You Never Know What Someone is Going to Buy

Pete has grown his Zazzle store, Your Shop of Shoppes, by leaps and bounds.  You’ll remember we discussed this online business activity during our series, Through a Glass Darkly (individual links on our About page).  We introduced our intentions to diversify and increase our income sources  in a post  almost two years ago, Proceeds.

Since then, we’ve been reminded time and time again that you never know what someone is going to buy.

In the 70′s (that would be the 1970′s, you whippersnappers) my first post-college job was in women’s specialty retail.  I, at the ripe age of 23, was  responsible for spending millions of dollars on inventory and then, of course, selling it within these large chain operations.  Even though it was my job, I never really knew what someone was going to buy.

One of my merchandise managers, whom I thought was a real sourpuss but was more than likely on to me, shook her head at me in almost every showroom.  Invariably, I would pick the style she thought had the least likelihood of selling.  She was a quality snob, and I had come from a more volume-based, moderate operation to work for her.  A very cute salesman that I adored working with in my previous job won her over by saying, “This fabric lay next to viyella in the factory.”  I had an inkling his blouses would sell again for me and thankfully, they did.

Then there was the infamous purchase I made of 1200 fake suede halter-back jumpsuits adorned with Cher-like beads and feathers.  Remember, this was Detroit in the late ’70′s, people.  My boss at that time, Arthur Epstein – a lovely man who escorted me to sites like the tops of the Empire State Building and yes, the World Trade Center, on my first day ever in NYC, because “you’ll be working so hard you won’t have time from now on to see anything” – about had a cow when he saw the order.  Thank God, those jumpsuits sold like hotcakes to every hoochie mama on 8 Mile in Detroit!  I was a genius.

Speaking of cows:  my luck did not extend to the denim order from an outfit called Happy Legs.  I ordered huge quantities of coordinates: jeans, jumpsuits, vests and what-have-you trimmed in cowhide.  Not cowhide with the hair removed, mind you, but brown and white spotted, hairy cowhide.  I couldn’t mark it down enough. I’m sure some of it is still around somewhere.  I was only about 30 years ahead of Gucci and Versace on this one.

How did I decide what to sell? Well, it should have been due to analytics. But more likely it was because I might have gone to see The Wiz on Broadway with Michael Jackson as a guest of the salesman  (true story), or I might have liked another rep’s voice on the phone.  When I actually got to New York and met the Happy Legs guy in his showroom at 1407 Broadway, I “plotzed” as they said in that world.  He weighed about 300 pounds and was very sweaty.  My happy legs couldn’t run away fast enough from that debacle.

But, as always, I digress. 

Pete and I envisioned the political categories would provide the best sellers in Your Shop of Shoppes, The Patriot’s Shoppe and The Tea Party Shoppe, and we haven’t been disappointed.  Ever one to take advantage of an opportunity, I am just saying that we could probably do even more business if we presented merchandise in a bipartisan fashion. Pete thinks that would “feel wrong.”  Whatever, it’s his store.

We also have done well with holiday cards and custom postage stamps in the It’s Christmas Shoppe. It’s not difficult to understand that whenever someone purchases an item in bulk, we are going to make more money.  So we tried to think of categories where that was likely to happen.

When do people send out greetings or responses en masse?  When something changes in life: a new baby, a wedding, a household move, during bereavement.  Okay.  We analyzed a little further.  Most new parents want a custom, pre-printed birth announcement with all the details.   Not for us to sell.  Same with wedding invitations (plus aren’t brides temporarily insane?  I found this out when I tried to sell wedding favors).  Bereavement felt creepy.  But we’ve moved?  “We’ve Moved” could work.

Pete had taken a photo of a funky building we had often joked about:  “Here’s our next home, dear!”  So he made it into a New Address announcement.  Over a year later, this is one of our best sellers. I’m glad he took the photo when he did as we recently saw the building again and it looks completely different now.  Way too bland.

Of course it took us a while to figure out we were on to something. We let a lot of time go by before we figured out that adding to the available selections might induce additional sales.  Doh!

This leads me to another adage from retailing:  “Narrow and deep.” You learn this as a buyer right after you learn how to calculate your Open To Buy = the amount of money you have available to spend on inventory.  You can increase your OTB any number of ways.  Alas, the most frequent is to mark down what you already have, which cuts into another number you live and die by: your Gross Margin.

Anyway, going narrow and deep means you capture more people who are specifically in the market for what you have to sell. Like those disco babes in their Cher jumpsuits.  But sometimes not, as in what happened to all the people I thought would just love that cowhide denim?  Turns out they hadn’t been born yet. 

Now, during our travels everywhere, we often pull off so Pete can snap a photo of a dilapidated building. “We’ve moved.”

We thought you’d get a kick out of some of the items in the ever-growing collection.  We’re selling even more now because we’re added more depth.

If you’ve moved to the lake, you might choose one of the waterfront images:

If you’ve relocated to wooded acreage, perhaps this selection would be suitable:

Or this one:

If you’re contemplating a more mobile lifestyle:

If you’re happy in your new, gated community, or perhaps you’ve decided upon more sustainable living:

You just never know what someone is going to buy.

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