Garment sales - "market research"

Hope its okay to post this here...

As a newbie its brain melting trying to utilise a pricing strategy when you have no history to look back on in order to estimate sales per month/year which is a variable of most strategies. I realised that the only way for my to determine an amount or at least get a general idea is to hope that people would be kind enough to share their experience and offer realistic starting points.

If you are willing to share it would be much appreciated.


P.s. on an even more amateurish note; when pricing a product do you assume that that product is the only product you sell? E.g. you offer multiple options, subli, vinyl, screen print, but do you only consider how many subli garments you would have to sell to break even regardless of other sales? (Hope that makes sense!) And when factoring in over heads such as bills, do you include the full bill amount of just the certain amount the production process uses? E.g. the heat press is on for x amount of time and costs x amount per kwh.

Hope you guys can help!

Thanks in advance.

Hi,
it is impossible for anyone to guess your sales without a lot more info.
What channels will you use?
How will you promote yourselves or generate traffic
What market are you after?
Are you selling your own designs ... and how good are they?
Can you get your (great) designs to the market that might be interested in them.....

As a newbie - you have got to try lots of different things, and see what works for you.
Expect to make a loss in the 1st few months ... while finding what does work for you....
How to price - depends what you are selling, how many, to who, and how!

Thanks for the reply!

Thats why im asking for peoples experiences and the kind of structure they have in regards to what they offer so that I can get an idea from everyones response and if lucky, find offerings to what I have in mind.

One thing I know for sure is that I would be focusing more on a "service" approach than a "product" approach. Obviously they would be products but what im trying to say is that my main focus would not be on designing t shirts. Thats more for someone who wants to create a clothing line.

Again, thanks for your reply!

you either have to just explore your local opportunities, or explain your plan and ask advice.
Impossible to answer an open question.

WHY do you want to sell garments?
How will you source & produce them?

the best start is your own world & community.
Friends, neighbours, work, clubs, family , school, hobbies & interests .... see what work s for you.

Some people start selling a dozen shirts ... bit of a hobby... maybe get another lead.

Amazon garment fullfillment will probably be looking at 5,000,000 units in its 1st year.

Hi thanks for your reply! i feel iv over complicated this lol.

I have considered all of these thing. this is in its conception.

I'll get to the point as i should have originally lol... as a start up ..as a general in no way accurate figure.. obviously a lot of variables.. with the desire to attrach people requiring a service and providing self designs and requests.. what would a realistic number of garments i could sell a month as a brand new operation. This is for the solep purpose of having a figure to stick i a pricing strategy equation.

I understand there are loads of variables to consider.

Thanks.

As Logobear says, its virtually impossible to say what sort of money you will take, there are so many variables.

I can only advise from my own personal experience. When I started out I had no sales, but to balance that out I had very small overhead. Work out how much it costs you to live and get rid of any expense that isnt 100% essential. Just living will swallow up any profit you may make until you get to a certain level of sales.

I started with one production process and one machine it meant I could offer many variations of similar products without having to carry lots of inventory. Find a product range with potential and concentrate on that, dont try to do everything, it ties up too much money in blanks and more equipment. When starting out you only really need to be good at one thing, get good at that one thing as quickly as you can and before you run out of cash.

eg. Starting out I would rather develop a range of cushion covers than t shirts, You dont need different colours or sizes, try and keep things simple try and get the widest product range with the least amount of inventory(Photoshop is your best friend if selling online)

Dont run out of money blanks or consumables, dont overstock , oh and dont run out of money!

Know your costs, dont guestimate. Know how much you need to pay out to fullfill an order and get paid then add a percentage for the s**t that happens. Know your fixed daily/weekly costs thats how much it costs you to stand still whether you makes sales or not. If your machine produce for 1 hour a day or 14 hours a day your daily fixed costs are constant.(The extra electricity to run the machine is a variable cost)

Be as precise as possible with your costs, if you overload your costs then you may price yourself out of the market or miss opportunity. Your time is worth nothing without sales, spend your time generating sales, once you have sales your time has value, the time spent developing sales will pay back dividends in the future.

If you run out of money your stock isnt worth what you think it is. Generate enough profit to pay your bills and create a surplus for the future, the next machine you want will always cost more than you have.

Good luck.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by LRC

Hi thanks for your reply! i feel iv over complicated this lol.

I have considered all of these thing. this is in its conception.

I'll get to the point as i should have originally lol... as a start up ..as a general in no way accurate figure.. obviously a lot of variables.. with the desire to attrach people requiring a service and providing self designs and requests.. what would a realistic number of garments i could sell a month as a brand new operation. This is for the solep purpose of having a figure to stick i a pricing strategy equation.

I understand there are loads of variables to consider.

Thanks.

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I wish you would have written that before I made my last post.....


The answer is easy, between 0-100,000,000

Thanks for sharing! Its extremely useful. I knew i came to the right place :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by froggy

I wish you would have written that before I made my last post.....


The answer is easy, between 0-100,000,000

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XD ..thanks for clearing that up.

If you've got a day job I'd suggest keeping it and whatever it is your looking to do start it as a sideline and learn the ropes. Will you do vector artwork in which case you need vector software Corel draw or illustrator and have to learn to use it first. Sublimation only or other things like vinyl? Either way invest in the best equipment even if it's secondhand. Outlets for your products? Try local first before going online with all the problems you may encounter with distance selling from returns to postage issues. Your sales will grow if your doing it right and in the right place, as for figures for pricing look at your competition to get a feel for the top and bottom pricing fun look at your consumable costings. Consider equipment as a slow payback so over a 5 years break down. Other costs will amount but working from home you just swallow it really until it affects your outgoings t a level where you need to factor them in. Basically your aim with all this is to get more money in than goes out, sales volume will hopefully grow which affects everything. There is no way to forecast your sales at the outset really because there are too many variables. Good luck with your new venture and keep us all posted with your progress.

Basically, take each separate item, one at a time, and work out exactly how much it costs you to make and sell that item:raw materials, manufacturing costs, selling fees, postage, etc, then DOUBLE it and see how that goes. You mustn't forget that, every year, you'll be liable for tax on all your sales, depending on what other income you may have coming in, so always keep money aside for your tax bills.

If you get any complaints about pricing, or stuff isn't selling as well as you'd anticipated, then perhaps think about dropping your prices, but always start off on the high side as no one likes to see prices going up. At the end of the day it's COMPETITION that will drive your pricing.