As independent retailers, we are always on the lookout for unique products that won’t be found on the shelves of our big box brethren. Now there is a new resource to help us locate the regional artists and crafts people we like to support as part of the “buy local” movement.  We can also use it to find artisans in other parts of the world whose products  fit with our merchandising goals.

Trunkt.com is a bit like Etsy.com, the wildly successful retail site for craftspeople (see my blog, "Heavens to Etsy," from November 3, 2008), but its focus is on artisans who sell wholesale.  Once you have registered, which is a quick and painless process, you can search under the categories of Art and Paper, Fashion and Home or Food and Wellness (although there are no entries under Gourmet Food).  Running your mouse over the photograph of a product brings up information about the wholesale source, including location and minimum wholesale order.

The site allows you to browse categories by Most Recent or Seredipity, and you can also do a Tag Search if you are looking for a particular product. This not only works to find a category of interest, but also allows you to search for items made in your state.

You can save items of interest to your Wish List, and you can even put together a themed Showcase of items from various Trunkt vendors to create a portfolio of items you feel work well together.

Trunkt was started in 2007 as a source for unique designs.  Products are not sold through the site. The concept is to make connections for the member artists, and the motto of the site is: We Connect Exceptional Artisans With Wholesale Buyers.

To help small businesses buying from their site, the Trunkt folks (who are based in New York) have set up a page call Reading Room with links to useful articles about retailing.  In these challenging times, we can all use any help we can get!

 

Happy Retailing,

Carol “Orange” Schroeder