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It's that time of year again. Black Friday
My inbox is filling up with offers, early access sales and discount codes.And we're only at the beginning of November - this year, I've decided we're not taking part, there won't be a Black Friday promotion at PARADAIZA.
What I’ve Learned From over 30 Years in Retail
Having spent over 30 years in menswear, I've watched the industry change massively, there was a time when retail had a proper seasons. New collections arrived, customers would come into Xile to find the latest brands and bought into them, and at the end of the season you'd clear what was left to make room for the next one.It was pretty straightforward, this was pre web – deferent times, but we never had what feels like sales or promos every other week.
There were lots of factors behind the
challenges we faced at Xile, and it would be far too simple to blame discounting alone. But the pressure to compete on price, particularly as online retail grew, certainly didn't make life any easier.
Look at the amount of clothing available
online now. Some of the biggest retailers have enormous amounts of stock, we have just to much choice with brands and products and retailers chase growth and discount great product often to make way for more that’s probably the same thing with the badge in a different spot. It's not good for the fashion industry, it's not good for the environment, and it's not good for the independant retailer.
Expensive Doesn’t Always Mean Overpriced
I had an email recently from a customer who told me he loved PARADAIZA, but thought I was taking the piss with the price of our Geelong Shawl Collar Cardigan.
Fair enough - I appreciate someone being straight with me.
But I had to disagree, as for me, taking the piss is charging hundreds of pounds for a designer T-shirt because it's got a name across the chest, or selling an overpriced polyester jacket and expecting the label to justify the price and there's plenty of brands doing that about.
Our Geelong cardigan is a different story, I wanted to work with a premium knitwear factory in Hawick, a town with an incredible history of making some of the finest knitwear in the world. The cardigan is made from 100% Geelong wool, weighs around 1.3kg and has a proper chunky, fully ribbed construction - It's a serious piece of knitwear, almost a jacket in its own right and like a lot of the things I make for PARADAIZA, it's because I wanted one myself, I love the design, the fabric, the colour and the quality - Could I have made a cheaper version somewhere else? Probably - But I wanted this cardigan, made by this factory, to this standard.
And that's what it costs. It's expensive, absolutely.
But it's the daddy.
Sometimes We Don’t Have Enough Stock
Our Pinch Chino is a great example of how
we're trying to work, It's one of our best sellers, and this year we've have struggled to keep it in stock after moving the production to Scotland and they cant keep up.
Im learning and getting better with production, but I'd much rather be dealing with the challenge of making more of
what customers want than sitting on thousands of trousers that I need to discount to shift – I am invested in what I do, good product is key. We just dropped our Block One jean – came in sold well and we got another order in – this jean will not be on sale in the coming season – actully years.
Two Sales a Year
We had a small sale in August, which went really well, and that's how I see things working at PARADAIZA going forward.
Two sale periods each year. January and August.
Genuine clearance of previous collections, discontinued colours and the odd sizes we need to move on.
There won't be any pre-Christmas discounts. I love the product we're making, and I know what goes into it, so I don't see the point in discounting our current collections every few weeks just because everyone else is doing it.
That's not to say we won't offer a cheeky wee code now and then to thank customers for their reviews!
Buy wise and take your time
Now this is important, I want people to feel confident buying from PARADAIZA.
If you come into the shop today and buy a
Worker Jacket, I don't want you opening an email next Friday to discover we've knocked 30% off it. I'd be pretty annoyed if that happened to me and I don't want customers holding off buying something they really like because they're wondering whether a discount code is coming next week.
That's not a great way to shop, and I don't
think it's a great way to build a business either.
I'd much rather you took your time - come into the shop, try things on, ask me about the fabric, the fit or where something's been made or have a proper look online, check the measurements and think about whether it's something you'll wear.
If you're going to spend your hard-earned
money with us, I want you to be happy with what you've bought. Not because you managed to get 20% off before midnight.
But because you've bought something you
genuinely wanted.
PRICE IS THE PRICE
PARA-DAIZA is still a young business and I'm learning something new every week - there will be things we get right and things we need to improve. But one thing I want to be consistent about is how we price our clothing and how we treat our customers.
So there you have it.
No Black Friday promotion. No pre-Christmas sale.
We'll continue bringing in new pieces,
working with our makers and trying to produce the best clothing we can at
prices we believe are fair.
And when January comes around, if we've got genuine end-of-season stock to clear, we'll have a sale. In the meantime, if there's something you've had your eye on, don't buy it because you think you're getting a
bargain. Buy it because you like it, it fits you
well and you know you'll get plenty of wear out of it.
Paul
Founder, PARADAIZA
