Tales Of A Fourth Generation Textile Executive: A Beginner’s Guide To Swatchcards Part 2

For today’s blog post I want to continue with my explanation of swatchcards. (Click here if you missed part one.) There are times where we make selling swatchcards with actual fabric on them. This happens on only about 5% of our lines each year.  Here are some scenarios where we make fabric cards and don’t use printed paneled swatchcards.

Let’s take the Peppered Cotton solids by Pepper Cory for example.  Due to that fact that this fabric has some very subtle nuances, we would have done this line a serious disservice if we sold it off of printed color cards.  The truth is that it wouldn’t have sold off paper at all.  Therefore, due to the nuances in the fabric and due to the fact that we knew this would be a basic line, we dyed the required minimum quantities of fabric and made fabric cards.  In fact, we made 3 versions of the Peppered Cotton card each of the times that we added new colors to the range.  When it was all said and done, we now have a beautiful card with 50 colors. 

Oftentimes, in addition to the large 11×17 cards that we make for the reps, we make 8 1/2×11 cards for our reps to give to the customers.  These are great tools for us and the customers.  For the customers, they always have a reference for when they are ready to order, they can show the colors to customers for them to select colors they like and they can see if the colors match a project that they are working on. For us, having the mini card in the customer’s hand is like having another sales rep. So in the end, it is well worth the investment and we don’t have to pay them a commission.  In addition to the Peppered Cottons, we make these mini cards for a lot of our basic lines like Just Color! and Watermark to name a few.

Many of the lines that we print in India or Pakistan are often ultimately made in to swatched cards due to the high minimum orders required by the mills in those countries.  So for example, the cream and sugar line and any 108″ line fall in to this category because the minimum order quantity is 3000 yards of a pattern.  We first show the lines on paper and then after several months when we have the fabric in the US, we make it in to a swatchcard.  Usually, by the time the fabric card has been out for a couple of months with the reps, we often sell out of the line which is a good thing.  

Another occasion where we would make a fabric card is when a line has been selling for a while and the sales have slowed dramatically, but we have a lot of inventory left. A way for us to revive the line is to have the line sampled on a fabric card.  It is amazing how this helps to revive the sales of the line.  It is almost as if the customers are seeing the line for the first time.  Then you have to wonder whether the line sold better because it was on fabric vs. a printed color card.  If I only knew.  What do you think?

Happy Thanksgiving!  

Swatchcard Scott