Direct sales and mass customization are two channels that have been heavily utilized by fashion startups over the past few years with much success. Brands, with a traditional product, now have the point of difference they need to stand out and be noticed. It’s time to take these sales channels seriously.

Direct Sales

Remember Avon and Tupperware? Two household names, which made it into everyone’s homes through their direct sales method? After years of this model being relegated to pots, knives and lipstick, direct sales is once again credible selling channel for apparel and accessories.

By taking the product directly to the customer either as a group event or one on one, the customer has the undivided attention of the seller giving a more personal experience in their workplace or home.

Pros:

• Direct relationship with the customer so can get instant feedback on your product, positive and negative.
• Flexibility of hours and schedule, ideal if you have a family or are studying
• Sociable working environment.
• Works for any product, apparel, accessories and home.

Cons:

• Leads / appointment acquisition can be tough and the rejection rate can be high.
• When scaling the business, the cost and time involved in building up the selling kits and team can be high.
• Initial limitation on coverage for sales.
• Stock level management to ensure you have consistent product availability

Men’s shirting line Trumaker&Co and women’s jewelry labels, Chloe and Isabel and Stella & Dot are three brands who have made a success from this sales channel either through ‘outfitters’, ‘merchandisers’ or ‘stylists’. Product samples or sales cards are shown to the customer, orders are placed and the goods are shipped. With Trumaker&Co, the shirts are made to order through mass customization but with the jewelry, finished goods are made made and held in stock to be called off.

So as an emerging brand with a limited budget, you are able to utilize this method with relative ease. Providing you have product (materials or finished items) and leads (friend and family or referral), you can dictate when you sell, what you sell and how you ship. By start locally and keeping it small, use incentives of discounts or commission to friends to promote your brand.

Starting finances can be minimal providing you have your product in hand, but they can and will escalate when scaling your sales team. With stock in hand, there is no reason why it can’t be sold directly, wholesale as well as D2C. Maybe take a small part of your collection purely for direct sales and merchandise them as looks or as a theme. Customers who can touch and feel the product are more likely to buy it. See it as a complimentary sales channel albeit a more direct one.

Mass Customization

Mass customization has been around for a few years (more commonly used in software) and uses mass production processes with the flexibility of individual customization, which in terms of apparel, takes an established block and with the customer’s measurements, finds the nearest grade and adjusts to the accordingly. Its not pure bespoke, neither is it mass-produced. The product is then made individually and then sent to the customer.

You’ll have seen that NikeID have been offering a customizable shoe for several seasons and whilst the possibilities are open for the larger brands, it’s really the smaller more nimble brands that can accelerate it due to flexibility and customer expectation. For Nike it’s a great marketing tool but it’s lacks viability on a larger scale. For fashion Startups it’s their minimal viable product.

Pros:

• It’s is a great business model to test your product before you invest fully.
• It can be grown at your own pace and kept sustainable.
• Can be used for multi product groups: apparel, accessories and home wares
• Can be managed with ecommerce as well as direct sales.

Cons:

• Whilst it’s a great way to test your market scaling up can be hard and you may have to have multiple sources, which means duplicate able quality.
• You need a customer base that is prepared to wait for the product, with realistic expectations.
• Management of raw material inventory instead of finished goods.

The trick to making mass customization work for a new brand, is to keep it simple and gradually expand rather than over promise and under deliver. Be exact with your process timelines and supply chain, provide options that add value aesthetically to the product and don’t be scared to use it at as an additional channel next to your existing. Perhaps you have scarves, bags or shirts already in your line that you can add details to? Embroideries, monograms, appliques or contrast stitching; People will pay more if their product is unique to them.

Think laterally when making changes to your sales channels. Having a personal connection or being part of a brand community adds value to your brand whilst adding a unique element to a product or building to fit elevates your message higher than its neighbor. It’s time to make your brand multi faceted.

This ‘blindness’ is not intentional, it’s a result of excitement and fearless ambition and can result in sometimes obvious oversights in your business plan or investor pitch.

So whether you are looking for investment, or just out on your own and looking to build a credible business, here are some nuggets of advise, from personal experience, that you should ask yourself.

Will you cause disruption in the market?

Is your idea already out there? Does your product already exist? If it does, is there enough of a point of difference in what you are offering? Do you have a unique twist on the product? Are you providing a service that doesn’t exist? Or of it does exist, will yours be better?

Is your idea scalable?

If you are manufacturing, are you limited on order size or can you scale up as the business grows? If you are selling, are you able to grow your sales team at a fast enough rate? Do you have the tools in place to manage this sudden growth if your idea becomes an instant hit on social media?

Who’s the competition?

Have you done your due diligence on the competition? Do you know your market? Do you know where you sit in price? Is there any competition? Be honest, there is nearly always someone else doing the same thing and this is a good thing. It means the market is already prepped for it. You don’t have to be the first, but you can be the best.

Are you superhero?

Do you have all the skills needed to bring this product to market? Are you a one man show? Are you the creative, the financial and the tech wizkid that will bring the world to it’s knees or are you just one cog in the machine? If you are the solo entrepreneur, do you have support in all the other areas to launch or do you need to hire? Be honest with capabilities. Know your strengths and do not be afraid to job-out a skill set, it could save your business.

Are you detail obsessed?

Have you looked at every aspect of your product, the manufacturing, the supply chain, the distribution, the sales, the marketing and the design? Have you thought about a realistic timescale for all this to fall into place? Do you know exactly how long each aspect takes and how much it will cost? Have you thought about how you will survive financially for the first year bearing in mind that most of your contractors and manufacturers will have payment terms which are more than 30days. These are hard questions but they are necessary.

So ask yourself these questions, line up the answers you have and find answers to those you don’t and you will have that air of confidence that will carry you through the launch of your product.

My book, Blue is the new Black is a how to guide for the fashion industry. My consultancy co-lab54, finds product development solutions for fashion companies large and small.