6 Essential Retail Policies for Quilt Store Owners

6 Essential Retail Policies for Quilt Store Owners | Like Sew

9:19

Every retail business needs to set policies.

No matter how well you run your business, issues come up — and when they do, you need to know how to deal with them. Concerns may arise with payment, shipping, returns, safety, or a variety of other issues. The earlier you make a decision on how to deal with these issues, the better. But, in the course of running your quilt store, it’s possible to encounter unexpected issues you need to set retail policies for, too.

The retail policies you set are unique to your quilt store. They’re based on your business, your customers, the market, and the policies of external organizations that are out of your control.

In this blog, we’ll go over six essential retail policies you need to set to get started in this process.

First: Clearly State Your Retail Policies

First things first: When you set your retail policies, it’s important to record them and make them accessible to customers (unless a policy needs to be kept confidential for security reasons). A best practice is to create a page on your website where you list your policies. Make sure to explain them clearly and thoroughly.

Your employees should understand your retail policies and know where to find them if needed. If your employees are never taught or fail to understand your policies, they won’t be followed.

When you hire new employees, explain your policies and your reasoning behind each one. Give them access to your policies to refer to as needed, whether it’s a printed resource or published on your website.

6 Retail Policies To Set Right Now

Here, we list six essential retail policies you need to set, so your quilt store is prepared. If you already have policies in place, look them over, determine if there’s anything you need to adjust, and consider adding these items if they’re missing from your list.

1. Hours of Operation

Having consistent hours of operation helps you manage your customers’ expectations and makes it easier for them to plan a visit to your quilt store. Of course, exceptions to your regular hours are unavoidable for holidays and other occasions.

As you plan your store’s hours, answer these questions:

What will your regular hours of operation be?
On which holidays will you close your store, and on which will you stay open?
Will you take business-related calls after hours?

As you consider the answers to these questions, think about your selling potential around holidays. Seasonal fabric products are very popular — customers like to use Christmas, Halloween, or Valentine’s Day fabric to make quilts, blankets, clothing, and other crafts. However, they probably buy Christmas fabric well before Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. Keep these trends in mind, so you don’t close on a day where you can bring in high sales.

2. Payment

You need to determine which forms of payment you accept — and which ones you don’t. As you make this decision, think about which forms of payment your customers prefer to use. Do they typically pay with card, or do they prefer cash? Do any of your customers write checks? If a certain payment method is popular among customers, it’s in your best interest to accept it to make more sales.

Modern point of sale (POS) systems have become an essential tool for businesses. Among many useful features, they allow business owners to take payments in a variety of forms — including cash, cards, and new digital payment methods like Apple Pay and Google Pay. If you’re looking into using a POS system at your quilt store, find one that accepts as many payment methods as possible.

3. Shipping

If e-commerce is going to be a part of your business, you need to determine how you’re going to manage shipping. First, decide what shipping service you want to use. The policies of the shipping service are out of your control and will influence your policies, so choose a service that’s a good fit for your quilt store. Some POS systems, including Like Sew and Shopify, allow you to manage shipping straight from the system.

You need to figure out whether you can ship internationally or only domestically. Many quilt stores ship only domestically due to the expense involved — and because most of their target audiences are in the U.S. If you discover there’s an international market for your products, make sure shipping to these areas will be profitable before you commit to it.

Some customers may want to cancel an order after it’s been placed. You have to decide if you can allow this or if purchases are final. You may allow an order to be canceled before an item ships, but not after it ships. Making this decision in advance helps you avoid stress when these situations come up.

4. Returns

Your return policy is one of your most important. While accepting returns means refunding money you’ve already been paid, deciding not to accept any returns can frustrate customers and discourage some from making purchases in the first place.

Consider these questions:

Will you accept returns?
Will there be a time limit for accepting returns?
If you don’t typically accept returns, will you make an exception for a defective product?
Will you accept a return if it’s been modified by a customer?

You may decide a customer can return a piece of fabric or other quilting item within 30 or 60 days, but after that, it won’t be accepted. Because your inventory changes over time as you offer different products, if a customer brings something back a year later, you may not even sell the item anymore.

If a fabric is defective, it’s best practice to allow a person to return it. However, if a customer has already cut a fabric, it’s not typical to accept it back, since it’s less likely to sell. If you’re unsure what your policies should be on accepting returns, research what other quilt stores are doing and base your policies on theirs.

5. Copyright

The designs on fabric are often copyrighted. While you may be allowed to sell it to customers for their personal use, customers are prohibited from copying the design for resale. If this applies to any of the fabric you sell, make this clear on your website. This protects you, your suppliers, and your customers from potential legal issues.

6. Safety

Setting safety policies helps you ensure the well-being of your customers and employees. While some safety policies might be customer-facing, others might be internal policies.

Customer-facing policies have to do with safely navigating the store. For example, you can create a policy about reaching fabric items on tall shelves in the store. Using designated stools and ladders (that have been tested for stability) ensures employees and customers are safe — standing on an unstable chair or box can result in injury.

Put up a sign letting customers know to ask an attendant for help rather than standing on something to reach. You might also put up a sign warning customers to exercise caution when using a sewing machine, or asking them to alert an employee before using one. These signs help you prevent injuries, and protect you from financial liability if someone breaks store policy and is hurt.

An internal safety policy would be a plan for dealing with a threatening situation like a burglar, for example. Consult with safety professionals, make a plan for these potential situations, and communicate them clearly with employees. You can hold a safety drill, so employees are familiar with the plan and more prepared for a threatening situation.

Related Read: Quilt Shop Security: 7 Best Practices

How To Set the Right Retail Policies With Like Sew

Setting clear retail policies early on in your business helps you avoid issues down the road. If you determine you aren’t going to accept returns on cut fabric, you won’t have to make this decision later when a customer wants to return a piece of unsellable fabric. If you decide you’re going to close on a holiday, you don’t have to worry about whether you’ll stay open as that holiday approaches.

Even after creating a comprehensive set of retail policies for your quilt store, you may have an issue occur that you aren’t prepared for. If a customer’s bulk purchase causes you to sell out and other customers can’t get the fabric they came in for, you may consider imposing a limit on the quantity of an item a customer can buy at once. Over time, adapt your policies to address new issues that are relevant to your business.

To help you implement policies like payment and shipping, a POS system is invaluable. Like Sew is an all-in-one cloud-based POS solution designed specifically to help you run your quilt store. It offers general features like inventory management and e-commerce, as well as fabric-specific features like fractional yards, work orders for sewing machine repairs, and access to fabric suppliers.

To see Like Sew for yourself, schedule a demo today!