In amongst
my new orders waiting for me following the Easter break, was an order for a
little pair of pyjamas. Several weeks ago, I wrote on here about how I could no
longer find the butterfly fabric that I’d made the pyjamas in for the last four
years, and how I’d finally found a decent replacement. I took a photo of the
fabric, and added it to the website along with the new description, but had so
far not had time to make up a pair for photographing.
In
situations like this, it poses a bit of an issue- without a decent photo,
outfits don’t tend to sell as well as customers prefer to see the finished
result rather than use imagination. If a new outfit is one the same as an
existing one, just in a new fabric, I do always try to add some of the older
photos as well as a clear picture of the new material, but I know that this can
sometimes lead to confusion- is the outfit going to arrive in the fabric on the
main photo, or like the photo of the actual outfit?
Of course,
most people read the description and understand, and some do buy the new
outfits on this basis. However, it still can’t look as appealing when looking
to buy a nice outfit for a much loved dolly, when all you’re faced with is a
close up view of some patterned fabric. I'm sure I must lose customers this
way, so I do always try to keep the time that any item is on the site like this
as short as possible! Sometimes though, if it’s a matter of add the new item
without any actual photos of it, or don’t add it at all, well… there’s not
really much choice to be made! It’s still better to get the item up and running
on the site, after all- it’s definitely not going to sell if no one even knows
of its existence is it?!
The pyjamas
were one such item. Over the years my dolly pyjamas have proved to be one of
the most popular outfits I sell- occasionally I sell a pair on their own, but
more often than not they sell along with a dress or other daytime outfit, or
else along with a set of bedding. Because of this, when the butterfly print
ones finally sold out completely I knew I couldn't leave my shop with none in
stock, but I just simply didn’t have the time to make up a pair of the new
design just for showing. So a few weeks ago I had added the new design, accompanied
simply by the fabric photo and the old photos to show a sample pair.
As expected,
it took a while for there to be any interest in them. I still had no spare time
as I was too busy with holiday preparations and getting ahead with my orders,
so just had to accept that I may be losing potential sales for this one item. Eventually
someone viewed them on the website, and once one person has done that it pushes
them up on the ‘popular items’ list on the store. As a result they show up
easier to anyone who is browsing, if they then look at them it pushes them
further up and so on.
Once they’d
been viewed once it was only a matter of time before someone took the plunge
and bought a pair- which they did just after Easter. As a result I now had to
find the time to make the first pair of them, as they were part of a customer’s
order, which is a far easier task than finding ‘spare’ time! Of course, then
there’s always the possibility that I wouldn't like the finished result…
Fortunately
I was really pleased with how the new little pyjamas turned out- they’re pink
and pretty and girly and sure to appeal to any little girl wanting to tuck her
dolly up for the night. Or at least, they’ll appeal to all the mummies and
grannies and aunties etc. who’ll be buying them, which is actually more
important initially for me!!
Once made, I
just had to find a few minutes to photograph them- a much easier feat than finding
spare time to make them, and actually much more important, as they can then be
shown in all their loveliness on the website. Even better, I've since sold
another pair, and they are now high up on the popular items list where they've always been. I think Pink Ladybird Pyjamas may be the dolly fashion item of the
year… at least in Little Dolly Clothes Shop world!
No comments:
Post a Comment