A Hybrid Model for Garment Production

The traditional model seems so wasteful: make $20,000 worth of samples which you will distribute to your showrooms, ALL of which cost 3X the standard garment production cost, FEW to NONE of which will ever be sold to recoup any of the money.

In launching Pixyworld, we just couldn't do it. Why not do a real production run right off the bat, with reasonable production costs, and sell direct to the retail customer, at a reasonable retail price?

Well, this approach turned out not to be the whole solution either. Selling to the retail customer, "cold," without brand recognition, turned out to be unworkably slow. We realized that retailers and showrooms do provide a valuable service to the designer, especially the new designer.

So we have begun giving samples to showrooms and taking wholesale orders. Mind you, the samples we are giving them cost a fraction of the typical sample cost. Also, we believe we are giving retailers a much-needed option: to buy small quantities for immediate shipment, rather than ordering large quantites 6 months in advance. In today's retail climate, retailers need this kind of flexibility.

But there are still two down sides to this approach: First, it limits our sales potential to what we actually have in stock. Our fabrics, to date, are non-reorderable; so we have no way of taking orders for more garments than we had made initially. Second, we are finding that many retailers, used to the season-ahead ordering system, simply don't have money to spend on orders for immediate shipment; they have already spend this season's money, last season.

So our idea is to move toward a hybrid approach: make a moderate-sized first production run, rather than making samples. Make these garments available for immediate sale. But design the garments so that they are also re-orderable. This way, we can also be taking orders to be filled at the beginning of the next season.

This approach can only work if our collections are extremely versatile, season-wise. Also, it will only work while we are small enough to avoid the stigma attached to "last season's" designs. But those are exactly our strengths. Perhaps this can be a way forward for today's new boutique line.

Online Clothing Sales: Return Policy Matters!

When I was considering advertising my little girls' clothing line on Momfinds.com, I ran across a very interesting snippet on their advertising page:

"Online Shopping Concerns (ranked in order of most common response to least common response:

Fit of items
Hassle of returns
Shipping costs
Quality of items
Security of entering credit card number online
Finding right item or shop
Wrong item(s)/lost item(s)
None

MomFinds Consumer Insight:

Online shoppers' primary concern is that an item will not fit and that it will have to be returned at the consumer's expense. To address these concerns, we promote well-known brands (so that sizing is familiar), feature items that do not need to be tried on (i.e. handbags, sunglasses, gifts, etc.), and aim to select vendors with free shipping and return policies."

This confirmed what I had already felt: that, for items that are size-sensitive, going overboard to make returns easy and fast is really important.

Thankfully, I don't get many returns. My returns policy requires me to pay shipping both ways for any and all returns & exchanges. (Ouch!!)

But happy customers matter. I once heard a stat that said a customer who is happy with her purchase the first time will tell 3 friends about it; a customer who is treated well when returning an item will tell 10 friends!

So, as much as it hurts, don't cut corners on returns!

Press for Pixyworld

Press helps. No doubt about it!!

I was contacted recently by Earnshaw's Magazine for permission to use our Paisley Print Tee in an article on Paisley. So, look for Pixyworld in their next issue!

While that is the breaking news, I am so grateful to all the bloggers who have given me a spot. So, I recently created a Press page on my site to highlight their work.

Thank you, my blogging friends!!