About three years ago, I decided to offer wholesale as an option for some of my products. What I've offered has varied over the years from finished embroideries to embroidery kits and patterns. Currently my wholesale focuses on embroidery kits, Peel Stick and Stitch Patterns, and some craft supplies. Over the last year I've started investing more in my wholesale options and working with local stores to stock MCreativeJ.
Now just because I can design lovely embroidery decor or stitch kits, doesn't always translate to how that product is packaged. After much consideration and weighing the benefits vs costs of packaging, I settled on rigid envelopes with a kit label on the front. I was pretty excited about it. While shops weren't clamoring to my door, I did have a handful of local shops stocking my work.
So now I was wondering, "How do I get more stores interested in MCreativeJ?" Well luckily for me, I was approached by a wholesale showroom who was interested in showcasing my work to their buyers. After learning more about them, it seemed like this was a good fit, so I went for it.
Then things got a little bumpy...
After getting set up on their website, my first order come through. I was really excited! This was the biggest wholesale order I'd received thus far. Over the next few days, I eagerly started packaging it. And just before I was about to print the order label to ship it, I got an email saying the buyer wanted to cancel the order.
I was crushed and confused.
Upon receiving the cancellation, I reached out to my wholesale showroom contact to find out why this had happened. And they explained that the buyer didn't think my product packaging was the right fit for their store. They asked if I would consider changing my packaging to something more giftable.
Initially my reaction to this request was, "NO." I know I make a great product and had already invested quite a bit of time and energy into my embroidery kit packaging, so why should I change it?
Then I thought about why I was saying NO and what I was really saying NO to. I wanted to say NO because it was easier, because I already had shops stocking my products in this packaging, and because it would be an investment to make a change.
After some consideration I talked with the showroom and learned what kind of packaging their buyers were looking for. (Who knew boxes were more giftable than envelopes?) It also helped that the showroom already had quite a bit of interest in my products, and that this change, while an investment right now, could lead to an even bigger return. So, I rethought the idea of packaging.
Because I wasn't being asked to change my brand, just how my embroidery kits were packaged, I looked into new packaging. And surprisingly, I found that it wouldn't be that much more to upgrade my packaging from an envelope to a box. Instead of labels, I had my kit information printed on packaging that wrapped around the box. And I even added tissue paper to the inside to make the kit feel even more like opening a gift.
It was a lot of work, but in the end, I'm really proud I went for it and actually love my new embroidery kit packaging. Take a peek below and let me know what you think.
