A group of people standing and interacting inside a retail or craft shop with wooden shelves displaying various items, including hats, bags, and framed pictures. A person in the foreground on the left wears a black top and headphones, and a sign reading 'LUCKY NUMBER 2' is partially visible.

Indespoke — Birmingham and Solihull

Sell on a real shelf.

Shelf Placement is your own shelf in a staffed shop from £50 a month. Our team merchandise it and sell from it five days a week, and every product goes on indespoke.com. Round 4, the Christmas season, closes Friday 23 October.

Apply for Shelf Placement

What Indespoke is

A shop that sells your creations

Indespoke is a retail and creative enterprise hub, and a not-for-profit community interest company. We run two shops, one in Birmingham and one in Solihull, and between them they carry the work of over 100 independent brands.

A market stall is £30 to £60 for one day and you have to stand behind it. A shop of your own is several thousand a month before you have sold anything. We sit in between: a staffed shop floor, five days a week, from £50 a month.

You keep ownership of your stock until it sells. We pay you monthly, with a statement showing exactly what went.

Shelf space

What you would be booking

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Shelf Placement — your own shelf

£50 a month

Where most brands start. Your own shelf in a staffed shop, merchandised and sold by our team five days a week — you never have to be there. Every product listed on indespoke.com, live stock and sales you can check any time, and a place in our windows, campaigns and email at no extra cost. £150 for the three-month season up front, or £55 a month rolling, plus our standard 20% commission. Under £12 a week.

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Featured Brand — add-on

£100 a month

The front of the shop, and the window. Three positions per shop, approval only, taken alongside a placement by most brands. A brand feature on indespoke.com, a social spotlight, and first refusal on workshops and press. £100 a month, a month at a time. December is £150, and the same 20% commission applies.

Shelf space opens four times a year: applications open in the first week of each quarter, with a decision by the last week of that month. Round 4, the Christmas season, closes Friday 23 October. Indespoke membership is included for as long as your placement runs.

The process — what happens after you apply

From application to trading in about a month

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Apply

One form: your brand, your products, which shop and whether you want Featured Brand alongside. No payment taken.

2

Score and decide

We review against a written checklist — fit, photography, and whether your products suit the fixture. You will have a decision by the last week of the month applications closed in, and a decline still gets a reply and a pop-up day offered instead.

3

Sign the agreement

Your agreement comes through to sign electronically. Nothing to print or post.

4

Pay for the season

An invoice by email, full season up front, card or bank transfer. Your space is held once it is paid — unpaid slots go to the waiting list.

5

Listings and SKUs

You set up your account on our vendor portal. It takes you product by product, issues your SKUs in our format and prints you a label sheet. We approve the listings, and your dashboard shows your stock and your sales from the day you go live.

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Stock delivered and labelled

A booked slot to bring stock in. Labels must match the SKUs the vendor portal issued you. Roughly 30 small items, or 8 to 10 clothing pieces, plus 10 in backstock.

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Your space is set and you go live

You merchandise your own space with our agreement, your name card goes up and your listings switch on, ready for the first day of the season. We leave a full month for steps three to seven so nobody is rushing stock onto a shelf.

Questions — FAQ

Things you may want to know

Yes. Every brand needs cover in place. Send your certificate with your product list.
You keep ownership of your stock until it sells, and you get your own login to the Indespoke vendor portal showing live stock and live sales, so you can check how you are doing whenever you like without asking us. Payment is within 30 to 60 days of the month end, by bank transfer, with commission already deducted. Every payment comes with a statement showing exactly what sold. Your listings and SKUs are issued by the portal before you drop stock off, so there is nothing to key in twice.
Enough to fill your space and keep it filled. As a guide, around 30 small items, or 8 to 10 clothing pieces, plus about 10 in backstock. If a line runs low we flag it and you have seven days to replenish. Nothing comes into the store without being approved first, and every item needs a label carrying its SKU, price and brand name.
Yes. Take a Shelf Placement and Indespoke membership is complimentary for as long as that placement runs. You do not sign up separately and you do not pay twice. If you do not renew the placement, the included membership ends with it — but you can carry it on by itself for £15 a month, and most brands do. Membership on its own is a separate thing entirely: the community, the coaches and the Friday surgeries, no shelf involved. You can join any day of the year.
Our standard rate is 20% of the sale price, and it applies on top of the placement fee, on every pathway — Shelf Placement and Featured Brand alike. If you are in the shop selling your own products on a pop-up day you can use your own card machine, and we take nothing at all. Higher-touch consignment and special partnership arrangements are priced differently and only ever by written agreement.
Yes, subject to space. Each shop takes 35 Shelf Placement brands and a separate placement fee applies to each, and we'll talk through whether your range suits both floors before you commit to a second one.
Shelf Placement is booked by the season — three months — and then continues month to month at £55 until you tell us otherwise. Featured Brand is taken a month at a time. Pop-Up days are booked individually with nothing ongoing. Fees are payable monthly in advance and are non-refundable: if you leave mid-period, you stay in to the end of the period you have paid for. Notice periods and stock collection windows are set out in your agreement.
Yes. A Shop Floor Residency is £30 a trading day and is a longer-run pop-up — you present and trade your own business from our floor. Your own till is free of commission; through our till it is 10%. We also have rooms: £30 a day for the small room and £90 a day for the large one, in Solihull. Both start with a conversation rather than a booking form — get in touch and we'll talk it through.
Shelf space opens four times a year, because a shop floor only works if it is planned and every brand in a round starts together. Applications open in the first week of each quarter — January, April, July and October — and you have a decision by the last week of that month. We then leave a full month for the agreement, the invoice, your listings and SKUs, and getting stock in. Miss a round and we'll hold you for the next one. Pop-up days run all year and just need 48 hours' notice.
That is the space fee, and our standard 20% commission comes off what sells. There is no joining fee, no listing fee, no marketing fee and no charge for the till, the bags, the staff or the statements — and your membership is complimentary while the placement runs. You need your own public liability insurance, and you cover getting your stock to us.

Not ready for a season? Take a day.

A pop-up day is £30 for a full trading day on our shop floor — a 6ft stall and two chairs, our till, bags, wifi and team, and a listing on what's on that day. Sell through our till at 20%, or bring your own card machine and keep every penny. Approved automatically, booked 48 hours ahead, nothing rolls on. December days are £50.

Or if it is the people you are after rather than a shelf, Indespoke membership is £15 a month on its own — the community, the coaches and a business surgery every Friday.

Book a pop-up day

Ready to apply?

Choose your shop, see the shelves you would be on, add Featured Brand if you want it, and send your application. Round 4, the Christmas season, closes Friday 23 October and no payment is taken when you apply.

Apply for Shelf PlacementBook a pop-up day

What a placement includes

  • A team who sell for you

    Trained shop floor staff who learn your products and recommend them by name. Five days a week, in two locations, without you giving up a single day of your own.

  • Online as well as on the shelf

    Every product listed on indespoke.com and built to our retail standard, with your own portal login showing live stock and live sales.

  • Marketing you don't pay extra for

    Window moments, in-store campaigns, email and social, plus the press and partnership enquiries that come to us. Shared across the brands we stock, at no extra cost.

  • Numbers you can actually use

    A monthly statement showing exactly what sold, plus the thing no marketplace gives you: what customers picked up, put back and asked for.

  • Membership, included

    Complimentary while your placement runs: the community, quarterly brand meet-ups, coaches you can put a question to, and over a hundred independent businesses who have already been where you are.

    What membership includes 

  • Business support, not just a shelf

    A Virtual Business Surgery thread every Friday for the problem you have been circling all week.

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A few things we ask

  • Keep your space stocked

    When we flag a line as running low, we need it replenished within seven days.

  • Tell your own audience

    At least one post a month naming the shop, so the people who already follow you know where to find you.

  • Come to the quarterly meet-up

    Brands, the team, and what's working across both shops. One scheduled touchpoint a quarter, not a weekly commitment.

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A shelf alone doesn't grow a brand. The work around it does. Time in the shop is optional, but customers love meeting the makers, and it's one of the best ways to sell. So we make it worth your while.

Where your products would sit

  • Birmingham

    23–24 Great Western Arcade, B2 5HU. Under the glass roof of the arcade, two minutes from Snow Hill.

  • Solihull

    Mill Lane, Mell Square, B91 3BA. A bigger floor, with brands trading alongside us and rooms to run a session in.

  • Gift basket with natural products on a wooden surface, featuring a 'Free From Gift Awards Gold 2024' badge.

    The brands already here

    Over a hundred independent businesses across skincare, candles, jewellery, cards, prints, tea and gifts.

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Not sure which way in is right for you?

Send us a question and our team will come back to you. If you already know you want shelf space, use the Shelf Placement application above instead — it captures everything we need to make a decision.