After tagging the items, they are put into the cubby and rotated each day until it reaches the copyrighting table. (This process takes about 14 days) 6. Copywriter will then describe the items in every detail so the customers know what they are about to purchase. The copywriters will also put key words into Seller Vantage that customers my be searching online when buying on eBay. 7. The items are sent to the photography station. The photographers will take pictures of each item as well as the damages on the item. 8. After photographed the interns will take the number associated with the item and LAUNCH the item. This is when interns will take the information from Seller Vantage,
Production Process check if everything is correct, then send the information over to eBay. This is where customers will go through the bidding process. 9. After the items are put onto eBay, they are put into the shipping room while they are going through the bidding process. 10. When an item is sold the Shipping Manager will collect all of the items and the interns will box all of them to be shipped.
This whole process takes about 30 days from dropping off of the item to launching it onto eBay. If items do not sell they are then sent back to the consigner or the consigner can pick it up from the store.
Learning Objective Luxury Garage Sale is an upscale consignment store that focuses on selling used designer items. These items range from clothing, accessories, as well as shoes. This store is located on Wells Street in Old Town, Chicago IL. Many consigners from all around the United States will ship their items to Luxury Garage Sale for them to sell the items.
I am so excited to be interning with Luxury Garage Sale for my summer 2013 internship. My supervisor, Melissa Figiel, has just started at Luxury Garage Sale and I am very excited to be working with her as well as this wonderful team. During this internship I expect that I will be learning various skills to run a small business operations. These skills will include luxury retail experience, online copywriting, fashion e-commerce, eBay listing, and inventory processing.
I have been volunteering at Luxury Garage Sale since April 13th. Since then I have already gotten to see a little bit about the business and what I will be learning this summer during my internship. Since I am working with designer brands, this is such a dream for me to be around Prada, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, etc. Since I am dealing with a lot of vintage designer brands, it is very important to make sure that everything is processed correctly so that the consigner and the customer are happy.
At this store there is a certain process that needs to be done from the moment the consigner hands their items over to Luxury Garage Sale, to the moment that they
get sent off to a customer. These steps are very important and involve a 90 day process. First every item of clothing needs to be passed through a group of workers who check and see if these items have been damaged or are fake. Then they are marked down and passed through the processing center where they will need to be tagged in order of each consigner.
After each item is tagged it is them put on racks and rotated among a 15 day cycle. Once it hits day one, it is then put into the photo room and they will take pictures to put onto eBay then processed through the launching department ready to sell. After an item is sold, it is then pulled from the floor and put into the shipping department. This is where the item will be boxed and shipped to the customer.
During my summer internship I expect that I will learn about how to run this small business. I will be taken through each step of the process and learn how Luxury Garage Sale works as a consignment store. This is a great opportunity for me since I was just involved in the class Merchandise Management and had to invent my own store. Now I get to see how a small business is run and understand each portion of it.
Internship Log Sheet April 15th - May 17th Mondays & Wednesdays: 10:00am - 1:00pm May Monday 27th: 10:00am - 3:00pm Tuesday 28th: 10:00am - 3:00pm Friday 31st: 10:00am - 3:00pm June Monday 3rd: 10:00am - 3:00pm Tuesday 4th: 10:00am - 3:00pm Friday 7th: 10:00am - 3:00pm Monday 10th: 10:00am - 3:00pm Tuesday 11th: 10:00am - 3:00pm Friday 14th: 10:00am - 3:00pm Monday 17th: 10:00am - 3:00pm Tuesday 18th: 10:00am - 3:00pm Friday 21st: 10:00am - 3:00pm Monday 24th: 10:00am - 3:00pm Tuesday 25th: 10:00am - 3:00pm Friday 28th: 10:00am - 3:00pm JULY Monday 1st: 10:00am - 3:00pm Tuesday 2nd: 10:00am - 3:00pm Friday 5th: 10:00am - 3:00pm Monday 15th: 10:00am - 3:00pm Tuesday 16th: 10:00am - 3:00pm Friday 19th: 10:00am - 3:00pm Monday 22nd: 10:00am - 3:00pm Tuesday 23rd: 10:00am - 3:00pm Friday 26th: 10:00am - 3:00pm Monday 29th: 10:00am - 3:00pm Tuesday 30th: 10:00am - 3:00pm August Friday 2nd: 10:00am - 3:00pm Monday 5th: 10:00am - 3:00pm Tuesday 6th: 10:00am - 3:00pm Friday 9th: 10:00am - 3:00pm Monday 12th Tuesday 13th Friday 16th
Internship Tasks • Thank You letters For each consigner that consigns their items with Luxury Garage Sale I would create a personal hand written thank you letter. Sarah Director of Business Development
• Launch items onto eBay To launch items onto eBay there are certain steps I would need to take to complete the process. 1. Log onto Seller Vantage 2. Type the item number that you want to launch 3.Select the option “Prepare for eBay” 4. Fill in the details of the items (category of item, color, size) 5. Select 4pm for this item to be launched onto eBay for auction 6. Key in specific details. New with Tags (NWT) or New with Box (NWB) 7. Click “Preview” to go over the information that will show up on eBay 8. Send to eBay
Item numbers to be launched that day
• Pack items for shipping Kelsey, shipping manager, will collect all of the clothing that has been sold the night before and sort them on the rack into three categories. The items are sorted into three categories (needs box, go into bag, group orders). It depends on the day, but some days are busier than others in the packing room.
The Shipping Room
Products that have been shipped:
• Tag and sort items for eBay When consigners bring in items, they are put through the process of tagging. This process is when each item is entered into Seller Vantage, then tags are made to identify each item. All of the consigners items have their name on the tag. After tagging the items they are put into the cubby with a divider to separate each consigner. Jay Cutlers wife, Kristin Cavallari, consigns her items with Luxury Garage Sale.
Items needed to be tagged everyday
Katie Inventory Coordinator
• Tag items for the store This procedure is different than tagging items to be launched onto eBay. These tags need to be made without the consigners name on them as well as put on a Luxury Garage Sale card. The items that are in the store are all “buy it now”.
Tags made to be printed:
Lauren Retail Manager
• Move items in cubby This process was to move each cubby down one by one everyday so that the items can reach the copywriters table.
Megan, Rachel, Angie Copywriters
Copywriters desk
• Organize the IN STORE items by product type IN STORE items are chosen on how the pop out and are very different than other. Almost all Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Hermes, and D&G are put into the store. Whenever new product would come in and there was now room for it in the store, I would sort and arrange the closet by brand, type of clothing, as well as short sleeve/ length to longest sleeve/length.
Shirts
Suit Jackets
Dresses Coats/Skirts
• Steam items to be put into the store In the photography room I would help with steaming the items that needed to be put into the store after being photographed.
The photography Room
Natalie Photographer/graphic designer
Amanda Photographer
Other internship duties:
Melissa Director of Operations
• Sort merchandise in the store • File paperwork • Put together checks for consigners • Sort Shoes/Bags alphabetically • Clean and organize the closets/cabinets/desks/hangers • Find missing products • Go through bags that have unsold items. Sort by each consigner name (A-Z) • Pack return items to send to consigners • Pack supplies and items for Brielle and Lindsay's trips (Seattle and St Louis)
Internship Log April 15th - May 17th Mondays & Wednesdays: 10:00am - 1:00pm Luxury Garage Sale decided to hire me early to get a head start on my internship. This was great because I was able to learn all of the internship duties early before more interns came into the store for the summer. I was working directly with Tracy, who was the director of operations at the time. I helped her with a lot of things she needed as well as packing boxes for shipment, helping in the front of the store, and tagging items. My favorite task was tagging the items. I liked this because I was able to see all of the new items that came into the store
May Monday 27th: 10:00am - 3:00pm Tuesday 28th: 10:00am - 3:00pm Friday 31st: 10:00am - 3:00pm My first week of my internship went great. All of the interns and I work together as a team in many tasks at Luxury Garage Sale. This week I helped with packing boxes, moving cubbies, tagging, and launching items onto eBay. Packing boxes is a daily task, this is because items get sold every day. Some days are busier than others, Monday seems to be the busiest since all weekend customers have been buying items on eBay and the shipping room is closed on the weekend. This Monday we had to ship over 150 items! Every day the cubbies need to be rotated and moved. This is because new items come each day and there need to be space to hang these items. Also every day the copywriters will write about all the details of each item before they are sent to the photography room. This week I was able to launch items onto eBay. This is important because this determines the time the new items get put onto eBay after they have been processed into the system, went through the copywriters, and photographed. All of the Launching needs to be done daily before 4pm.
June Monday 3rd: 10:00am - 3:00pm Tuesday 4th: 10:00am - 3:00pm Friday 7th: 10:00am - 3:00pm This week there was a busy start to June at Luxury Garage Sale. There were many consigners dropping off items. I spent most of my mornings helping Kelsey with shipping items to customers. Every day I spent about 2 - 3 hours in the shipping room packing up boxes for the clothing customers have purchased. After shipping was complete, I would help Katie sort out the items that just came into the store. These items needed to be put into the inventory system as fast as possible since each day consigners were bringing used items into the store. After each item was put into the inventory system, I would tag all of the items with their consigner name, item number, price, and the description of that item. I also created IN STORE tags that Lauren needed to be completed. This week Halle Berry's dress came into Luxury Garage Sale!
Monday 10th: 10:00am - 3:00pm Tuesday 11th: 10:00am - 3:00pm Friday 14th: 10:00am - 3:00pm This week at Luxury Garage Sale was another busy week. I did shipping each day with Kelsey, as well as tagging and inventory with Katie. Tagging was busy again because Brielle and Lindsay had a lot of consignment pick ups. They would go to the consigners house and pick out from their closet what they know will sell well at Luxury Garage Sale. Other tasks I did in my internship this week were thank you letters, launching items onto eBay, as well as putting together checks for consigners.
Monday 17th: 10:00am - 3:00pm Tuesday 18th: 10:00am - 3:00pm Friday 21st: 10:00am - 3:00pm Although this week was a slow week for Luxury Garage Sale, there were still many tasks to do. This week I helped with packing items for shipping, tagging items, moving cubbies around to help the copywriters, thank you letters, find missing items that did not sell, as well as packing for Lindsay and Brielle business trip to Seattle. This week there was a change in the window display! Lauren, retail manager, used gold tape to wrap the windows with. This created an amazing look for the Chanel clothing that appeared in the windows.
Monday 24th: 10:00am - 3:00pm Tuesday 25th: 10:00am - 3:00pm Friday 28th: 10:00am - 3:00pm This week at Luxury Garage Sale I helped with moving cubbies every morning, packing items for shipping, thank you letters, launching items onto eBay, as well as helping in the photography room with steaming items to be put into the store. My two favorite tasks this week were packing items for shipping and launching items onto eBay. The reason why these were my favorite this week is because I get to see all of the designer items that are either sold or about to be sold. I am very fond of all
the Louis Vuitton products consigners drop off. Even
though they are used items, these designer items are still in great condition!
These ears are some of my favorite new items in the store! Brielle's baby on the right is loving the rabbit ears just like the Olsen twins! The ears to the left sold for $450
July Monday 1st: 10:00am - 3:00pm Tuesday 2nd: 10:00am - 3:00pm Wednesday 3rd: 10:00am - 3:00pm Friday 5th: 10:00am - 3:00pm This week at Luxury Garage Sale I helped with shipping items that have been sold, tagging, packed items to be sent back to consigners, sorted shoes in alphabetical order and by style, organize the closet for in store items, made in store tags, as well as file paperwork that was signed by consigners.
In store items
Organized shoes
Items that did not sell and need to be returned to consigners are located above cubbies. These items are in bags with the consigners name on them.
Monday 15th: 10:00am - 3:00pm Tuesday 16th: 10:00am - 3:00pm Friday 19th: 10:00am - 3:00pm
This week was a busy week as an intern at the store. There were a lot of items that needed to be shipped as well as items that were dropped off. This week I helped with moving cubbies, shipping items that had been sold, tagging items, as well as putting together checks to be sent out to consigners.
This week my favorite task was tagging items with Katie. This is because there was hours worth of tagging that needed to be done and all of these items were so unique. These items were designers like Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Wild Fox, St John, Gucci, and many more. One of my favorites were the Valentino booties. These booties were adorable, and they were new!
Monday 22nd: 10:00am - 3:00pm Tuesday 23rd: 10:00am - 3:00pm Friday 26th: 10:00am - 3:00pm This week at Luxury Garage Sale my job as an intern was to go through all of the bags of return items (items that did not sell) and count how many items were left for each consigner. I did this for consigners A - Z. After this was finished, I helped Kelsey with shipping, helped Katie with tagging items that were dropped off by consigners, as well as packed for Lindsay and Brielle business trip to St. Louis. Items that came in this week that store this week that stood out to me were Chanel bags and a dress that was modeled by film star Leighton Meester.
July/August Monday 29th: 10:00am - 3:00pm Tuesday 30th: 10:00am - 3:00pm Wednesday 31st: 10:00am - 3:00pm Friday 2nd: 10:00am - 3:00pm This week at Luxury Garage Sale I moved the cubbies, tagged items with Katie, helped Kelsey in the shipping room, sorted consigner bags of return items A - Z, sorted items for Lauren in the store as well as made tags for in store items, and organized Brielle and Lindsay's office. This week there was a change in the window display! The theme is now bright and cheerful for the end of July, “Candy Coated Sumer!�. The dress that was modeled by Leighton Meester is featured in the window. This dress is also on display with other bright and cheerful items.
Monday 5th: 10:00am - 3:00pm Tuesday 6th: 10:00am - 3:00pm Wednesday 7th: 10:00am - 3:00pm Friday 9th: 10:00am - 3:00pm This week at Luxury Garage Sale the tasks I completed were tagging, boxing, creating in store tags for Lauren, tagged items with Katie, moved cubbies, sort checks for consigners, and organized in store products. This week there were two items that stood out to me, the Missoni fox scarf and the Louis Vuitton briefcase. These are my favorite this week because they stand out within all of the other items that were consigned. This Missoni scarf was put on display in the store for customers to enjoy.
Internship Summary !
Luxury Garage Sale is an upscale consignment store that sells used designer
items. The items are anything from clothing, shoes, as well as accessories. This store has only been open since December 2012 and yet has attracted a large number of consigners from all around the world, including celebrity consigners. Luxury Garage Sale has been a great first internship experience. I enjoyed how everyone worked together as a team in helping this small consignment store succeed.
While interning at Luxury Garage Sale for the past four months, I have gained great experience in how to run a small consignment store. Since it is a small store, I was able to take full advantage and ask many questions on how the business operation works. There are many steps a consignment store goes through from the moment they get the items, to the end of getting the item into the buyers’ hands. I took on many tasks at this internship such as tagging new store items into inventory, organizing store displays, launching items onto eBay to attract customers, packing items for shipments and sending thank you letters.
The two most important tasks at this store are tagging and launching items. The reason why these two tasks are the most important is because every day new items are consigned to the store and everything needs to be rotated daily. The first step is tagging items. Tagging starts with getting the item from the consigner. Consigners’ items can range in number from one item to many items coming through from one consigner. A consigner may bring items into the store or Brielle and Lindsay, the store managers,
may pick the item up from her house. My job was to follow the detailed process involved in tagging the item once it arrived in the store. I would then go to the next step for inventory control. Inventory control process was run by Katie. I would identify each item to her by giving her the brand name, then identifying if the item still had the original sales tag (important because it can be sold for more if not used), then provide her with the description of the item, as well as the price of that item. When we completed all of the items from a consigner, she would take that information and print out the tags. I would then have to cut out the tags and put them all on of the items. Once the there was an identification and price tag for every item, it was ready for the 2nd step, launching.
I was also responsible in my internship to handle the launching process. This involved putting items onto eBay daily. For launching I was handed a sheet of paper with all of the item numbers that I needed to put onto eBay that day. The launching needed to be done by 4pm. After this process was done, I would help with anything the staff needed that could help make them more organized.
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Overall the processes I learned and experience dealing with the team was
beneficial for learning to teamwork as well as the end-to-end sales process. This internship was a great experience for me, I enjoyed working with everyone at Luxury Garage Sale. All of the staff were so helpful with giving me the information to understand the operations of a small retail store. This internship helped me prepare for working in the retail industry as I prepare for graduation.