Supersized Fabric Rollouts
A rollout is when our companies start shipping a new fabric line to customers for the first time ever. This compares to a release which is when our sales reps and distributors start selling our new lines for the first time ever. Now that you know the difference between the terms, let me elaborate about our supersized rollouts, their history and how they are handled.
The largest rollouts are derived from our most preeminent FreeSpirit Fabric designers. These rollouts amount to hundreds of thousands of yards that we need to ship out to our customers as quickly as possible. As you can imagine, hundreds of thousands of yards don’t ship by themselves overnight. This takes time and coordination among our entire team especially our warehouse warriors.
Before I dive too deep in though, let me say that we never really had this problem prior to owning FreeSpirit Fabrics as our rollouts were always manageable in a few-day window. The other thing is that until we acquired FreeSpirit, we never had the issues of customers racing to be the first one to receive the fabric.
When my brother and I bought FreeSpirit Fabrics in 2018, one of the first things that we did was review the details of some surveys that FreeSpirit had taken prior to our ownership. The surveys were very insightful and enlightening to say the least. One of the biggest complaints in the surveys was that Westminister/FreeSpirit was shipping the larger customers before everyone else and showing some favoritism. We kept seeing the same complaint over and over and we knew something had to be done.
My brother, father, team and I discussed the favoritism issue in great detail. The conclusion was that we needed to ship the large rollouts from West Coast to East Coast methodically, Fedex zone by Fedex zone. This was the best way for us to try to get everyone the fabric around the same time. This would be the best that we could possibly do to improve the situation. This is not a science, but it was a method and we devised a solid plan. We have been sticking with that method ever since. It’s definitely a lot better than it was prior to our ownership, but it will never be perfect especially now due to the challenges of hiring more warehouse staff in light of Covid 19.
As our designers’ fabrics become more popular, the rollouts are getting larger and the challenges of shipping to one territorial Fedex zone in one or even two days has become even more of a challenge. As it takes longer to ship to each territory, that contributes to the first shipments arriving at shops sooner than the last shipments. I wish I could wave my wand and everyone’s fabric would arrive at the exact same moment, but short of the wand, we just need to ship, ship, ship, ship like crazy.
Now that you know all of the background, there 3 key points that I want to make. Let me preface this by reminding everyone that we are dealing in fabric and not life-saving medications or perishable food.
Point 1 for retailers: Since it has become a race among retailers and consumers alike to get the fabric, if you are a retailer and you are taking preorders for this fabric, I urge you to make sure that you are getting a sufficient deposit at the minimum or full payment at the maximum. It saddens me when customers who are located in the more Eastern parts of the US contact me and tell me that their customers are canceling orders because they are buying the fabrics from someone who got the fabrics a few days earlier. Unfortunately, everyone wants instant gratification these days and patience levels have drastically dwindled. Long story short, make sure that you are getting upfront payments so the commitments stick and customers have skin in the game to not cancel on you. If they choose to cancel, at least you have the deposit and can then sell the fabric to someone else and mitigate your damages.
Point 2 for retailers: If you are a retailer and you are not getting money in advance for preorders as mentioned in point 1 above, please do not come pointing the finger at us when the orders are canceled. We have been very clear in letting the world know that we are shipping West Coast to East Coast so please just hang tight. The burden is on you to get the deposit in advance so this doesn’t happen if your fabric takes a little longer to arrive than someone to the West of you.
Point 3 for consumers: Please don’t contribute to this madness and put pressure on the shop you are buying the fabric from if they aren’t the first to get in the fabric. Our shipments are out of the shop owner’s control so please don’t punish them for these very slight delays. As we have explained to the retailers, we are shipping West Coast to East Coast so now you know that too and can plan accordingly. In the end, everyone will get their fabric.