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Mike: Funny you brought this up. Veronica was looking at that when she did her packing buy this morning, and just bought a bunch of poly mailers for clothing. She was ticked at the lack of boxes as well.
Where was it you said you saw some cheaper boxes? I would like to see about getting some short flats ordered. 12″ x 16″ x 6″ for jackets…
Jay: To that end, have you had an INAD case through PayPal? The only PayPal cases we have had were for Item Not Received.
Just not sure what PayPal wants for documentation on an INAD. At that point, I would only offer refund on a return of the item.
We aren’t necessarily creating our own competition in our space. In fact, we are broadening our appeal.
In the Polo shirt example. If I list one, I’m only hitting one of each characteristic:
Size
Color
Pattern
Brand
MaterialSo if I list a Large Blue Striped Brooks Brothers 100% Cotton shirt, that is a small audience. If I also list a Medium Blue Striped Brooks Brothers 100% Cotton shirt, I have expanded my audience. Then how about Pink? Peter Millar? Polyester?
None of the items you discuss are concerns with a lower STR rate. Clothing and shoes are easily stored and kept, so a larger inventory is easier to get to. The concern with a low STR is if items aren’t moving, and the market changes tastes, you get stuck with lots of inventory that nobody wants. They were selling when you bought them, but they may not sell a year or two later. I have seen this happen with brands and styles already in the last few years.
Same with Hard Goods. No more Wilton Cake Pans. No Hummel items. No more Ski Helmets. Stuff that we used to buy and sell for profit has changed. This is one reason that I don’t like GTC (or at a minimum, I preach that you HAVE to review your inventory and evaluate older items that have not sold). It is easy to grow an inventory, but it is more important to grow inventory that will still sell.
Brian: Thanks for the links. I have some downtime around lunch, I will have to study that more.
I always get the concept, but never can explain why. It always occurs in all areas. Like Pareto’s Law, it is everywhere, and you can’t escape it.
I’ll have to study it more to understand the math.
This is why I put some degradation in my forecast STR numbers for future months.
Jay: Yes.
TRS is at the seller level. It is measured at the seller account level, and you need to meet the metrics for defect rate, closed cases, late shipment, and some others.
TRS+ is at the listing level. So even TRS accounts can have listings that are NOT TRS+ (if you don’t offer Free Returns on that listing, then THAT listing is not TRS+, so you lose the 10% FVF credit ON THAT LISTING).
Just caught up on the story. Wow. Had a lot going on inside reading that.
Good news is, you have a business that you can invest full time in right now. My best advice is have an EXTREMELY low cost of living right now. You are going to want to grow your inventory, which means more of your sales revenue should be going right into buying more inventory rather than what you need to live on.
I would also say that if you can forecast your numbers on what it will take to grow, that is huge. Veronica and I spent 90 minutes yesterday in my forecast model looking at what it will take for a second person to come on board in September. What that means for cashflow, can we afford the extra inventory, and me texting our photographer to find out if he can handle more work.
Having those reality numbers in front of you where they make sense and you know what you are getting into and what it takes is huge to us.
Good luck to you. If you need advice or encouragement, you know where to find it!
DigVintage: I hear you, but I think that it comes with the territory of Vintage Hard Goods.
With 23 Etsy Sales on 863 items, that is a 2.67% Monthly STR. Most people that post here that are heavy on Hard Goods are in roughly that realm (low to mid single digit STR). Given that Etsy has a lower audience, you are still doing well.
If you will notice on our side…our Etsy has gone weeks without sales before. We are only in the upper 100’s in inventory, but it is still slow. Last week was stronger, and another sale yesterday, but slower. This is why we cross-post, to get the listing in front of different buyers.
Do you see a large increase in sales in Q4? That has been our trend in Hard Goods (and why we are trying now to bulk up our Hard Goods before Q4).
Jay had the great point that my numbers would be better in a chart pic. Let’s try this…
DigVintage: Well done! Very impressive numbers on Etsy. We are slowly moving into that space, but you are really well established. Love your stuff!
Thanks. Only thing that has bugged me lately…more INAD for non-INAD reasons.
Latest was for the shirt being shorter than he wanted. We accepted the return and paid for the label yesterday, then today asked him for more info:
Did he see the measurements in the Item Description?
Did he use that to evaluate the shirt for fit?
Did the measurements on the length not match the Item Description?
Whay INAD vs Did not fit?I did a professional writeup to ask these, and I’m going to open more dialogue with buyers on these to understand what is being used or not used in buying decisions as well as how they use the Return process. I think it would help to get more buyer perspective rather than guessing what they are thinking (or what we want them to think).
I would agree. For you guys, it really doesn’t make sense.
For us, it makes sense and isn’t hurting us at all. Still sub 2% returns (please, I hope I didn’t jinx that…)
Funny, as the one question of “are our sales higher because of it”? Maybe. Best June so far, and the STR was stronger than I predicted.
Proving a something against a nothing is not easy. I can’t truly A/B test unless I have two stores with the duplicated listings and compare the STR to each other…
I think eBay is just partnering with other businesses to provide free services that they can’t do. I’m glad they have it, as it is better for us, no cost, and solves a big issue for us (a simplified SCAN form).
What does ShipRush get? Probably not much. What you actually get is a Pitney Bowes account (who eBay already partners with on GSP) and ShipRush is the software in the middle. Maybe just exposure to their product for bigger companies that grow and want to keep ShipRush but get a bigger account.
