We have had a great initial reaction to our first ever sale at Ochre And Ocre. I was determined that it should be a "proper" sale, with genuine reductions. As an ex buyer I know all about special "sale buys", and I hate getting conned by the not so real savings. Another bug bear of mine is when you purchase something in a sale, then two weeks later it is reduced even more. It does make you feel like you should have held off a bit longer, to save those extra pounds - everything in the Ochre sale is only being marked down once, so as to avoid upsetting those customers who have purchased already.
Some of the lines in the original Chateau collection will remain marked down to clear, but all the print ranges, Organic Cotton table cloths and napkins will have new pricing for 2011.
Since we originally launched Ochre And Ocre in 2008 all the prices have been held. But in order to run a profitable business, (a sensible goal I think!!), we have to increase our pricing for two reasons. When we first bought the range the sterling to euro exchange rate was strongly in our favour, but this has declined hugely over the past two years. Another more recent issue is the price of Cotton. There are major cotton shortages worldwide, and Organic Cotton is even more scarce. I read on the BBC Website this morning that Next are increasing their prices by up to 8% due to the cotton prices. As a "small" company, we are at the back of the queue against the bigger retailers in trying to grab some of the remaining Cotton stocks.
Allowing for all the above factors, because we are only "small" we are fortunate to have small overheads, and more flexibility than some of the larger firms, so our price increases are modest, and still allow us to be competitive. It will be interesting to see how 2011 will pan out, but I am optimistic of a good response to our new additions to the ranges this year, and am grateful to have a loyal and growing band of customers.
No comments:
Post a Comment