Oliver + S Wholesale Customer Newsletter

May-June, 2009, Vol. 10

Why are we combining our May and June newsletters? Because the month of May is all about Quilt Market, and nothing else tends to get done. Since we’re still playing catch up on the month, and since it’s almost June already, we thought we would kill two birds with this one stone.

As you know, this season’s Market was held in beautiful (really!) downtown Pittsburgh, PA. We enjoyed our visit to Steel City and especially liked having a chance to talk with so many of the shop owners who carry our patterns—and so many others who are coming to see the benefits of broadening the lines that they represent by adding sewing patterns for children’s clothing.

This month’s newsletter provides recaps on a few topics we discussed as part of our two Schoolhouse presentations in Pittsburgh and announces our support for Project 95—which you’ll be hearing more about soon, if you haven’t already.

Cheers,

Liesl

Capturing New Customers with Oliver + S

As part of the Schoolhouse series at this season’s Quilt Market, Oliver + S presented on strategies that savvy retailers can use for capturing a next generation of customers for their shops—and how carrying Oliver + S patterns can help them retain and grow these new customers.

Our presentation was well received—so well received, in fact, that we’ve been asked to consider expanding it into a series of articles for publication. Final details are being worked out now, and since we don’t want to scoop ourselves on this topic we’ll leave it at that for the moment.

But do stay tuned for more information. We’ll be providing details as they become available.

Taking a Stand on the Gray Market

When we presented on what we consider to be the next generation quilt shop customer, we covered—as a side note, almost—the topic of the emerging gray market in quilting and sewing products.

Are you aware of what the gray market is? If not, you need to educate yourself because your customers probably already know about it.

We define a gray market seller as someone who operates a business that meets at least three of these six criteria:

The gray marketer makes little or no capital investment in the business’s infrastructure
The gray marketer makes no investment in marketing the business or merchandising the products she sells
The gray marketer carries no or, at most, a negligible amount of inventory
The gray marketer provides minimal and often unreliable customer support
The gray marketer always sells product at a discount to retail price
The gray marketer does not provide full transparency into who owns the business, where it is located, or how to contact the business

Why should you be concerned about this issue? Because the next generation customer for your store is Internet savvy. She’s spending more time each week on-line than she is reading publications, watching TV, or listening to the radio. She’s engaging on-line with the brands she knows, and she’s sophisticated enough to find out where she can purchase them at bargain prices. And with more free and low-cost tools emerging weekly on the Internet, it becomes easier all the time for gray marketers to set up shop to provide goods at wholesale-plus pricing to these customers.

More demand for gray market pricing, coupled with fewer barriers to entry for those looking to sell in the gray market, is a recipe for disaster for independent shops. We believe that we’re currently at a significant inflection point in this industry. If we don’t address this issue head on now, it may be too late to do it later. The future health of our industry is at stake here.

Because we feel so strongly about this topic, we have drafted and circulated to others in the industry an official policy on gray market sellers. We will not sell our product at wholesale price to those reselling in the gray market. And we will not continue to work with distributors who don’t support us (and, by extension, you and your business) in this effort.

Please take a few minutes to educate yourself by reading this document. Discuss it with your staff and with other shop owners you know. Ask your manufactures and distributors what their position is on selling to gray market resellers. Share the document with them and ask them if they are taking a similar stance.

If we work together on this, we can make a difference. For ourselves and our industry.

Principles of Fabric Selection

Our second Schoolhouse presentation at Quilt Market focused on effective merchandising strategies for selling Oliver + S and how creating a sample for your shop will help you sell more patterns--and more fabric.

As you know, Oliver + S patterns are designed with a sophisticated aesthetic in mind, and we wanted to share with attendees how we go about selecting fabrics that highlight that fact. After all, the right design made up in the wrong fabric doesn't, in the end, turn into a successful garment. And a garment does need to be successful to drive fabric and pattern sales.

As part of this presentation, we laid out eight principles of fabric selection that we follow when making samples in the studio and garments for our trunk shows. The principles are as follows:

See the child before the outfit
Think sophisticated and understated
Look at the supporting fabrics in a collection, not necessarily the central prints
Solid colors and neutrals can ground a bright, busy print
Be eclectic; don’t be afraid to mix collections
Look for updated versions of traditional prints
Tonal and two-color prints look very fresh
Approach juvenile prints with caution

Over the next several weeks on the blog, we will be doing one post per principle, explaining the concept in more detail and illustrating with some great examples of work that our customers have contributed to our Flickr group. We recently kicked off the series with an introductory post on the topic. Stop by the blog often in coming weeks to see the other posts in the series as they are published.

We’re always eager to talk to our wholesale customers about how they are merchandising our patterns in their shops and about how they decide on fabrics to use for making sample garments. If you have some insights to share on these topics, please drop us a note at information@oliverands.com. We look forward to hearing from you.

Project 95

Oliver + S is pleased to join a select number of other companies in sponsoring Project 95—an industry-wide initiative spearheaded by the Fabric Shop Network to encourage shoppers to support independent quilt shops and fabric stores.

Did you know that today 95% of fabric shoppers make their purchases at chain stores while only 5% purchase from independent quilt and fabric shops? Why shouldn't it be the other way around?

Oliver + S only sells its patterns through independent shops, and we believe that these independents are worth supporting. In addition to providing customers with access to the best products available (many of which are not carried in chain stores), independent retailers provide classes, community, and other support for sewing enthusiasts.

We want to do what we can to support your independent business (whether it be a bricks-and-mortar shop or an Internet-based independent quilt and fabric shop). Project 95, we thought, was a good place to start.

To find out more about Project 95, see our recent blog post on the topic.

For More Information

Email: information@oliverands.com
Website: www.oliverands.com
Phone: (866) 231-9639