Stocking the gear

Gareth    Planning    

Another big issue for any online retailer, which we’ve not really covered here so far, is the actual stock. In our case, we are selling branded gear, from companies that have distribution and warehousing organised in the UK. This does make life easier, as we’re not looking to source our own, unique, product from the far-east, or having anything made.

We still have to make decisions on what to stock, in what colour, etc. This is a daunting task for an established retailer with several seasons of experience behind them. For a new entrant, it’s a nightmare. If we over commit on stock, in an attempt to cover all bases, we could be left with lots of expensive gear that we have to ‘dump’ at near cost at the end of the season. If we under commit, we could end up annoying our customers and being unable to get any stock of ‘hot’ items.

Our particular market makes this somewhat easier, as non-clothing items tend to have a shelf life of 1-2 years, as opposed to a single season. Even the clothing side of our market is far less fashion led than normal high street stuff.

I spent some time recently at the Lowe Alpine showroom with our excellent rep Becky (if you’re reading this Becks, how about another 5% off for the generous plug here!). We spent the day going over the Lowe range for spring/summer 08, which is being pre-ordered by retailers now.

Here’s a few shots of the Lowe Alpine showroom…

In deciding what to stock, we’ve leaned heavily on the experience of the brand reps, used our own judgment on what we collectively like, and taken Gareth’s advice on what trends are hot, and what gear is good for each activity. For our first year (so 2 distinct seasons for outdoor, summer & winter), we’re really guessing.

In time, we will have sales and trend data from the shop(s) and website, to predict what lines will do well and help our forward ordering strategy along.

In particular, we really like gear from brands like Montane, who are all about lightweight, high performance gear, it’s these kind of judgments we’ve made, in terms of general trends. Another key factor for the outdoor market, is the sheer number of brands that produce product for the same end use. It’s tempting to stock gear from every major brand, a sort of shotgun approach. Whilst there are a few brands that sit on the ‘have to have’ list, in most cases we’ve tried to slim down the number of brands we stock, and pick 2 or 3 (as opposed to 6 or 7) per major product category. Hopefully we’ve got this right!

This approach helps us become more focused in terms of the product we offer Webtogs customers. Take waterproof jackets, as an example, we could stock £200 GORE-TEX or eVent jackets from 6 or 7 brands. In our minds, as a consumer, this is too much choice and could lead to a confusing product proposition. Better, we think, to offer 2 or 3 core offerings from well respected brands. This also has the all important benefit of reducing our exposure to stock, a good thing for a fledgling retailer!

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