Discuss the process of getting your t-shirt line into brick and mortar stores and selling offline. Topics include industry tradeshows, events, line sheets, sales reps and other retailing tips and advice.
Hey all..Me and my wife have spent the last few months doing our research, creating our designs and are finally getting ready to jump into this biz. Starting with a holiday trade show to see what reaction our designs would garner.
So along with all the normal stuff (fliers, biz cards,banner, etc)...We have some questions.
1) I don't want to spend everything on this. I just want to test the waters with some designs. I was thinking of 6 different designs.
IS THAT a good enough variety??
2) How much INVENTORY should Ihave on each design/shirt? (12 of each? 20 of each? 30 of each?)
I have other questions, but if I could get some help on these, that would be FANTASTIC!
Thanks guys. Its a great forum and I have learned SOOO much. I even feel like I KNOW some of you! thanks again!
Re: Finally getting our feet wet,doing a trade show !
I'm not sure what you're looking at getting into. Are you looking to sell your products to specific vendors for them to resell? Or are you trying to sell your products to the end user themselves? If it's the former, then having a display showing various designs is the best approach and getting vendors to place a 'purchase order' on-site during the tradeshow. At the end of the show just sell off all your 'display' shirts for cost and write it off as a marketing expense. If your going for corporate buyers, you don't need to carry much inventory, unless you want to give some away to them so they remember your brand but other than that I wouldn't expect much by way of sales.
If you're looking to market to the end consumer, I'd say attending a tradeshow is helpful in that you can find the various trends in the market and see what others are doing in the industry. But I'd only attend and not necessarily set-up a booth.
It also too depends on what type of demographics will be attending this trade show (at referenced above), is it more open to the 'general public' or is it more for 'industry insiders.' That will tell you what you should do. Hope this helps.
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Re: Finally getting our feet wet,doing a trade show !
Quote:
Originally Posted by SBEMedia
I'm not sure what you're looking at getting into. Are you looking to sell your products to specific vendors for them to resell?
SBEMEDIA: Hey ! You know..My wife just slapped me upside my head for using the wrong term. It isnt really a "tradeshow" per se. Its more of a Christmas shopping event, with various retail vendors. open to the public, And NOT to sell to retailers to resell.
Your tradeshow advice was great though, and I've saved it for our files. THANKS!
With that in mind, do you thinkk six (6) designs are enough to start off with?
-SG
Re: Finally getting our feet wet,doing a trade show !
Quote:
Originally Posted by Solmu
Whatever your business plan says you can afford and market. If that has to be 12 of each so be it. If it's 200, it's 200.
Yeah..I just want to 'test' the waters with a few of the designs, and Like i said..don't want to break the bank on this first outing. Although, I don't want to take TOO tepid a step. Guess I'm just looking for that 'middle ground', if there is such a thing.
Ya think I'm being TOO cautious with 6 designs and 30 prints of each design?
Re: Finally getting our feet wet,doing a trade show !
Do you know how many other similar vendors will be at this event? They should have provided you a vendor information sheet that way you can see the competition. You can also see if the businesses have a website and see what type of products they are selling. Based off that you can determine if your product is unique and might warrant a lot of product. Also, you might want to ask the event organizers what their traffic numbers are over the past couple of years which will give you an idea of traffic flow.
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Re: Finally getting our feet wet,doing a trade show !
Call the show operators. Ask them how many people attended last years show. Then you have a rough idea of what you can sell (probably aim to get a sale from every 1 in 10 people).
Mostly a lot of small business, gift type items.
There isn't a vendor list yet because the deadline to apply is October 1st.
My wife was at the event last year as one of the professional photographers showing their work. She said that there was a pretty good turnout for it. There seemed to be a good amount of people looking for last minute Christmas shopping. (the event is Dec 6)
I TOTALLY APPRECIATE the advice, guys! GOOD STUFF. I think I have a good amount to go from now.
I'll go with 6-7 designs with about 40 prints of each (that might change if I can convince my wife on it).
I'll probably have more questions in a day or so.(CUZ I'm a goof )
Re: Finally getting our feet wet,doing a trade show !
Quote:
Originally Posted by jokerz816
Ya think I'm being TOO cautious with 6 designs and 30 prints of each design?
Nah. I mean, that's 180 shirts... quite a big investment if people don't like your stuff. But not too big a step if you have confidence in your product either.
I'd only say it was too few if it wouldn't give you enough sales for the day. Like if your stall fee + labour costs + transport costs, etc. would exceed projected profit.
If 180 shirts gives you a reasonable chance at making the day a success, it's not too cautious. If you can survive not selling them, it's not too risky. That's all the balance you need really - enough money to be worth it vs. not more money than you can afford to lose.
If you succeed beyond your wildest dreams there's always the next event.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jokerz816
last minute Christmas shopping. (the event is Dec 6)
This is a discussion about Finally getting our feet wet,doing a trade show ! that was posted in the Offline Retail and Tradeshows section of the forums.
Finally getting our feet wet,doing a trade show ! 
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