Do you like discounts…
… as much as niche brands boycott them? I explain why I am personally "against" inflated markups for the sake of seasonal sales, and "for" honest pricing 365 days a year.
Over the past year, giants such as Marks&Spencer, Next and Superdry have openly announced their intention to move away from the culture of seasonal sales and discounts as the main drivers of sales. Why? Because big discounts require big overproduction. Only if millions of tons of clothing are produced does the cost of each unit come close to mathematical error. You may ask - so what? But the bad thing is that for the sake of low cost, large brands CONSCIOUSLY produce much more than people are able to buy. Every year, 92 million tons of unsold clothes are disposed of in the world. That is, every second, somewhere on Earth, a truck throws a whole body of clothes into a landfill. By the time you've read this far, 30 such trucks have passed by. And it pains me to realize that fact, how about you?
Local brands don't have factories in China or Bangladesh and budgets for tons of products. Therefore, whether they want it or not, they have to produce clothes, shoes and jewelry almost to order. Orshata is a vivid example. Our most popular jewelry models, such as the Espacio transforming necklace, the Barcelona transforming rings, the Lisa transforming body chain and the Sol transforming cuff-necklace, are sold every day, so we try to keep them in stock. We keep less common models in the form of "blanks" - they are fully assembled, but not covered with either gold or rhodium, because the demand for the color is always unpredictable. Once we receive an order for a specific color, we apply the coating and ship. For the rest of the models, we keep enough materials in the workshop for production. Such jewelry takes up to 5 working days to manufacture, cover and ship. Speaking in restaurant terms, Orshata's clients get absolutely all jewelry from "under the knife". Hence the logical question - why should we make seasonal discounts? We don't have excess product that has to be dumped by truck somewhere in a landfill. Moreover, half of our assortment is made to order and requires waiting. Our markup is based on the most common formula, which covers production and marketing costs and provides a margin of 15 to 20%. Through simple mathematical calculations, it becomes obvious that for the sake of the 30% discount, I already have to pay my team out of my own pocket.
Why don't I immediately add an extra 30% to the price, which I could painlessly drop? Because I care about Orshata's reputation in the eyes of regular clients. Imagine, you order a whole set of precious jewelry, and in 3 days they cost a third cheaper. This is discounting both the value of the product and the loyalty of people who love and support the brand even at full cost. Therefore, I choose a path that corresponds to my life values: I offer a product at a fair price 365 days a year.
Last year we offered a small Black Friday discount on select models. However, I am not sure that we will repeat it this year - time and the economic situation will show.
Since last month, we have been asked if there will be discounts for Valentine's Day. As you guessed from the previous paragraphs, it is more valuable for us to be honest with you all year long than to push sales for three calendar holidays. Instead, in some time we plan to introduce a loyalty program for our regular customers, through which we will thank those who love us even without discounts.
And you still have time to order honest and creative transforming jewelry here.