More about selling fabric

[bobbin]

I installed a slipcover for a sofa this morning.  It fit great! I patterned it last week, came home and sewed it up, and installed it today.  The decorator sells fabric and has a "workroom".  She was stunned when I returned the extra fabric and told her it was finished.  Couldn't believe it took 2 trips and no "fittings".  It doesn't always work that way, but that's the goal!

Tell me where to go to pattern the piece.  Leave me alone to do my work.  Drop ship me the fabric and leave me alone to do my work.  I'm good with that. 

[baileyuph]

There can be positives of selling and not selling the fabrics:  One negative for COM is the customer just bought most of the warranty on the job.  Should the fabric fail, how can they expect the shop to make it good!  Buying the fabric from a well established shop with a lot of knowledge and experience about fabrics can be the best way to go.

Think about it, while the selling upholster works on a job, extra effort will usually be made to get it all right.  But, when the fabric might be the problem, the tendency might be to "get it done", I didn't buy the fabric.

There are pro and cons to it all:  Some of my business is for the "in crowd" and what they want will not necessarily be in my fabric books.  For example, this "French Accent" stuff they like, well a perfect example of what I speak about, no samples.  So, you know the answer, COM!

There are other answers in dealing with colors too.  These young chic's really go for the "hot colors", which also are not available in my traditional display books.

So, you work with it, ..............

Doyle

[baileyuph]

COM experiences this week:
    1. One of my customers needs 4 more yards to do a project, she informed me that the vendor will not have any more of her fabric.  She indicated that looking else where is a waste of time because this vendor/supplier has the pattern locked up, no one else can have the print milled and for now they are only going to have the pattern milled, but on a much different weave (background), which won't match the few yards already on hand.

    2.  To add, I didn't give any thought before - that some of these prints were copy- righted,  Should have but didn't. 

Bummer for the customer, I was asked the logical but there is not a logical way out.  That is similar to buying a car that parts are not available to do repairs.
Doyle

[baileyuph]

There is a consumer mentality that if an item wasn't bought off the "net", consumer wasn't smart and paid too much.

That may or may not be true:  

Experiences this weeK for some of my clients (COM type) are;  Ordered materials that was supposed to come in within the week, it too six, plus color in reality didn't look the same as on the monitor and while the fabric content was "fine", the weight of the fabric was a disappointment.

Last and not least, another needed additional yardage to a previous purchase and was disappointed because background of the print wasn't the same fabric.  The printed pattern was but wouldn't work.  

As a shop owner, problems continue to arise from internet purchases and it sort of becomes rediculous how consumers are miss led by price.  Given a small savings on fabrics, how can it be smart to continue those purchases and take on the odds and risk of being unhappy and backed in a corner on their fabric purchases?

The logic of these type of purchases just leave me speechless, see a certain degree of this type of disappointments.  

WHEN will folks see the light?  So many vendors are intermediates who probably don't even stock the fabrics, just sell stuff they don't even have control of at such low markups.  These vendors exist for things like marine seats, off road vehicle seating, and some auto interior seating.  Seemingly, they get the idea everything is easy, you "JUST" whack the material, sew it up and Voila' - get rich with a web site!!!  

Ever witness any of this nonsense?  Sometimes there can be a lot said for "old school practices".  I know this is not representative of all internet practices, some vendors have their act together and do offer good service and the correct goods at savings, so perhaps the word for the wise is becareful of what you buy and from who to minimize problems as discussed.  Seems upholstery related items can take on considerable risk.

Doyle

[Mojo]

Doyle:

You bring up a good point - the " Drop Ship " way of our consumer world.

It is no where more apparent then in sewing machines. Look at the listings on E-Bay for new sewing machines and I can promise you that 75 % never see the machine you buy. It is all drop shipped from a central location. The importer could care less as all they want is sales. The consumer gets screwed though.

It is happening with all kinds of products. Electronics to parts to whatever. No one stocks anything. All they do is mark up the product a few bucks and make up their revenue off volume sales.
They are nothing more then glorified customer service rep's with a phone and computer.

Chris

[sofadoc]

Doyle:

You bring up a good point - the " Drop Ship " way of our consumer world.

I'm convinced that many of these online 3rd party fabric sellers are comprised of nothing more than a guy with a laptop in his mom's basement. They make a quick 15% mark-up for doing little more than making a few clicks.

What fries me is, I'm pretty sure that our fabric suppliers not only allow it......they encourage it. It's their way of selling wholesale straight to the public without us retailers knowing about it.
I wouldn't be surprised to learn that many 3rd party sellers are just online spin-offs of the suppliers themselves.

[papasage]

i have  outlasted  a lot of decorators . been in business  50 years . if i don`t sell fabric i charge  a cutting fee . i never give a  labor price  til i see the fabric  com. or  my fabric .