I'm starting an online store selling t-shirts, and I'm right in the middle of writing my business plan and preparing a cash flow statement. I want to estimate sales figures for the first twelve months, but don't really have any idea, and I was just wondering if anyone could give me some ball park figures on what sort of volume of shirts it's reasonable to sell in a week/month/year?
how many shirts do you sell in a good week, and how many do you sell in a bad week?
__________________ Josh Van Campenhout
Graphic Designer // Illustrator
Last edited by josh_vc; July 31st, 2008 at 08:37 PM.
Reason: rephrasing
This really can't be answered, there are too many unknowns. This is something you will need to come up with based on your marketing ideas and business plan.
It could be 300 a month and it could be 3000 a month.
This really can't be answered, there are too many unknowns. This is something you will need to come up with based on your marketing ideas and business plan.
It could be 300 a month and it could be 3000 a month.
Or it could be zero. if someone could answer that question they would be a sales genus. I had a site up a few years ago and had some great designs (I thought) After 6 months I sold 2.. yep 2.. But then I got smart and started doing custom tees for clients. That went from 2 to 2000 in a year. We have not looked at your product. Is there something about it that makes it unique. My suggestion in doing a business plan is not so much as sales expectations but more of what you are going to do to achieve those expectations. And if you achieve those expectations you hope that sale will come. In other words what is your marketing plan. If someone here saw your designs and said hey those are great you should sell at lest 3000 of those. then i would track that person down and ask him when he is going to pay for the 3000. That said, don't let this put a damper on what you want to do just be more logical about doing it. Lou
I think it is important that people realize that sometimes belief that "if we build It, They will Come" is just not a true statement. I love success. I love helping people. I do not want to be the one to destroy peoples dreams. But I try to be honest in my assessment of what people are doing. In my own world I faced that many times. I think 2 things should be done in starting a business. One is a business plan. This outlines what you want to do. To place sales forecast in this is not a good idea. But to show what marketing or sales strategies you are going to do would fit. the other is a "proforma". This gives you the opportunity to make up a suggested sales forecast. And in it you use the word "If" a lot. if I sell this many shirts then the results will be x sales and the cost of which will be x which will give us x profit. What I need in tools to achieve this are X. If I invest x then my RTO will be achieved in x months. Lou
Some good advice, thanks. I am also writing my business plan and am thinking about forecasts. I have 3 levels which I labeled: Optimistic, Realistic, and Conservative. What the numbers are for each level is definitely a variable.
I have 3 levels which I labeled: Optimistic, Realistic, and Conservative.
Leave the optimistic, but change your "realistic" to conservative and change your "conservative" to worst case scenario and I think that may help a little more just in case. I mean still set your goals high, but be ready for the worst possible when just starting out.
Any new business venture is a gamble. Even the big corporations with entire marketing departments at their disposal often get it dramatically wrong.
There is a simple formula to remember.
1./ To sell more shirts, you need more people to dip their hands into their pockets and purchase.
2./ To sell ten times more shirts, you need to find ten times more people to dip their hands into their pockets and purchase.
Having a business plan is good, but attempting to predict the future for a business that is not yet established is virtually impossible.
You will only get an accurate sales forecast once you start to sell and learn from your mistakes. Be prepared to completely rewrite your business plan within the first twelve months.
Or it could be zero. if someone could answer that question they would be a sales genus. I had a site up a few years ago and had some great designs (I thought) After 6 months I sold 2.. yep 2.. But then I got smart and started doing custom tees for clients. That went from 2 to 2000 in a year. We have not looked at your product. Is there something about it that makes it unique. My suggestion in doing a business plan is not so much as sales expectations but more of what you are going to do to achieve those expectations. And if you achieve those expectations you hope that sale will come. In other words what is your marketing plan. If someone here saw your designs and said hey those are great you should sell at lest 3000 of those. then i would track that person down and ask him when he is going to pay for the 3000. That said, don't let this put a damper on what you want to do just be more logical about doing it. Lou
its about marketing as well, if you can get the attention of about 1000 pple with your ad campaign, and you manage to get 1% of that interested, you already have 10 potential customers.
should you deliver a great product, they might recommend to other friends, and so on.
most pple, myself included, make a mistake by setting up a website/store without proper marketing. they expect that once a website/store is up, traffic will start coming in. it doesnt work that way. you need to grab the attention of your customers. you need to bring the product to them, at least for now. if you dun get your brand out, no one is gonna buy or even take a look at your product no matter how great it is.
Agreed! In internet sales marketing is key! You can have a cure for cancer but if noone knows where to go to get it it's worthless!
Think about how you're going to drive people to your site(Banners, links from sites that have a lot of traffic) and include that into your business plan.
Agreed! In internet sales marketing is key! You can have a cure for cancer but if noone knows where to go to get it it's worthless!
Think about how you're going to drive people to your site(Banners, links from sites that have a lot of traffic) and include that into your business plan.
Sales Volumes 
