Re: On-line lingerie sales
Using real people models instead of Playboy models would be FABULOUS! I feel so depressed whenever I receive an item that looks horrible on me and terrific in the advertisement. Do you see the difference between the 2 pictures? Same item, different people. I also suspect that the Playboy-type model is wearing a custom fit item.
Re: On-line lingerie sales
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lizette
Using real people models instead of Playboy models would be FABULOUS! I feel so depressed whenever I receive an item that looks horrible on me and terrific in the advertisement. Do you see the difference between the 2 pictures? Same item, different people. I also suspect that the Playboy-type model is wearing a custom fit item.
Thanks, Lizette. I'm a metallurgist, not an on-line lingerie sales expert. Cos this is so important to my dancer friend I'm trying every avenue I can find to help her, but this ain't my field - and I don't want, (with the best of intentions), to lead her astray.
I've been checking out UK on-line lingerie links via search engines and a significant percentage are dead links. Been downloading company accounts as well. They are abbreviated accounts, so you have to extrapolate profitability from them. Again, a lot of these companies haven't done well. If it was easy, everyone would be making pot loads of money over the Internet.
I think you've just pointed up one of the pitfalls, and I'll suggest to her that she reviews her choice of costumes to try and minimise this problem.
In this situation what do you do? Send the costume back because it doesn't fit, or grit your teeth and accept it?
Many thanks - this just leaves me another 20 - 30 pitfalls to try and identify for her!!!
Phil.
Re: On-line lingerie sales
The worst online retail experience I ever had was through http://www.odgirl.com (stripperweb actually links to their site.) I bought a school girl costume described on their website as "cotton/polyester blend." I assumed this meant a fairly heavy material. When it arrived, it had been opened before and the tag read "lycra."
Now I don't know too much about textiles, but even if lycra is made from a cotton/polyester blend, it's still different from a garment specifically labeled "cotton/polyester."
I wrote them an email about it and they replied, "Lycra is cotton/polyester. Sorry." They were very short and *very* rude to me. The emails went back and forth for a while until they agreed to give me only some of my money back.
My suggestion is this: Describe the lingerie on your site as it is described by the manufacturer. If the label reads "lycra," state lycra in the descrip. Also, remember that most dancers can just run down to a local shop in the bigger cities... try on the outfit there... not pay shipping. So they are putting extra time and money into your retail establishment. Treat them well for that. Remember to thank them for their business. :-D
The thing that ticked me off most about my dispute with odgirl.com was not the misinformation, but the way they handled our communication after.
Good luck! Please give us the link when it's up.
Re: On-line lingerie sales
That reminds me... I once put in an order with Trashy Lingerie (tres expensive.) Because of the money I spent, I expected each item to be carefully placed in the shipping box... maybe wrapped in tissue paper. Instead, each item was sort of haphazardly thrown into a box.
I think it's always a nice touch to fold the items and wrap them in tissue. It makes me happier about my purchase.
Re: On-line lingerie sales
Quote:
Originally Posted by jennee
That reminds me... I once put in an order with Trashy Lingerie (tres expensive.) Because of the money I spent, I expected each item to be carefully placed in the shipping box... maybe wrapped in tissue paper. Instead, each item was sort of haphazardly thrown into a box.
I think it's always a nice touch to fold the items and wrap them in tissue. It makes me happier about my purchase.
And with a thank you card too! I love that stuff.
Re: On-line lingerie sales
Quote:
Originally Posted by Phil-W
Thanks, Lizette. I'm a metallurgist, not an on-line lingerie sales expert.
In this situation what do you do? Send the costume back because it doesn't fit, or grit your teeth and accept it?
Many thanks - this just leaves me another 20 - 30 pitfalls to try and identify for her!!!
Phil.
You are a metallurgist and I am a consumer!
Returning items is a chore. I lose money shipping. I also lose the S&H fees. I do return all items that I do not like and vow never to buy from the site again if I felt as if the item were not properly described or if it were defective.
I've had many problems with http://www.forplaycatalog.com with sizing and quality. Its styles are very cute though. I bought this:
http://images.forplaycatalog.com/pro...ages/FP366.jpg
And it was horribly made. (The look is awesome, isn't it? What a shame.)
I hope that she finds success. Many sites have poor customer service or poor quality products. There is a niche for her services.
Re: On-line lingerie sales
Jennee, thanks for the reply.
I'm trying to get the dancer concerned to join this site, but she works fairly hard and what spare time she has goes to starting up this on-line lingerie business - she sees it as her way of getting out of dancing in a couple of years time. (She enjoys her job, but increasingly finds the ars&*les she meets wearing.)
Your point about descriptions is well taken. She's found two US costume suppliers, Fantasy Lingerie and Dreamgirl International, both based in California. They require $5,000 minimum orders to deal with the UK, so she'll have to go through their UK distributor. Problem at the start is that she's financing the business from her savings and can't afford to hold too much stock, so will have to rely on manufacturers descriptions.
She's got a brother who's a graphic designer, and he's working on the website - unfortunatly, there not enough on-line to post a link to yet. What he's doing looks OK - what we're working on now is how to get the site to rank well on search engines. People need to be able to find the site before they can buy.
She's aware of the importance of packaging, and her brother has designed a logo, which she's having printed on some good quality cardboard boxes. She figured the small extra cost will result in customer satisfaction and repeat orders.
Customer care - she's well aware of that. The problem is going to be her time. She wants to pack her costumes properly, print invoices on good quality paper, put in a small artifical rose, etc.; but she'll have to fit this in with the time she spends dancing.
One final thing you might help on. One slightly worrying statistic I've found about on-line sales. 80% of people who get to the checkout on an on-line site never complete the purchase. Too complicated, second thoughts, etc. Does this accord with your experience of buying on line?
Again, many thanks.
Phil.
Re: On-line lingerie sales
Lizette, thanks again,
I know my dancer friend has ordered a couple of test lots from some US suppliers and the quality was reasonable. She sold it through e-bay in the UK, plus some to other dancers. She'll have to keep an eye on quality though - although the plan is just to use one supplier to try and get good payment terms fast.
She's certainly got the eye for what'll sell - it went very quickly. Some of it surprised me - hold up stockings with little bows on top went about as fast as she could ship them.
The schoolgirl uniform you show is easy on the eye, but unlike the "traditional" UK schoolgirl one. I spent a bit of time trying to find you a decent picture, and got depressed wading through thousands of porn images. (BTW, sorry you got a poor quality costume).
I've found a non-porn image and will try to post it here. In case I get it wrong I'll post a description as well. The classic uniform is a white blouse, grey or black pleated skirt, striped tie, white knee length socks and "sensible" black shoes. Oh, and hair in pigtails.
I very much hope this does work for her - she's putting so much into it and if things go awry she's going to be devastated. As I said in another post, on-line lingerie sales are not my field, and the more digging I do on her behalf, the more I come to realise what I do not know.
I also have trouble because she's a friend - it's sometimes difficult telling her that she's got her calculations a bit wrong, or that she needs to do some more work on some apsects of what she's doing without hurting her feelings.
Phil.
Re: On-line lingerie sales
Another point. Don't friggin' overcharge.
I know she'll have to make up for shipping fees from the US and of course the standard handling etc fees in the UK, but a lot of UK distributors overcharge something rotten. This is why I NEVER buy from them.
I also agree with Lizette on the whole model use. I know your friend wants to market her clothes well, but pinning garments on superslim playboy models and then trying to flog them to us when you know that they are not as slim fitting is fooling us and only leaves us disappointed when the item arrives.
The dancer gear on-line market is saturated so she may want to think about having special introductory discounts on certain items, having bulk buy offers or referral schemes to drum up interest.
Re: On-line lingerie sales
Quote:
Originally Posted by Malibu
Another point. Don't friggin' overcharge.
I know she'll have to make up for shipping fees from the US and of course the standard handling etc fees in the UK, but a lot of UK distributors overcharge something rotten. This is why I NEVER buy from them.
I also agree with Lizette on the whole model use. I know your friend wants to market her clothes well, but pinning garments on superslim playboy models and then trying to flog them to us when you know that they are not as slim fitting is fooling us and only leaves us disappointed when the item arrives.
The dancer gear on-line market is saturated so she may want to think about having special introductory discounts on certain items, having bulk buy offers or referral schemes to drum up interest.
Thanks Malibu - just to give you a point of reference, this particular dancer works for Janice and Dawn, (Entertease and Angels Exotic), plus a few of the low contact private parties like Tilly's. (Janice knows who she is).
Taking your points in order - she won't overcharge. The idea's to get business volumes up, so she can cut out the UK distributors. Minimum order from the US is $5,000 so it'll take a bit of time to get to these volumes.
The "fit" question is one I'll take up with her - I'm forwarding all these comments by e-mail to her. I think it's a very important point as far as repeat business is concerned.
She's hoping to pick up a lot of the London costume business by personal contacts. She's got a few ideas for the rest of the country as well.
As well as the dancer market sector, she's looking for a few of the other niche markets - for example cross-dressers. She's looking for ways to make this as discrete as possible.
Thanks for the helpful input.
Phil.
Re: On-line lingerie sales
When I owned my own clothing business I always giftwrapped the item and put a personalized note with it... they looooooved it. I even did custom labels. Different ones like "I love cheese" and cows and penguins... and they loved those too. Anything to make it seem like you're in love with your customer makes them happyhappy.
Re: On-line lingerie sales
Quote:
Originally Posted by Phil-W
One final thing you might help on. One slightly worrying statistic I've found about on-line sales. 80% of people who get to the checkout on an on-line site never complete the purchase. Too complicated, second thoughts, etc. Does this accord with your experience of buying on line?
Again, many thanks.
Phil.
Wow... that's a large percentage. I had no idea. I often visit stores and just place stuff into my virtual shopping bag for fun. It's like window shopping online. Perhaps others do the same? Sometimes the cost of shipping will lose my sale. Victoria's Secret, for example, charges an unreal amount so I only buy their stuff at the mall.
Other than that... I dunno. Very interesting.
Re: On-line lingerie sales
Quote:
Originally Posted by lilithmorrigan
When I owned my own clothing business I always giftwrapped the item and put a personalized note with it... they looooooved it. I even did custom labels. Different ones like "I love cheese" and cows and penguins... and they loved those too. Anything to make it seem like you're in love with your customer makes them happyhappy.
Lileth, thanks for the tip.
The buzzword at the moment seems to be Customer Related Management, (or CRM). From what I can see of it the bigger sites now have computer programs that 'personalise' the responses so it seems they give the an individual touch to every order. Bit of a cheat really, but how many customers will realise what's going on?
I've advised her to focus on 4 things: get the website ranked in the search engines so people come to her site, make sure the website is such that they stay, make sure the checkout is simple enough that people finish the transaction and make sure they come back for repeat orders.
I think the personalised response is one of the keys in getting people to come back for repeat orders. What worries me a little is whether she's going to have enough time to do the 'personalising' on top of her dancing schedule.
Phil.
Re: On-line lingerie sales
Shipping is king! I once ordered from Howcool.com and it took like six freaking weeks to get some shoes. Haven't ordered from them since.
Re: On-line lingerie sales
Quote:
Originally Posted by Phil-W
.
She's aware of the importance of packaging, and her brother has designed a logo, which she's having printed on some good quality cardboard boxes. She figured the small extra cost will result in customer satisfaction and repeat orders.
Customer care - she's well aware of that. The problem is going to be her time. She wants to pack her costumes properly, print invoices on good quality paper, put in a small artifical rose, etc.; but she'll have to fit this in with the time she spends dancing.
Hi Phil, Tell your friend CK wishes her nothing but SUCCESS! I am a finance/marketing major in school. I'm pretty sure you all know that image is everything. You're right, if you get a box with your lingerie just thrown around, then you're not going to be as happy with your purchase, and may be apprehensive about buying from them again. IMO I do not think she should have anytype of logo on the packaging. I say that because some people prefer DISCREET packages. They dont want the mailman, family, their kids to find out about this.
Also, I think just starting out, she may want to cut back on the high quality paper, artificial rose...etc. I say this because she needs to build REVENUE, not just BREAK EVEN, or shi find herself at a loss. She is trying to get into this business with a bang! I just dont want her to put in more than what she is getting out.
Again, I wish your friend nothing but success on this new adventure in her life. I would actually like to see a link to the site.
Love,
CK
Re: On-line lingerie sales
Hi CK, thanks for comments.
As you will see from my earlier posts, I'm a metallurgist. I first got involved with this when my friend wanted help with her budgetting and business plan. The posts on this thread are to help her, (and me), fill in the gaps in her present knowledge.
She's aware of the need for good quality packaging - see following post.
The logo will be on a cardboard box, which will be wrapped in plain paper for discretion - should have made this clear.
Your comments about not spending too much on packaging are very valid. However, I think it is speculate to accumulate. The budget is the classic business model - with indirect costs pretty independent of sales volume. Her profitability is thus dependent on the amount she sells, and it may be that the small extra cost will more than pay in terms of repeat customers.
Her P & L forecast at the moment shows small loss for first couple of months, then hopefully small and increasing profits thereafter. She's willing to plough most of her profits back into the business for the first 6 - 12 months. Idea behind this is to cut out the UK distributors she must use at first, by getting enough volume to go direct to the US suppliers. This should increase her margins and hopefully put her well on the way to earning a full time living from the businsess.
Hope it ain't too much of an adventure - having gotten involved in this, (and knowing how much it means to her), I feel a moral obligation to help her get this right!
Many thanks, CK.
Phil.
Re: On-line lingerie sales
Firstly, a big thanks to everyone who has posted comments on this thread. I've been forwarding them via e-mail to my dancer friend, and would like to post her reply to show you how much they are appreciated.
"Thank you...Yes, all comments are very valid...I want to build my business based on great customer care and I understand how important that is....it's simply my future sales...I was going to use tissue paper for wrapping up items and a gift box as I mentioned in another email...valid description is very important though... I remember once I was selling my old coat on ebay and wrote incorrect description of what it was made of...I sold the coat only to have it back within a week...that was a lesson - double check everything...Thank you cards is great idea, I should think about adding those to my business...But you have been absolutely great with posting this email because it is so very useful...I am looking forward to reading more posts".
I'll be hopefully be seeing her on Friday and will try and persuade her to join the Stripper Web site directly. With her OK I'll also post the link to her lingerie website as soon as it is up and running.
Any more comments/feedback will of course be much appreciated.
Phil.
Re: On-line lingerie sales
(This is a out the 80% of customers who get to the on-line checkout and do not complete the purchase.)
Quote:
Originally Posted by jennee
Wow... that's a large percentage. I had no idea. I often visit stores and just place stuff into my virtual shopping bag for fun. It's like window shopping online. Perhaps others do the same? Sometimes the cost of shipping will lose my sale. Victoria's Secret, for example, charges an unreal amount so I only buy their stuff at the mall.
Other than that... I dunno. Very interesting.
Hi Jennee,
Overlooked your post, or would have replied earlier.
I've come across this statistic several times now. I'm trying to find out more about how to increase the percentage of people who actually complete the sale.
Fortunately, the UK government goes give some help to people starting small businesses and my dancer friend is trying to arrange for an afternoon's free consulatancy from an advisor on e-commerce. Hopefully, they will be able to shed some light on how to structure her website, etc.
Phil.