I learned a lot (like more than you could ever put in 10 million blogs) from working with my consultant but the one example that I give over and over to prospective clients or really anyone who wants to talk about retail (it’s a sickness 🙂 is what I call my lesson in shoes. I LOVE shoes ….. I mean am completely obsessed would spend all my money on earth on shoes, LOVE shoes.
So after my little shop was open for a year or so … I said to myself … SELF if you love shoes so much … why don’t you sell them. Great Idea Self !! So I ordered some shoes that weren’t that expensive so it didn’t seem like that much of a risk to me. And it made me pretty happy. But they didn’t fly out the door – they sold OK … I would only sell about half of the pairs at full price and have to mark down the rest and they would sit for about 3-4 months before I’d get rid of all of them. BUT I LOVED LOVED LOVED THEM.
Fast forward a year and ½ or so, and my retail fairy godmother and I are going over the numbers and she says …. those shoes aren’t doing you any favors. WHAT?? NO, DON’T SAY SUCH A THING . . I LOVE THEM AND REALLY THEY DON’T COST THAT MUCH SO HOW CAN IT BE HURTING ME THAT MUCH ??
Well … let me tell you how … I finally agreed to take one case of shoes and cancel it and order some tee shirts instead (from my all time favorite vendor Lilla P – if you don’t have one of her shirts – RUN don’t walk to find one) as my retail fairy godmother suggested and here is what happened …..
I sold out of those tee shirts in less than a week and I ordered more and then sold out of those and ordered more and sold out of those … etc etc etc. So in the same time that it would have taken me to sell that case of shoes (some at a discount) — I sold over four orders of tees. All things being equal, if I had bought the shoes I would have ended up making about $225 in profit after all my markdowns. But with the same investment in tees I made over $1200. That is a pretty dramatic improvement. And it was the end of me selling shoes 🙂
This is why all retailers need a retail fairy godmother (i.e. a member of The Project: Retail) – because as a retailer (I can say this because I was one) you can get stuck on something you love or be convinced something is selling as it should be, and not see where it might not be the best for your business or bottom line !! We help you see ALL of those things that can strengthen your business and grow your profits.