At this point in the project we ha started to build up a reasonable back stock of product that was ready to sell. In order to be able to gage sales for the final sales day while also ironing out any sales kinks we chose to participate a pre sales christmas faire event in the business building, this was on the 5th – five days before our main event. This ended up being invaluable to the success of our venture. In order to prepare for this event we had bought a card reader, for the simple reason that we believe cash is an outdated method in current times. It cost us £20 but it was a cost we were willing to factor in and could be easily made back, and we may of even gained extra sales by just having this option of paying. We also procured a mannequin for extra display-ability of the belted tool rolls and printed out any of our point of sale materials. Looking at the actual sales that were made for that pre-sales day it could be seen as underwhelming; However, we did on that day take preorders for the following week in which people could express a level of customisations in what they wanted. So factoring in these to this days sales means we did actually come off fairly well from it. We did feel that there are a number of contributing factors to why this day did not quite go as well as we had hoped. The biggest one being its location in the business center as it is primarily students that would not particularly have a use for this product and because of the set day that it was on there were also few art students on campus at all as they did not need to be in, leading to an all round quite day of sales for most stalls. The pitch itself did cost us nothing so apart from the cost of our time it was still a successful profitable day and worth doing for the experience and knowledge.
The main sales day was much more successful due to its pitch right in the middle of the main arts building in the heart space. All of our preorders came through to collect and pay which was a good start to the day as it was an extra 6 sales already putting in positive funds with the seed fund all made back, laying off the pressure for the day with that security behind us. On the morning of sales we were technically still in the making the process having some us on sales and some in the stitch room. This was not for a lack of time management, it was a choice decision to use up as many of our prepped materials that we could as it was important to us that we had as little waste as possible. Although we didn’t necessarily need the extra product we did manage to have no usable off cuts left over, therefore not negatively contributing to the problem with recycling denim at all only positive by taking unwanted jeans out of circulation into this new product. Overall the products were well received and each purchase was a very positive experience. It was clear people did appreciate the handmade background to each roll and the uniqueness that in turn came with each.
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