[belvezet]

Let me know if this is not the right place to ask this question. It is about pricing, and it is about embroidery. I'm thinking of launching a line of baby onesies onto which I would embroider a graphic, words, or a combination of the two and sell them on Etsy since that's where I have experience selling.

Most printed onesies on Etsy go for $15-$25. My concern is that the stitch count of some of my designs are in the 12-20K stitches range (I make my own designs and have someone convert them to an embroidery file), so it looks like it would take anywhere from 20mn to 40mn for one piece on my Brother PE-770, not counting thread changes for different colors?

Is this a bad business model? How much of a premium do you think I can charge --if any--for an embroidered onesie as opposed to a regular onesie?

Looking at my competition, very few people are doing this (maybe bc it is a bad business) and those that do stick to traditional designs: flowers, butterflies, etc.

On the other hand, all items would be made to order, so that I could conceivably have a huge selection since I would not need to actually carry all that inventory of various designs, and would be limited by my color and size stock.

thanks for any advice, tips and warnings....

Lance

 

[jennGO]

I wish I could be more helpful with specific prices, but I can suggest looking just online in general to see the prices out there, beyond etsy. If there is a baby boutique near you, I would look at how much embroidered onesies are and I'm sure you can add an additional $5 or so to that for custom work. I would put some traditional designs in your store like you said butterflies or whatever, and then charge more for the custom onesies to establish an idea of added value, even if the butterflies/whatever never sell. Lastly don't sell them too cheaply just to enter the market. The quality of your product will build a reputation on etsy and the fact that there are few sellers suggests that pricing low is not necessary to gain market share.

Good luck!

 

[belvezet]

Thanks Jennifer--some good tips. I think the trick will also be to take very good pictures that can show the quality of the stitch. I'm also counting on my brilliant and irreverent design to make me the king of onesies. . And finally, I'm also going to take advantage of the fact that it is made to order by having a boat load of designs. I uploaded a few of my designs....

 

[jennGO]

Yes and you can also educate the customer beyond photos as to why it is higher quality.

But lol the mad men one

 

[AE7HF]

I just replied to another post from you, I asked what embroider machine you had.. I see now.. the PE-770. I had the exact same one last year. hated it after awhile. Was too much work..lol. I actually have an extra hoop for it still (the large big one). You can have it if you want it.. shipping shouldn't be that much.
If you start getting busy though, I would upgrade to a multi needle machine, that cuts it's own threads. Changing colors and cutting threads is a real pain with that machine.

 

[belvezet]

Yes---I agree. But I have to see how we do with the PE-770 before we can upgrade to a multi-head machine. I also thought of outsourcing the embroidery but it's not financially viable--some of my designs have 13K-20K, so at the $1-$2 per 1000, just the stitching would be $10-$20.....