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New Product Releases Drive Sales

Along the lines of what karen was saying about a new product and adding more to her line, new product releases are critical. They're absolutely critical for a lot of different reasons, but one is that a retailer the very first question they're going to ask if you go to a trade show or when they call if you've already work with them, is what's new what's new? And so you always want to have something that's not you want to have a schedule for what is new, so that you can say to them here's, what's coming or you know we'll have this new release too, so get in the habit of releasing new product regularly before you start wholesaling. So if you're you know, in your online shop or if you're doing craft shows, don't just release stuff on a whim, try tow, package it together so that you're kind of doing one larger release. It's, it's, it's more beneficial in the long run so what are some benefits of new product releases? It shows that you're serious about your business and dedicated to growing...

this work. I'm dedicated to my art and dedicated to growing these product lines. It leads to more reorders and more income because if they see new stuff coming from you and they like working with you and your products are selling well in their shops, they're going to want retailers they're going to want to buy from you it sets you apart from the competition too I think regular releases air something that new companies that are new to wholesale struggle with because you're juggling so much new business you know you're running the marketing and you're developing the product and you're managing production like so it kind of falls by the wayside I see a lot of new companies that will do one or two releases a year, but you really would like you should really be aiming for three to four releases a year on dh within that release I'd like you to try to focus on at least six new skews so they don't have to be huge releases but you do want some substance there yes leads back to the matrix that you had about a number of skews s so it's running themes. So for instance, if I were toe release a new I've been working on a new line of travel journals ok? And they're going to have different themes within the jury you know, different locations say um is and they'll be so you would suggest okay, we'll travel journalist one but you should also do our prince and car within the travel journal collection the goal is to have ten ok well I would say a new release for you then would be fine to do just one collection each release as you grow and you get bigger than I'd probably try to up that to d'oh you know, maybe two collections decline right right but you know as long as you're releasing a substantial number of skews because within that collection of travel journals each one is going to have its own skew yes and s o you know ideally you want to be releasing different styles that they can choose from so different you're different collections but to get yourself going do that one set of travel journals with tense cues and that's a that's a great collection here I'm sorry it's a great release release yeah yeah but in general the goal would be to maybe would really say a couple of journals a couple our principle yeah makesem product categories is going to be leveraged farther because they'll be able to use that in their store in different ways rather than they're probably not going to buy you know, ten travel journals bill by one or two of them and if you had maybe that design on another product um you know perhaps they'd fill the shelves with that as well. Yeah thanks sure. Katy yeah there there some questions online about calculations for cost attach piece and alison jeffrey's her question was the minimum order she says the minimum order you listen for jewelry sounds rather low to me what is the average wholesale cost of each individual piece you use in this calculation for context? One of my necklaces would hold sale at one hundred dollars plus so to fifty would be less than three thin her wholesale opening order price to be a lot higher your opening order amount is going to be based on your your price point of your your products as well. So you know something like a greeting card has a lower opening order amount the jewelry depending on what your price range is has a higher amount. These numbers were things that I pulled from a few of the people I work with and I informally pulled if you're making higher and jewelry that selling for a lot higher value your minimum order amount is going to be a lot higher. So I would say really something in the range of having to order ten to twelve pieces it seems logical to me, but but that is something that I feel like I have to sit down with that one person to talk specifics about what their product is and and how it is to kind of structure that for them so um I hope that's helpful but yeah, it depends your opening order amount will elevate if you have a higher in product so ok, so we talked about ideally that's like once you're into this little bit you want to get to three to four releases year you want to make sure that those releases have you know, good mass quantity to offer new options to people mix of products and this is styles you wantto really key in terms of timing these new releases you really want to keep into consideration the buying cycles and show schedules for example new york now happens in you know, end of january early february if you're to send your retailers a set of new release information and email and some photos in the line cheater whatever right after new york now they've probably spent all their money so they're going to be less likely to buy from you at that point however, if you time it where you're sending it a little bit before shows schedules you know or if your even just keeping in line with that sixty eight months prior if you have occasion based product, you know, keeping in mind what they're buying cycles are win they're buying for specific things so that you're releasing at the same time you're going to maximize your dollars in if you're hitting then when they're in there buying seasons um and then also keep in mind that to your new releases should really be weaved into your marketing efforts so, you know, that's a great opportunity and we're going to talk really, really in depth about marketing to retailers during that whole separate course, but new releases are great reason to reach out to retailers that you've maybe lost touch with or they haven't ordered in a while. It's a great way to say, hey, I'm still here and look all this new, great stuff we have. So when you're considering your timing of your new releases, also consider how it works into the rest of your marketing plan way could ask the in studio audience about there you really cycles and how often they're releasing and your products and did they do it? All right, so I, um, tell us about your company. I've been unequal, I design and screen print greeting cards and gifts for shifting status quo, and so I struggle a little bit with the release schedules and now, knowing that it just needs to be, like, about six, or so around that range, it puts me tomorrow more iii's. Eso now, actually, I have a question for you, katie, now that I have, um, aa lot of designs kind of backed up since I haven't like, really since last may, right? Should I release them all at once on a says or wait to portion it out? That's a great question, so I usually do a mix of the two um, I like to do my designing all kind of in one lump like, I don't know, I like to have uninterrupted time to just do my design, so I will designed like a lot of things at one time, and I'll hold stuff back purposely so that I can hold it for a future release, so most companies we'll do their big push release a specific to your question. Most companies will do their big push at the station on the show, and they'll do a very large release than, but they sometimes then won't release anything else the rest for the year. They'll do just one time of year or maybe two times a year. I still want you to have a good, um, volume of new stuff at the stationery show this year, but if you depending on the quantity that you have, I would encourage you to hold some back, especially if you have, like, a nice little package, a collection of things that it doesn't have to be a formal collection. But if you have a cohesive grouping of things that would make its own stand alone. Release, you know, hold that and do it as a summer release or do it is a fall release. It'll save you a little bit of time later when you're not designing in a crunch. And but again, that assumes that you've got plenty to still release at the national stationary show, and then you can leverage the other for later. Yeah, can I ask you a question? Okay, you've been talking about how you've been trying to grow your releases and expand the line. You were starting, if I remember correctly with one to two releases year, is that correct? Yes, well, the line started in may and I did one release in the fall. Ok? And you didn't see last year. Yeah. That's, right? Yeah. So my goal is to do for this year, okay? And I've done one. And are you like tiffany's asking, are you doing kind of bull creating so that you can kind of parse it out throughout the air or you designing for each season as it comes? Um, bulk bulk design. Yeah. So I have a ton of stuff that I I I create my even manufacturer. I print it where I manufactured in whatever way it's done, and, um, I sit on it sometimes and just think about it showed people before I figure out the release and you know it's helpful to see a larger collection of things to then figure out what's the right strategy for grouping them when you release them because I tend to like you want to release things that just have a cohesive field it makes total sense. Um laura what about you? Well let's get you my first how are you coming out? Are you doing more of a season? I started that way and then I didn't dio wholesale market so I kind of made one made two collections kind of put them into one is the classics that's the stuff that I sold the most it okay, I'm craft fairs and then now I have another new one but it's mainly like another color medal like I added gold plate to my stuff okay, so like I kind of presenting that as a new collection but I know that I need to work on having a bit more organized like in fashion I think it's really important because my stuff was like fashion jewelry to go by the season yes I just was kind of waiting until I was actually in a wholesale situation for that but I think that I need to be doing that before I didn't courage you to start now just to get in the practice of you know, getting used tio ok what am I going to be releasing you know six months out and you don't have to necessarily create it right then but just getting in your head of like what in my envisioning what's the master plan here and getting in that habit of um it's more of a mental battle frankly it's more of just getting your head around okay, I'm going to stop like dealing with these other aspects of my business right now and just really map out when I want to be releasing these new products and then of course making the time to do it but um yeah no that's great. Thank you for terry yeah, yeah, laura so I have a question about so if you're selling to both wholesalers and retailers and are there certain things in your release is that you might only include to your retailers not your wholesalers. So for example in addition to doing greeting cards on dh stationary lines, I also do custom limited edition woodcuts which take longer and they're bigger often so is that that might not be quite appropriate for host sale. But is that something that I would release to retailers and in that case and me because this is more of the fine arts side could I do a release or just one new if it's a bigger limited edition custom print or I mean yes, I think that's a really great question and yes, you can absolutely whatever you create, you get to decide how you want to sell it, right? So you're not everything in your line needs to be sold through the wholesale channel, and in fact, a lot of people do play with things in their retail avenues just to see how they're selling and, you know, make sure they've got their pricings squared away. So tanz, your question in multiple ways is yes, absolutely those higher end custom pieces that is way more appropriate for the retail market. So in your online shop or the cuff shows or custom work, you're going to receive it hired dollar amount for it, you know, the time that invested into it's, not something that could really be mass produced. So I think that's absolutely appropriate for your retail shop and again, you don't need to offer that wholesale that kind of gets into a whole new discussion about villages it would take two whole days today. S so we're talking about, you know, mainstream having not mass produced, but you know, the things that are all the same that you're selling.