Children Boutique-Stock quantities

ROE2019

Hi All,

I am planning on opening an online baby boutique. I intend to start with a small offering and to add to the line as we grow. One area that is new to me and need advice on is stock quantities.

What would you think would be a reasonable number of each item to stock to begin with? I intend on only offering clothing for age group 0-24 months to begin with.

All tips welcomed

jimmii

Really depends on how much you plan on spending in marketing. Hard to know without knowing what sort of customer numbers you're expecting and also how well your suppliers supply chain is holding up. We sell a good bit of kids stuff and we usually keep 3 weeks worth in stock and that works well we're rarely out of stock but our most popular range is made pretty locally so we can get it quickly.

Without knowing more details of what your launch plans are realistically I would be looking at 10/12 units as a starting point with at least 30+ units of anything you expect to be a best seller.

ROE2019

Thank you for your reply. My main source of marketing will be through social media so marketing spend will be minimal to begin with. I want to start on a small scale and get a feel for the market first, what sells/what doesn't etc.

I plan on stocking two to three brands initially, and have a variety from each brand available. I need to get more information on lead times and restocking etc with suppliers.

jimmii

If you're looking at <£100/day then those amounts will be fine. Just need to keep an eye on anything that starts to get any attention on social as sales can then take off. We've got a load of orders waiting to go out because one supplier are struggling to stay on top of one of their products that works particularly well with online advertising. Takes a while for things to get going especially right now when social is so competitive.

Darc19

ROE2019 wrote: »

Thank you for your reply. My main source of marketing will be through social media so marketing spend will be minimal to begin with. I want to start on a small scale and get a feel for the market first, what sells/what doesn't etc. .

Social media is not free advertising.

Organic posts without boosting will not be seen by many people.

Online marketing is expensive and time consuming especially on social media channels.

Your stock could be sitting there for a while.

I think you need to revisit the marketing plan.

jimmii

Jeez yeah if the plan was not paying to advertise on social you need to start again! 50-100/day is a realistic starting to point in addition to anything being done with adwords and with that spend I would imagine you will be breaking even at the start it's only when you're getting the repeat customers that you start to see much profit much like a b&m retailer.

However good you think your website is go spend a couple more days on it and look up the little extras that make a difference like a better cart and counter for free shipping those things make a huge difference for us. You really have to do eveything to maintain a 2%+ conversion in this type of industry.