would you buy them

[Tanya]

whilst looking for new suppliers I came across a couple that sell fairtrade and organic clothes and couldn't resist asking for catalogues and price lists

I have received one catalogue so far and the prices aren't exactly cheap but the clothes look lovely.

these would certainly be the higher end of my target market, I am just worried that they might not sell.

Do I take the risk or not?

would you as a parent buy more expensive clothes for your kids if you know the quality is good and it looks really nice??

[KeznJay]

Have u got any pics? Personally im on a budget so i probably would buy them no matter how good they were. But if i really took a liking to them i might.

[Tanya]

erm don't have any pics, will see if I can get one off their site

[Sarah]

I like to support Fairtrade but it's too expensive for me as is the organic stuff. I love some of the cut for cloth stuff you've already got on your site and I've looked at it loads but I really wouldn't pay that sort of price for kids clothes. Sorry but you need honest opinions. But that doesn't mean they won't sell to people with a bit more dosh than me :happy72:

[Chell]

I would rather have one of the better items than several of the cheaper.

[Tanya]

I like to support Fairtrade but it's too expensive for me as is the organic stuff. I love some of the cut for cloth stuff you've already got on your site and I've looked at it loads but I really wouldn't pay that sort of price for kids clothes. Sorry but you need honest opinions. But that doesn't mean they won't sell to people with a bit more dosh than me :happy72:

yes I want honest opinions and I know that not everyone wants to pay some of the organic clothes prices. I don't know why it has to be so highly priced.

[Chutney]

The problem with childrens' clothes is that they are not in them for very long. Where I would consider something for me, my DD grows out of clothes ultra fast. She also stains her clothes and my washing powers are weak!
But saying that, I would most certainly buy organic or fairtrade as a gift for another child. Just feels more special. I guess like organic food, they are more expensive because the process is so different.
HTH!
Chutney
XXX

[Tanya]

I hear what you are all saying and I appreciate your comments

I would like to show you some pics

sorry but some of them are quite big!!

http://www.kidzfashionzone.co.uk/images/boys check pyjamas.jpg
http://www.kidzfashionzone.co.uk/images/car pyjamas.jpg
http://www.kidzfashionzone.co.uk/images/girls kurta.jpg
http://www.kidzfashionzone.co.uk/images/girls stripe pyjamas.jpg
http://www.kidzfashionzone.co.uk/images/pink heart pyjamas.jpg
http://www.kidzfashionzone.co.uk/images/baby girls dress.jpg
http://www.kidzfashionzone.co.uk/images/white cotton pyjamas.jpg

[Lemon]

There is no doubt they are gorgeous clothes TJ. Whilst lots of us are on a budget you have to remember there are lots of other people that are not and that will spend alot of money on clothes for their children. I suppose it depends which market you are trying to tap into. I would love to buy these sorts of things for my boys, but again, just can't afford to.

Loving the pyjamas - how much would they be for example ?

[Tanya]

There is no doubt they are gorgeous clothes TJ. Whilst lots of us are on a budget you have to remember there are lots of other people that are not and that will spend alot of money on clothes for their children. I suppose it depends which market you are trying to tap into. I would love to buy these sorts of things for my boys, but again, just can't afford to.

Loving the pyjamas - how much would they be for example ?

pyjamas would be around the £20 mark

[whirl]

hiya,

I have had a little think about this. I am the type of customer that wouldn't go out searching for these type of things but with the rifght site and the right descriptions I can easily be swayed into buying them. My concern would be that on a site that wasn't specifically geared towards selling fairtrade and ethical clothing that you would miss out on your target audience, does that make sense? I mean that most people that buy this type of thing would search google for fair trade and ethical clothing - how competitive is that search, where would you rank? I would think it unlikely that people searching for kids fashion would be after the same products.

In all honesty I think that your whole site is definately taking a shift upmarket, so I think that they could sit quite nicely on your site....

hmmmmmm its a difficult one, to summarise I would say go for it if you are dedicated to increasing your organic/ fairtrade range but no if you just think that they are nice and people will but them because they look good.

hth. x

[smirnoff]

TJ they are beautiful.. again i am on a budget, but i may stretch the budget if i could for birthday/christmas/special occasions etc...

I cant believe how much more expensive the morally and environmentally better things are..... irritates me!!

[Seren]

I love the last one the white 2 piece and the PJ's, I would buy them but I would only do so after selling something on ebay. My budget for clothes is £50 for all 3 per month. I'm not sure how that compare with other, oh and yes the £50 includes me too (yikes)

The cut for cloth is too expensive apart from the vest, I really do recomend the vests! Unfortunatly I brought mine before you started selling them, the place I got them from did a "3 pack " price, they are fab and I will buy them again as they really help with the cloth nappies and the quality is excellant.

Have you tried advertising in JUNO?

[Chell]

pyjamas would be around the £20 mark

I wouldn't spend that on something just for bed but I would for outerwear. I don't mind spending a little more on clothes as they are then ebayable should I want to get some of my money back.

I think like Jazz says you need to decide what market you are trying to attract or somehow seperate the two on the site.

[sadierhianne]

Finding Fair Trade and organic on the highstreet isn't easy - those images are lovely - i prefer to get a few good quality clothes ather than lots of cheap. I bought Monsoon for dd when she was small, still do, they last so well that i have sold on ebay for quater of the price i paid, bringing the item down to a price not that more exepensive than M&S would charge.

I do buy in Tesco and Asda too though because stuff looks nice but then you wash ti a few times - saying that, Asdas stuff can last really well.

If there was sonething that i really liked - probably more Fair trade than organic - organic doesn't do much for me to be honest but FT does.

hth

anne

[sadierhianne]

Hmmm i had a fair Trade section on my website, i got rid of it, people just didn't seem intyerested and the items in that section didn't sell, once i'd got rid of that category and the items were mixed into other categories i saw an increase in sales.

never have i had a search for fair Trade either, well i have but it was my search - so this said i am not sure how important FT and Organic really is to people, even the greenest of folk BUT where an item is really lovely i think that people will buy.

I am sure that the wholesale price wouldn't be extortionate so if all else failed you culd sell them off at cost - one other thing, you are appealing to two different customers or a wider group of customers - has to be a better thing.

[Tanya]

hiya,

I have had a little think about this. I am the type of customer that wouldn't go out searching for these type of things but with the rifght site and the right descriptions I can easily be swayed into buying them. My concern would be that on a site that wasn't specifically geared towards selling fairtrade and ethical clothing that you would miss out on your target audience, does that make sense?

hth. x

makes perfect sense and you are right, I will honestly take in what everyone has said and have a good think about this.

In all honesty I don't really think I should buy them and it's not what I started out to do, my original aim was to offer affordable clothing and good value for money and I think I'm just being sucked in by all this nice stuff.

[Chell]

If you did go down that avenue then you could do posting in the right places. There are quite a few eco/green forums that I post on every now and again.

[Ruthierhyme]

I cant believe how much more expensive the morally and environmentally better things are..... irritates me!! :D :yes:

If they weren't labeled Organic or Fair Trade I'd consider buying them.
Description and background would have to be right to make sure customers knew what the quality was though .. one of the curses of untouchable online sales !

TJ, they are beautiful items, but would you still sell them if they weren't Organically labelled clothes ?

[funkyfish]

I think they would sell.

You could do an information page about the fair trade products for SEO with links incoming to the products and mix them in with the other items.

Provide highly detailed descriptions and I am sure this would work for you.

Increasing your product range is a good thing - you will attract more customers and increase your customer base.

I agree with lots of the earlier comments as the majority of people have small budgets for kids clothes either by choice or situation but the gifting market is massive and although the people buying the upmarket stuff is less, the profit margins are higher and the internet is a great place for a niche product.

Not forgetting that these products maybe suitable for kids with sensitive skins who need really soft cotton rich clothing......

[sadierhianne]

I think the morally labelled stuff is more expensive because it has been made in a fair trade situation and not by some little swollen fingered women in a sweat shop earning 1p a week, with no lunch hour and no drink throughout the day sat huddled next to a thousand other women all in the same boat.

The fair trade stuff that i sell - the jigsawas are made in Sri lanka, they have given a tsunami survivor a job when his job was washed away, he can now feed his family and build his home, he gets to work in a good environment with proper breaks and drinks throughout the day, he does all his work by hand with safety goggles etc, he gets paid a decent wage. All these expenses are added to the cost of the item this is what makes them more expensive.

[Sarah]

I agree with Fairtrade in principal and buy their bars and bananas and anything else that catches my eye. I just can't afford the price of the clothes and as someone else said - the rate kids grow out of clothes it's just not worth the expense.

[Chell]

Sorry to go O/T but I read that Fair Trade coffee isn't worth the extra cost as its the compnay getting the extra cash. Isn't it supposed to be better to donate direct to the people in need without the big companies getting their cut?

I am always a little worried that the 'fair trade' isn't as fair as is made out.

Anne, I don't mean that is the case with your jigsaws. Like the ones I sell I think they are genuine.

[sadierhianne]

I think that it is just about supporting Fair trade when you can - if it means that all the women who are working in the fields with no shoes and not enough money to feed their babies and those in sweat shops in China/India are given a fair wage and fair work conditions then buying what you can when you can afford it has to have some impact - of course it would mean that UK retailers could also reduce their profit margin.

I have two types of oil burner on my site - their RRP is £6, i decided from the start that there was no way i was selling them at £6 so i sell them at £4, little above what i pay for them -

Mr Sainsbury seems quite fair with his fair trade policy to a degree too.

I think if you can manage to get the moral aspect right and understand it, making a buck from Fair trade is going to be harder than making a buck form non fair trade - the reason why this stuff is so dear in most places is that the retailer wants his fair wage too - surely then the cost of an item can't be blamed solely on the Fair Trade ticket.

[sadierhianne]

Chell you aren't wrong in a way - the original cost of the coffee will be less than it would if the company picking the beans wasn't getting a fair trade - so fair trade wage for the bean pickers means increased cost up the line, problem being, mr coffee maker isn't going to loose his but and mr jar it isn't going to loose his cut and mr importer ain't gunna loose his cut and Mr stick it on yer shelves in the supermarket wants his huge cut too - so all the cuts have a knock on effect. The coffee could be sold cheaper but it would mean that the little man in the fields had to work for nothing again.

Fair trade relies on people recognising how FT works and being willing to put their hand in their poscket to support this.

[Ruthierhyme]

Chell touches some extremly valid points and it is a sad fact that where there is money making opportunities the larger organising companies are only willing to risk & invest if their share is generous enough to warrant the involvement.

They have so many ways to sell to the emotive side of us that I would imagine it makes it very hard for any 'everyday type business to move in 'as such' & set up solid foundations for the countries that would like to have that intial startup help.

It isn't and shouldn't be about charity but common sense & sustainability.

[feistygal]

Well I think the stuff is lovely and not too expensive at all but then personally I don't buy cheap clothes for ds and again as he gets older its really, really hard to find organic/fair trade stuff to fit him!

The huge majority of people on parenting forums are on a budget I've found over the last 9/10 years of using them. The thing is though, parenting forums aren't your market - every parent with a children upto X age is your market and there are thousands and thousands of them that don't think £20 for a pair of organic/FT pj's is too much. You can market to these people effectively and once they know your site is there with these nicer, higher quality clothes they will come and buy!

Being the cheapest in the market rarely works for anyone other than Walmart/Tesco/Woolies when you're thinking about the wider market place. There are some good business books about this principle.

A well targeted adwords campaign would be a great way to bring the right kind of customers to your site for the C4C stuff.

[sadierhianne]

One other thing, it isn't just about buying fair trade its about recognising what might be made in sweat shops in china etc - and not buying those products.

Morrisons had some lovely huge garden pots for not a lot of money, the tell tale Chinese newspaper was sticking out of the sides of one of the pots - i didn't buy - the cost of the item was what suggested seat shop trade.

At the same time unless there is someone in these countries trying to put a stop to the unfair trade - which there is in some because we can see the Fair trade products - then the sweat shops will continue and people will be making a profit from people expected to work for nothing.

One other thing though which hits me quite badly - i used to sell fair trade palm oil, due to the jump on the waggon comments on forums ( not this one) about how damaging palm oil was to the habitat of various animals and how people were boycotting palm oil - as impossible as it is to do that i decided not to continue stocking palm oil.

So i was buying Fair trade palm oil and supporting a small business with a small legal plantation, not one that has involved pulling down an entire animal rich populated forrest. But dues to ignorance etc and silly people jumping on a waggon - and i saw them do it - i felt inclined to stop stocking the oil. My dilemma was then that my small order was taking away the livelyhood of a small business, for weeks, even still, i worried about the effects of my stopping selling the oil - i gave all that i had in stock away and ordered another batch which i also gave away - i couldn't afford to do that again. I have no doubt that a lot of palm oil is killing habitats but not all of it yet we all eat palm oil every day - not an issue BUT sell it in a lump and name is Palm oil then that's it, you are a terrible company.

meanwhile some little firm who relies on sales from the UK has gone under and its employess probably now working for the habitat killing company for no wage.

[sadierhianne]

I am not sure that fair trade stuff is any better made than a cheaper product, it is generally hand made though although there appears to be specific lines now being produced by bigger manufacturers using materials that are sourced in a fair trade manner

I have seen the mark up on C4C, they are lovely clothes though and as there seems to be a shortage for clothes suitable for cloth bums - cloth being an environmentally friendly item then they seem to be taking the market. If you have something that people want then people will buy - they could charge £15 of tax on a packet of fags and people would buy them.

[Ruthierhyme]

Anne that is exactly what I mean by the larger companies having such influence .. their practice has a direct result on the smaller industries.

It takes the commitment of trades people like yourself who have first hand information about the businesses you are dealing with to stick with them through the thick & thin .. there will always be those that complain, campaign & bandwagon jump .. but it is also good to try and provide the evidence needed to prove your personal ethics and maintain your retail reputation :happy72:

Eventually the bigger companies will sit up & listen ... the quiet voices are also very loud :D

[sadierhianne]

Unfortunately Ruth, the bandwaggons and peoples opinions, often confused opinions can cause a lot of damage - even my own opinions get confused.

i think that the most important thing is that Fair Trade industry starts to flourish - it has to be given a chance, if a big business offers a small ft company a fair price then that is supporting that trade.

It is hard because often FT stuff isn't any better quality than any other products, often it isn't as good a quality - the jigs that i sell are excellent quality and the price i buy at is a high price, again, i don't have them on site at full retail price, i had each jig on at £2 less that rrp and the price of postage included -

it seems that the wholesaler si stipulating quite a high markup on fair trade stuff - infact i don't have any other product in stock that has such a high rrp as my fair trade stock which is making me think that the word FT is being exploited.

I would rather loose my potential profit and have people buy FT than people not - whislt FT isn't selling it isn't doing anything to help the people needing the fair wages and the decent working conditions.

At the same time i am aware of the high costs of business in the UK - i haven't made any profit - mainly because some of my prices are too low - well i want folk to clean green and care for the environment - people are selling bicarb - cheap inported slave labour bicarb on ebay for more than i am selling my ott expensive food grade sourced in the EU bicarb.

So i can see why mayeb the smaller businesses have to sell at rrp BUT there is no excuse for latge business like the supermarkets - they have enough other lines to make their dosh on - they could easily bring FT products into line with other brands.

[Ruthierhyme]

Unfortunately Ruth, the bandwaggons and peoples opinions, often confused opinions can cause a lot of damage - even my own opinions get confused.

That's where staying strong and beleiving in yourself, what you're doing & why you're doing it pays off eventually.

For as many bandwagon jumpers there are, there will also be as many knowing exactly why they aren't http://www.mumszone.co.uk/forums/images/icons/icon7.gif

They are the customers with reason & sense, & the ones that will help you build a solid business.

[Millymoosmum]

There is obviously a market for these types and prices of clothes, it's just making sure if you do take the step of making them available on your site that you are marketing towards the right one.....women with a disposable income - there are loads of sites out there who market in this area and are succesful so it can be done.

Personally I can't afford these types of clothes :( They are gorgeous...... maybe one day!

One last tip - try to think with your head and not your heart - you love these clothes, but that doesn't mean that they will sell. If it is a case of huge outlay for you with no guarantees of making it work then it may be something you could consider in the future but for now make the decision that suits your budget and time, think about whether or not you would have the time you would need to put into marketing, targeting these clothes to the right audience!

Whatever you do decide, I hope it works out for you! Good luck xxx

[Tanya]

[QUOTE=funkyfish;384816]I think they would sell.

You could do an information page about the fair trade products for SEO with links incoming to the products and mix them in with the other items.

QUOTE]


I had thought about maybe a blog or a forum attached to the site (i know there are already these things out there already) where I can get people to talk about these type of products and also factsheets too BUT I don't want my whole site to be based around these products as I like selling the other stuff too BUT if the forum is attached to my site I can point people who want to but organic/fairtrade products in the direction of my shop

I need to think about this in more detail

[BellaMiller]

This is an interesting discussion. My new biz is fair trade children's clothing (not launched yet). I have spent quite a long time now researching stock and imho it all gets down to who you are aiming at.

My market will be those who want to buy ethical clothing and not those who for example want to buy high street brands or designer stuff. So I've a very narrow focus, but a clearly defined target market which I can concentrate all my energies on :)

[Chutney]

Oh those clothes are gorgeous. Are they on your site now?
X

[Tanya]

Oh those clothes are gorgeous. Are they on your site now?
X

lol have you read this thread :cheesy: I was asking peoples opinions on the whole thing, I really can't decide whether to stock them or not, I really don't want to spend loads of money on stock and it sits around for ages.

[Tanya]

I'm not sure if I should split my sites into 2 seperate ones and have current and future organic/fairtrade stock on one and then the other stuff on another site.

I really don't want to create more work for myself and this is why I wanted to give up the other day, I just don't make the right decisions, I can't decide in which direction I want the business to go.

I am sooooo fed up this week

[BellaMiller]

Don't be fed up - you are thinking of growing your business and that is really important :clapping:
However I think that if you do want to go down the ethical route then a separate site would be best - but you need to give very careful consideration to how you will run this business with relation to its brand values.
Give me a pm if you want a private chat :)

[Clare B]

My Alice has really bad eczema and I would buy the PJs as I find pure cotton nightwear seems to help.

Could this be a selling point for some of the range??

[BellaMiller]

Clare - my baby has the same problem too which is why I got interested in the whole issue - it was totally unexpected for us as my other daughter has never had a problem (R gets it from her dad!)

[Clare B]

Would buy the Jamas, even at £20 (or would get MIL to!) probably might not buy the clothes myself but would drop heavy hints to family!

I tend to make some of Alice`s clothes mainly so I can have some control over the fibre content. Knowing about the fabric used to make the garment would be a major incentive for me to buy.

[BellaMiller]

Clare - that's great that you can sew - I have a machine but I'm not that skilled!

Have you tried bamboo clothing at all?

[BeadingMamma]

Bamboo clothing? I've heard its very sustainable though cause of its growth rate.. Hope I've said that right now.

I have to say the clothes are lovely though I wouldnt pay £20 for pj's, but others would definatly.

Not much help there but they are nice clothes.

Francesca