Barcoding & Endorsement Dramas

With the range nearly here, my thoughts have turned to sales. Where will I sell my product? Online only? Or will I pitch it stores like David Jones and Myer? Will I own my very own store one day? Of course I'd love to own my own store, but that's years down the track. For now, I'd love to have my clothes & accessories in the big Australian department stores. But how?

Toni-Maree has again been my saviour! After much research, she's found the answer: BARCODING! This is all very new and confusing to me, but Toni-Maree has taken charge and organised the whole thing.

I'll try to explain.. In order to sell to department stores (or any store, for that matter), you need barcodes for your products. You apply online, pay an annual fee and then await qualification. Apparently this process is much the same as applying to use Swarovski - you need to provide the company with a business plan. They won't just give you the barcodes, they need to aware of every single, specific piece. And even once you've paid your membership, you have to get through the red tape before they'll hand them over.

As well as figuring out the barcoding conundrum, Toni-Maree is also pitching to Swarovski to gain qualification to be able to use their name on our products as an indicator of quality. As we've used the absolute best of the best, we want to be able to tell customers this. We want them to know that we've cleaned every fabrication 5 times to test it's durability, that those crystals are genuine Swarovski and will stand the test of time. But of course, nothing is for free. The process of getting the genuine Swarovski stickers is a complicated one. Thank god for Fairy God Mother's!

Until next time,
CC xo