Blogshops are not the same as an EC site

This article shows how EC site owners do not want to be lumped together with blogshops, as she goes into detail to explain the differences.

Also worthy are the points made about the operationalization of a shopping cart fashion business, especially the costs involved.

From: http://www.summerdoll.com.sg/news/9/Please-Do-Not-Compare-Summerdoll-To-A-Blogshop!.html

Please Do Not Compare Summerdoll To A Blogshop!

Posted on 21st Dec 2009 @ 6:26 PM

I am sick of the (admittedly few) people who complain that the pricing of Summerdoll designs is too high and should be lowered to those of "blogshops". I shall replicate here my reply to an email I received, in which I was told:

"Just a feedback, being an avid online shopper, I think your dresses are priced way too high (as compared to other blogshops who also self-manufacture)!"

Other blogshops? (I also scoff at the term "self-manufacture" coined by blogshops.)

My reply:

"Hi xxxxxxx,

Thank you for your feedback. I would like to explain that the pricing is due to the following reasons:

1) www.summerdoll.com.sg is not a "blogshop". It is a website whereby shoppers may shop and make their purchases immediately due to the shopping cart facility. The website costed about $3000+ to build and about $280 every year to host.

2) Apparel on the multiple blogshops found here only come in one size, a "free" size, which is not consistent and varies from design to design. (Have you considered why they only "self-manufacture" them in a "free" size? Perhaps they are not really designed and sewn by them but rather *gasp* cheap mass market clothes bought from China/Bangkok?) Moreover, fabric used is usually the inferior kind manufactured in China which is thin/see-through and was dyed with inferior dye, leading to much lower cost of fabric but also much lower quality in the apparel. Such apparel often shrink/run in the wash (for a good example, look at the poor quality of Forever21 clothes). In contrast, fabric used to sew my label designs are imported from Japan and Korea, which cost more but are of higher quality.

3) It costs much more to design and sew your own unique apparel than to buy ready-made clothes from China/Bangkok. 

4) Unlike a "blogshop" which does not have any overheads, I had a boutique in Holland Village for a year and my new boutique in Millenia Walk will be ready in June 2010. Pricing does factor in the cost of rent, and prices of apparels on the website have to be consistent with store prices. Prices of all brands with physical shops are always higher than "blogshops", no matter which brand, due to the honest fact that rent has to be paid. (The few shops in Far East Plaza, Orchard Central and Wisma which sell dresses at $29.90 all sell dresses which are made cheaply and are of EXTREMELY poor quality. Maybe teenagers do not mind wearing cheap thin see through dresses made by the hundreds but other women do mind.)

The benefit to shoppers is that they are able to try on all designs before purchase, unlike purchasing from a "blogshop" where, if one is honest with oneself, most of the purchases are usually unsatisfactory/does not fit/of inferior quality/was not what you expected/looked nice in the photo but not on you. Most die-hard blogshop shoppers will never admit this but this is the feedback their mothers give me, that most of the purchases end up not worn/thrown away.

5) Lastly, Summerdoll customers are more discerning shoppers who would rather own a few good quality dresses, of which only less than 20 in each design is sewn, than a hundred poor quality mass market dresses, where each design is sewn in the hundreds and chances are high you will bump into another woman wearing the same apparel. (It also costs much, much more per dress to sew very few rather than hundreds in each design.) 

I hope you will understand that I do not earn a higher margin per dress compared to these blogshop owners. Due to the direction in which I have chosen to go, I do not compete with blogshops for the teen market."

I do not wish to be harsh with my reply but honestly! I am just so sick of having to explain the obvious! I have decided that life is too short and I will just say whatever needs to be said.

Another thing which I have just remembered while typing this entry, I have extremely satisfied customers from Shanghai who shop at my shop. The feedback I receive from them repeatedly is that the idea that it is much cheaper to buy dresses in China is a misconception, and that only the lousy quality apparel are cheap in China. They tell me that dresses in China of similar quality to my designs cost more in China than in Singapore, which is why they always wait to do their shopping at my shop when they are here in Singapore.

I may regret this entry tomorrow and remove it. Then again, I may not.

(Out of curiosity, do other local designers also receive emails telling them that they are too expensive, you know, "compared to other blogshops"? I would love to see the look on their faces. I mean, you guys do realise that Summerdoll designs are much cheaper compared to other local designers, right?)