Comments on: Being discovered and selling: e-commerce incubators

By: Kathleen

Kathleen — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 01:47:24 +0000

Jill, Mike and Amy are excellent models of what I teach -produce to order. It’s seamless to the customer. Customer orders and FC says they’ll get a shipping notice within 24 hours. Unbeknown to the customer, the product doesn’t exist. They cut, sew and ship within 24 hours from Houston TX. I’ve written about this model often, in the book even, I have always said you get orders before you make anything. Most people can’t do it because, well, they aren’t looking to cut and sew themselves. They’d rather someone else do it. Ultimately, people who can make their own stuff will be more successful than those who don’t. It’s also why I’ve written myriad “why you should start your own factory” posts. Btw, neither could sew when they started the company but they’re motivated self starters. They worked out of their house for quite awhile doing everything themselves. Now they have two stitchers and a 6,000 sq ft shop. I can’t tell you what their gross is but it’s probably far in excess of what many imagine. In my experience tho, it is rather typical of people who run their own operations. Just wish I could convince more people to do it.

By: Alison Cummins

Alison Cummins — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 13:30:40 +0000

Jill,

Nope.

See http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/fit_couture_lean_manufacturing_implementation/ for an example of what she’s talking about. Mike Cerny has written posts himself, and Kathleen has written posts about Fit Couture where she explains how they make most of their items exactly when they are ordered and ship them immediately. (Despite claims of my bear-trap mind, in my brief search I couldn’t find that post. I will try again later, maybe on the weekend.)

By: Jill

Jill — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 12:42:44 +0000

Kathleen, I’d assume these folks do their production overseas and/or have the financial resources in order to produce units before they have the official “orders”. Is that right?

By: Kathleen

Kathleen — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 12:35:48 +0000

Xing: I know tons of DEs who sell their own stuff online successfully, a few haven’t gone wholesale -among them several clients who have become fabulously successful. It’s really the only way to go, problem is, operationally, you really have to have it together. The ones I’m thinking of specifically have all read my book, joined my forum (have been hanging around here for years) and also hired me to assess and analyze their products and operations. The product type has to be a match for the venue also.

What I don’t know is whether those who start with these ecommerce solution sites until they get their sea legs, go on to build a following. I think it is not as many as the given individuals would have hoped. Long story why…

By: Jill

Jill — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 12:26:26 +0000

That’s a good question, Xing. I wonder if anyone has successfully sold with ModCloth. I know they just received a lot of funding to expand its online offerings.

By: Xing

Xing — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 09:58:36 +0000

Thanks for posting this Kathleen. Being a fairly new label, I know it’s challenging to compete in e-commerce independently and these kinds of shopping sites may be a good alternative. It seems that many of these online stores featuring emerging designers with the exception of Etsy charge around a 15-30% commission, such as Smashing Darling. While we sell to retail stores, we would love to thrive in online sales for obvious reasons such as higher profits and more control in the selling process.

I’d be curious to know if you’ve heard any success stories from any other e-commerce DE’s who are e-commerce based who haven’t gone though the traditional route of selling wholesale to stores?

By: Now Accepting Open Submissions For E-Commerce Sales: Introducing StyleTrek | The Trim

Tue, 13 Jul 2010 18:04:56 +0000

[...] work, especially in today’s high-speed e-commerce world. While reading one of our favorite sites, Fashion Incubator, we came across a site, StyleTrek, that not only gives emerging talent a chance to get discovered [...]

By: Helen from Catwalk Genius

Helen from Catwalk Genius — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 15:17:28 +0000

Hello all,

I’m one of the co-founders of Catwalk Genius and while I won’t make any bold claims about my mathematical skills, I just wanted to clarify something about the returns calculation.

The £50k to which we refer is retail value, not wholesale. After all, our concept is based on the gains a designer can stand to make by cutting out the retailer and selling direct.

This example was based on selling wholesale at 100% markup of production costs, then the retailer adding a typical 2.7-2.8 multiple.

Granted, we took this as a basic starting point so it could be debated – and certainly it seems we need to improve the way it’s communicated! Helen.

By: Harper

Harper — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 08:45:12 +0000

For Formalwear and Bridal Designers, just an fyi that Recycled Bride is about to launch PRO Pages. I’m going to use it as my Sample Sale Rack in cyberspace and see what happens! They’re linked to all the major Wedding sites and prices on the site run the gamut up to basic Bridal retail, so we’re optimistic.

By: Jill Homiak

Jill Homiak — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 23:01:04 +0000

Thanks for passing that along Aimee!