2nd Birthday
On August 10th my store turned two. This past year has been amazing in terms of learning experiences, growth and also creativity. I feel I am closer to finding my voice, I’m reaching out to more Brass Tacks customers, and I’m also incorporating suggestions without having to compromise on my creativity. Of course I’ve had some downs – perhaps a couple of downs for every up – but overall I’m really happy with the way things are going, and so grateful to everyone who has helped along the way.
During my sale last year I was surprised to see the overwhelming response; customers trooped in and out throughout the day and on the first day I sold around 40 pieces. Not all those pieces were on sale, which led me to believe that announcing a sale is also a way to remind customers that you exist.
I had a similar experience this year, selling 100 pieces in the first two days of the sale, but now I’m learning more from these sales. I think people are more willing to buy something they consider expensive if they know they can also get great value for money on some other pieces. So someone would rather buy one dress for Rs 2000 along with 2 tops for Rs 500 each, rather than one evening dress for Rs 3000. Intuitively that does make sense, but I just never thought along those lines before. Observing customers in the store is a lot more conducive to understanding their rationale than sitting in front of an excel sheet (which is how I do my pricing).
I’m now ready to try out a pricing experiment with my upcoming Monsoon collection. I want to see how I can spread my production cost across my collection to allow for some garments to be less expensive than others. Before it was an even distribution, but now it will be according to level of complexity. The simpler garments will end up being less expensive, but the more complicated ones with a lot of tailoring details will work out to be more expensive.
Getting back to the sale, things were going too well for that Corporation Shopping Complex (I’m already battling a case with a leakage in the building and no drainage on the street for rain water), so on Tuesday afternoon at 3pm the electricity went off. My inverter carried us through to the end of the day (without the air conditioner though) but all of Wednesday we had no power. One of the power lines had burnt, affecting 5 shops in the building and as luck would have it mine was one of them. The corporation waited for a few hours on Tuesday before declaring that it was too dark to start work that day. On Wednesday they hired electricians and labourers to dig up the road to find the burnt cable, which they finally found at around 6pm that day. Still giddy from Sunday’s sales, I went up to them filled with naïve enthusiasm and asked, “So it will be fixed by tonight, right”?
Electrician: Well now that we’ve found it there’s little left to do. If we don’t finish it tonight then it will take only 30 minutes to complete in the morning.
Me: Great, I’m so glad. We’ve lost out on a lot of sales because of no power today.
Electrician: The thing is, tomorrow is a government holiday, and Independence day is coming up on Saturday, so we were hoping to get a long weekend starting from this evening….
Note: To compensate for days lost without power, after Independence day on Saturday (we will be closed on August 15th), we will continue with the sale for another week.
During my sale last year I was surprised to see the overwhelming response; customers trooped in and out throughout the day and on the first day I sold around 40 pieces. Not all those pieces were on sale, which led me to believe that announcing a sale is also a way to remind customers that you exist.
I had a similar experience this year, selling 100 pieces in the first two days of the sale, but now I’m learning more from these sales. I think people are more willing to buy something they consider expensive if they know they can also get great value for money on some other pieces. So someone would rather buy one dress for Rs 2000 along with 2 tops for Rs 500 each, rather than one evening dress for Rs 3000. Intuitively that does make sense, but I just never thought along those lines before. Observing customers in the store is a lot more conducive to understanding their rationale than sitting in front of an excel sheet (which is how I do my pricing).
I’m now ready to try out a pricing experiment with my upcoming Monsoon collection. I want to see how I can spread my production cost across my collection to allow for some garments to be less expensive than others. Before it was an even distribution, but now it will be according to level of complexity. The simpler garments will end up being less expensive, but the more complicated ones with a lot of tailoring details will work out to be more expensive.
Getting back to the sale, things were going too well for that Corporation Shopping Complex (I’m already battling a case with a leakage in the building and no drainage on the street for rain water), so on Tuesday afternoon at 3pm the electricity went off. My inverter carried us through to the end of the day (without the air conditioner though) but all of Wednesday we had no power. One of the power lines had burnt, affecting 5 shops in the building and as luck would have it mine was one of them. The corporation waited for a few hours on Tuesday before declaring that it was too dark to start work that day. On Wednesday they hired electricians and labourers to dig up the road to find the burnt cable, which they finally found at around 6pm that day. Still giddy from Sunday’s sales, I went up to them filled with naïve enthusiasm and asked, “So it will be fixed by tonight, right”?
Electrician: Well now that we’ve found it there’s little left to do. If we don’t finish it tonight then it will take only 30 minutes to complete in the morning.
Me: Great, I’m so glad. We’ve lost out on a lot of sales because of no power today.
Electrician: The thing is, tomorrow is a government holiday, and Independence day is coming up on Saturday, so we were hoping to get a long weekend starting from this evening….
Note: To compensate for days lost without power, after Independence day on Saturday (we will be closed on August 15th), we will continue with the sale for another week.
Labels: costing, marketing, retail, systems and processes
posted by Anaka at
3:28 PM
3 Comments:
Hi Anaka,
Stumbled on your site today & from what I saw of the pics, you have some very interesting & unique pieces. Wish you had opened Brass Tacks when I was in Chennai (2001-07).
Do put up an exhibition at Bangalore\Kochi.
All the best.
- Pavithra
Pavithra- thank you! There is a small boutique called Ambara in Bangalore that retails a tiny selection of my clothes right now. Take a look when you are in Bangalore next. Ambara is at 119, Annaswamy Mudaliar Rd, Beside Foto Flash, Ulsoor. They are closed on Sundays and their number is 080-2557-5196.
Hi Anaka,
I'm looking forward to seeing the monsoon collection. insights into pricing are always good. I have had several too which will determine the price of my new collection as well. keeping my fingers crossed.
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