Transcription
This product generated over 20K in sales and counting. This product flopped. This product sold out in literally 2 hours. This product flopped. This product category has been consistently profitable over the past 7 years. And this product category flopped.
What does it take to create a winner product? How can we as makers and business owners release products that people actually want to buy? It's time to get critical of our own shops and address the elephant in the room. Product flops suck. But we actually have more control over whether flops happen or not than we think. Let's build a collection filled entirely with high potential, foundationally successful, profitable products based on what I learned over the past 7 years running my small business.
I hope you enjoy. It's summer time. It's actually not summertime. Spring has just begun. However, in the world of business, you kind of have to be like three seasons ahead when thinking about products to put out, collections to put together. It's crazy. Like, I'm filming this video right now about the summer collection. However, in actuality, I am actively working on the winter holiday collections. Christmas like jingle bells is in my head right now, which is insane.
Anyway, let's talk about how to make products that people actually want to buy. There's so many books and articles and classes and theories. Really just so much information out there about the psychology of customers, why people buy certain things over other things, what messaging people like, what words people like, timing, being in the right place at the right time, honing in on being a small business and showing behind the scenes stuff, honing in on being a big business and being a little bit elusive and exclusive. There's so much information out there. It's overwhelming. It's overwhelming and I've consumed a lot of it. So, I thought I would just kind of tell you about not only what I have seen other people do, but also what I have actively done over the past 7 years of running a small business when it comes to creating products that people will actually purchase.
Now, I hear you as small business owners, especially as artists and crafters and makers, we typically come up with the product first because it's something that we just wanted to create. Maybe we created for ourselves already. Maybe it's something we created for a friend and they recommended that we sell it on Etsy. We often create first and then think about how to sell it later. And there are ways to work with that sort of strategy. However, one thing that a lot of people teach is to pick a problem and then sell the solution. The problem doesn't have to be a huge major world crisis. Although that would be ideal if we all just brainstormed and came up with all of our solutions to our biggest world problems. But you can also pick a really manageable problem. Baze picked the problem that luggage is not cute. So they made cute luggage at a relatively affordable price. Tala picked the problem that there's no activewear out there that makes you look really cute but is also created with keeping the earth in mind. Rare Beauty picked the problem that most makeup brands are not inclusive or puts people's mental health first. And so they created a brand where right off the bat when they launched had so many different shades and they're adding more all the time and every single product is called something that really just like makes you feel warm and happy and cozy and beautiful on the inside and out.
However, those are all really big brands and I'm sure they had some really big marketing budgets in order to come up with some sort of problem or to pick a certain problem and to fix it way before the brand even launched. But if you already have a product based business and we're not trying to start from scratch, that was hard starting a business in general. We're not trying we're not trying to start from scratch again. What do we do in order to either come up with a new product to add to our shop in order to find our new bestseller or how do we take the products we already have in our shop and make them best sellers? We can kind of reverse engineer this piece of advice that everyone gives about taking a problem and selling the solution by saying that we have the solution. We already made it. But what is the problem that this thing fixes?
For example, my very first product was a scrunchie. I did not invent the scrunchie. Many other people have made scrunchies before me. So, how does my scrunchie that I handmade solve like anyone's problem? Like, does anyone have a problem that this scrunchie can fix? Anyone? Anyone? The answer isn't obvious. What you have to do is start picking apart every aspect of the product, including its story, how it was made, and why it was made.
Exhibit A, scrunchies. The very first product I ever came out with for my shop. This is an example of coming up with a product before thinking about the problem that it's solving. So, this is the solution to someone's problem. Now, what problem is that? At the time in 2019, hand craftsmanship was kind of not something people talked about too much, but I saw so much value in as someone who loved going to craft fairs and artisan markets. So, I decided to document the process of handmaking scrunchies, which I personally didn't see too much of on my normal social media platforms. And although scrunchies were being sold by so many fast fashion manufacturers, I kind of showed the fact that it does take some time to handcraft every single scrunchie by a singular person. And so I kind of dabbled into solving the problem of the fact that people want to connect with the products that they're buying. People want to understand as much as possible about a certain product. And people want to feel like they're doing more than just obtaining a scrunchie. They want to make a difference. They want to be part of something and they want to help. That was my first batch of scrunchies. I really did focus on the behind the scenes, the how things are made sort of concept, which you can apply to so many handcrafted, handmade goods or products.
A little bit more specifically, I realized another problem I definitely wanted to dabble into solving was the fact that there was no alternative to the fast fashion scrunchies, the fast fashion just products in general that were being offered. If you wanted something that was a little bit more sustainable, a little bit more mindful, a little bit higher quality, you often had to go to really expensive alternatives or you had to find someone like in your local community who was handmaking this kind of stuff and valuing those values. in my local community. I did not know anyone. I couldn't find anywhere where I can get scrunchies that were made from recycled materials or repurposed materials, dead stock materials, just sustainable in some small sort of way. On top of the scrunchies being handcrafted in the local community, that combination right there made these a solution to someone's problem. It might have been a problem that they didn't know they had, and it's by no means a big problem. But at Market Online, when customers were introduced to my Monica's Collective scrunchies, they realized that by purchasing from me, they're able to be slightly more sustainable. They're able to support a local artisan. They're able to understand the hand craftsmanship behind the product. And they're able to get something that is so much more unique than mass-produced products because of the fact that these were made with recycled materials that aren't mass-produced and can't be replicated. And therefore, they're joining some sort of local, sustainable, cutesy, artsy community by spending their money on one of these.
Heat. Heat. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Okay. Okay, I do have laundry going, which is what that background noise is. But I wanted to show you how cute this looks. This is my dream. Literally my dream. I surged together the two different colors in like strip panels. And that's what the inside looks like. I didn't change my thread to like match or anything cuz this is just the sample. But then low key like this contrasting thread kind of looks good. Anyway, I made it pretty large. You can't really tell, but there's a gusset down at the bottom and that's what's making it look a little smaller. But this is like actually ginormous. I need to surge the top and then hem it probably like a couple inches. And then I'm currently deciding what color I want the straps to be. Pink or orange or one of each potentially. And then I have the tag that will go like right in the middle. Oh my gosh, it's so cute. And then imagine like potentially a matching scrunchie with it or a matching like small pouch. I love how this looks like it's just one fabric, but when you feel it, it's textured and like bumpy because I actually patchworked together, the two colors. And I think that's what makes it different. Obviously, bestselling products don't happen with just one draft. I need to redo this and resample it a few times, but the idea is there. The gist is there. Like, this solves the problem of not having like a waterproof absorbent bag at the beach or the pool slash in the summer when I throw things into a bag from the farmers market or something that's like a little bit wet. This is perfect. And then I have a bunch of different colors. I already have the materials, so I don't have the friction of like trying to find the exact right supplies cuz I already have the supplies. It's all dead stock fabric, which makes me feel really good. And now I just have to perfect like the little things. This is perfect. I love this so much. And I think that only took me about half an hour to cut out the fabric and piece most of it together. I had to like decide on measurements a little bit, and that's what took me some time. But I love that making this like works really well for me and my brand. I also think customers will really love it because it solves a problem that potentially they didn't know they had. And also it's cute and also it's a little bit different. This might exist somewhere else potentially in a very similar color scheme cuz I think pink and orange is really popular in the summertime. But again, you're not getting it handmade from Monica's Collective or using dead stock fabric or getting like a little matching accessory with it unless if you get it from my brand. So, I think also I might want to do like um like a bath towel. Not a bath towel. Yeah, I guess like in the bathroom, like a hand towel, because while I was piecing it together and it was in the dimensions of what would be like a hand towel to like dry your hands in the bathroom, I thought it looked really cute. So, low key, I think I might do that, too. I'm going to finish up the sample and wash it because I want to see how this washes and how it does in water. But I think this is going to be a really successful first sort of product or like product concept of the summer collection. I'm so excited.
I personally think it's always a good time to start a small business or to revive your small business or to get into a side hustle. Even in the middle of the year, but especially at this time of year where we are in this season where people are purchasing a lot more, people are reinspired by nature. We're also far enough away from the holidays where you don't feel the pressure. So, if you are thinking about starting a business or dropping a new collection, revamping all of the backend stuff of your small business, that's where I was at last year. Actually, the first place I started was with my website. And if you are looking to start your own small business and get a website, I definitely recommend a doonline domain name. Online is the world's second largest new domain extension. It's trusted by over 3.5 million brands around the world. And the reason for that is because the word online is just like so respected and recognizable. Obviously, if you're going to a website, you're online and so it just makes sense to have your website be somethingonline. With the added perk of that, you increase your SEO, which is search engine optimization. Therefore, you show up in a lot more search results from your customers from maluma.online to radiate.online, which I've talked about before. Whatever industry you're trying to be part of, a doonline extension can be for you. And what's great is that wherever you go and create your website, you can purchase aonline domain. So whether it be GoDaddy, Squarespace, Wix, etc. I know starting a small business and figuring out logistics can be kind of annoying and frustrating, but figuring out your domain name and your extension should not be one of those frustrating moments for you. People tell me all the time about issues of wanting a certain domain, but they can't find it or someone has already taken it because they're trying to use other domain extensions. But with the online domains, chances are in your favor that the domain that you're looking for, you can get. So, for a limited time, you could actually get a dot online domain for just 99 cents for the first year. You can use my code that is right here. It's also in the description as well as the link. Thank you to online for sponsoring this portion of the video.
I'm going to brainstorm here for a bit because as exciting as those striped tote bags are and as standalone they can be as a bestseller and as just like a winner product, I still have to pad up my store a little bit and have something for everyone or something for the different types of customers who come across my store. I don't mean that you need to have something for literally every single person in the world. That's definitely not the case. You need to kind of niche down in that you want your customers' values to align with your brand values. And if someone doesn't align with your brand values or is a little bit indifferent about your brand values, that's okay. There are plenty of other people out there who will align with you. So, as I kind of brainstorm what else to make for my shop and what other sorts of products I can include in this collection that are cohesive enough to tie in that initial winter product, the stripe tote bags. I kind of want to combine the aesthetic that I've already set forth with this collection, which is very nostalgic. It's very bold and colorful and contrasting. It's very playful. And the words or colors that keep coming to mind with this collection are the primary colors, red, blue, and yellow. I feel like those are really just standing out for this collection already so far. So, I'm going to tie in those primary colors into some other sort of product that fits my brand values. I am so inspired by so many different shops out there. But, I have to remember what my shop offers and what I've promised my customers and the vibes that I give off. So, I'm very homebody, home goods, cozy yet also playful yet also bold, not afraid of color, not afraid of mismatching, that kind of stuff. When we get down to our core beliefs, sustainability as well as hand craftsmanship. So, when I kind of combine all of those ideas together, I immediately kind of like reject certain ideas even though I think they're such good ideas. For example, I would love to have apparel at my shop, but I'm kind of rejecting that idea right now due to a number of constraints that I have, but also at the same time, it's not like cohesive enough into this collection and into my brand where it aligns with all those things I just mentioned. Things like jewelry, for example, that could be really fun to add to my shop. But along the same lines, it's not aligning as much with the home goods kind of like vibe I'm going for. Maybe one day when I expand past what this like initial phase of my business is, but for right now, I'm trying to stick to what works.
A couple ideas that I think could be good are things like ceramics. You know, basically products that you can use in your own home to do your daily routine. Because it's the summer time, having the tote bags be kind of like a vacation getaway kind of product. Even though I am like a homey based business, I'm also going to market those tote bags as like you can take it to your farmers market, you can take it to like a local beach, have it at home, I'm going to take pictures of it like in my backyard and that kind of stuff. But it is kind of a little bit more of like a summery getaway sort of product compared to my other products. So, I think running it back to the homemade products, having ceramics where you're in the comfort of your own home, making your own coffee at home, maybe enjoying like a nice coffee on the porch or like ice matcha in your backyard and having, get this, having the ceramics match the aesthetic of the tote bags. So, either stripes or primary colors, bold colors, contrasting colors. Ceramics is something I've done in the past with my shop and it has proven to be pretty successful, but I feel like I'm still trying to prove that like product category and that concept a little bit. So, it could be good to try that out this summer. Although ceramics are not inherently sustainable, I can kind of tie in the hand craftsmanship core value of my business and work with some sort of local ceramic artist and kind of make that vision come to life. So, that's what I'm thinking. It's kind of what I'm brainstorming right now.
When it comes to creating a product that will be a bestseller, that will sell, that customers actually want, you have to not only consider what you like and what you want and the things that you're personally and emotionally like connected to, but also what a stranger, what your ideal customer would want, which is kind of hard to do if you're not able to put yourself in the shoes of your ideal customer. One way to kind of fix this is make a shop that is geared towards people like you and so it's easy for you to imagine what they would want cuz it's basically stuff that you want. Another way to do this is to kind of create a persona kind of like this imaginary person that you imagine is just like the perfect person who would be obsessed with your brand who every single time you drop something new it's so hard for them to not buy the stuff that you're dropping and spend all their cash monies on you. This comes with time, but I realized that my ideal customer is a combination of someone like me, plus a few other traits.
When it comes to ceramics, I personally would love some more matcha bowls and matcha cups, which is something that I've done in the past, but that's a little bit selfish of me because not everyone drinks matcha. I know my ideal customer, there is a chance because matcha is very trendy right now that they would be interested in things like a matcha bowl and matcha accessories and a mug that is like marketed as a matcha mug. But at the same time, I know my ideal customer probably loves an ice vanilla latte, you know? So then going further with this brainstorming and thinking like, okay, I kind of have the aesthetic of what I want the ceramics to potentially be, but maybe when thinking about marketing and coming up with the title of some of these products, I can call it something like the perfect espresso mug, the perfect espresso cup, the summer latte cup. I'm literally just coming up with this like right now. I'm not sure if any of this is going to stick, but I kind of just wanted to show you the process of what it's like when you're thinking not just about yourself and what you would love to create, but also about your business and how it will succeed. The way businesses succeed are through their customers. And so, when I think about my customer, I want them to be happy. I want to give them what they want while still aligning with my personal values and beliefs that are naturally ingrained into the business that I created. So, that's kind of what I'm thinking. I think I'm going to fill out like a Milanote board and just like try to figure out some more details about that. Maybe explore some eco-friendly packaging for really fragile products like ceramics because the last time I did a ceramics launch, I used like bubble wrap, like very unsustainable packaging. And maybe that's a way I can tie in sustainability into this new product.
But basically, the reason this actually works, the reason why dressing and always incorporating in your brand values when creating a new product that you hope to be a bestseller is because at least nowadays, people really align with a brand that has a mission that is very clear and that is not just a mission, but also like a vision that people can buy into. You know, customers buy things for different reasons. They buy things because it's the cheapest option out there. They buy things because it's the most reviewed option out there. They buy things because it was recommended to them. And in general, people buy things because they have an emotional feeling, an emotional reaction to the product that they're seeing. The way you evoke an emotional reaction from someone is by demonstrating your values, because we live in a very like high stimulated world. And so, the only way to catch people's attention and to keep that attention and for people to buy into your little small business is to demonstrate like, hey, I'm like you. You're like me. In fact, this stuff was made specifically for you. Like, how cool is that? Like, I handcrafted this, chose the colors, chose the aesthetic, chose the shape and everything, put time and energy and money into it specifically for you. And when people feel that way, when they feel so connected to a product and to the value behind the product, that's when they go and purchase.
If you want people to want your products, you need to get exclusive. This seems so counterintuitive, counterproductive to say, "Oh, this is only for a certain group of people." In fact, that sounds straight up mean like anti what everyone's trying to do nowadays. But this is how shops end up selling so many products while still catering the product to a very specific exclusive group of people. Obviously, we have our brand values that we talked about earlier in this video, and not everyone has the same values, and so naturally, you will align with certain brands that have the same values as you. But then going further to the actual product itself, for example, this pouch that has literally every single charger and wire I have ever owned in it. Okay, we're going to ignore that for a second. But this is one of the pouches that I successfully sold the very first time I dropped it, even though it seems like it could be for everyone. Just a normal pouch. In fact, it's not even that specific or that original because pouches have existed forever and ever. But the way I marketed the product was it's specifically for the girlies who care about fabric being thrown away in the trash and instead want to support saving that fabric from the trash in order to create a new piece of work of art, a new product, which is this pouch. I also marketed the fact that people love pops of color because the inside is a different color and a whole different pattern than the outside. I also because I dropped these closer to the end of the summer going into the fall, let people know that this is for students. This is for people who have really messy bags and want to put everything in an organized place and just have like an easy zipper to open up and like see all their little things. I put out a somewhat alternative version of this pouch and said this is a pouch for artists and creatives and crafters who want to store all of their crafts in this pouch. Can these pouches be used for literally any other purpose? Yes. Can men use this pouch? Absolutely. Can you use it to hold your toiletries? Totally. Can moms use it in their big mom bags to organize things? Yes, totally. But something about us humans is that as soon as we think it's for everyone, we for some reason think it's less special. and then we have less of a reason to purchase that one thing over something else like a different alternative version of it. By getting really specific and honing in on the ideal customer for that specific product and for imagining exactly what their use cases will be, you get the ball rolling. You get the hype started and you kind of make people feel like they're part of a club that was invited to purchase this product because it was made specifically for them.
Another way I get exclusive personally is by making tiny batches of everything. As a small business, this is actually really easy to do because it saves a ton of money and it's also sometimes all we can manage by creating like small batches of especially new products that we're not sure how they'll do. So, letting people know that this is one of like 10 of this product, get it now or literally never again. That may not be exactly true because if you end up doing well with this product, maybe you order more supplies and you make a different variation of it, maybe you make the exact same one, but in that moment, you're telling the truth in that like for all we know, these could be the last 10. No promises if there will be more. That combined with a super specific aesthetic will let people know that even if they're like somewhat interested, it's worth getting it now. Because unlike big box stores who sometimes can have the same things come back every single year who have thousands of pieces of inventory because it's from a small business. The customer will justify like, "Oh, she's a small business. She made this for exactly my use case. She only made 10 of them and I do really like the way it looks and I'm here at the market or scanning the website whether it's e-commerce or in person. I might as well grab it." the more unique factors and exclusive points that a customer can like bullet out in their head to convince themselves that this is the perfect product to purchase, the better. And so, don't be scared to make the one pouch. Like, make it just in red. And it's for the the girlies who love a red gingham. But for me, I made this in red, green, blue, and pink. I'm pretty sure those were the four colors, even though my manufacturer did have a bunch of more colors and a bunch of more gingham sizes, but I stuck with those four because I felt like those were like the exclusive products that I wanted to feature and that would align best with my ideal customers. I would make them feel more special cuz they're like, "Oh my gosh, red is my favorite color. Pink is my favorite color. I can't believe she has one in pink." Versus if I had every single color of the rainbow and everything in between. It's not only overwhelming, it also just seems less like a special occasion. So, TLDDR, don't be nervous to leave some people out. Your shop can't be for everyone. No matter what, you will have people who dislike your stuff. So, might as well cater towards the people who already love your stuff, who align best with you, and who you don't necessarily need to convince all that much that they should be your customer. They already want to be your customer. So, give them specifically what they uniquely want.
Heat. Heat. When we talk about creating a collection that includes a bunch of things that customers will purchase, we have to talk about what we already have in our shop. If you've already been running your business and you have a good amount of inventory and a good amount of like different sorts of products that you offer on your shop, you might not want to continue to make a bunch more new things. That won't solve your problems of people not buying your stuff. This is something I have to tell myself all the time. And in the beginning, when I was first starting my business, I thought that the reason I wasn't getting sales was because I need to continue to put out new products. But chances are, you already have a really good product. you just need to market it and talk about it and promote it in a certain way. So, although I am putting together my summer collection to align better with my sustainable practices and to kind of just like hype up the products that I already offer that I know are so good, a portion of the summer campaign is going to be not just like making these new products, but also reinforcing how a lot of products I offer are still really good for the summertime, even though it might not seem that way.
For example, I sell a lot of candles. Candles are not necessarily the thing you think of in the summertime. I am going to put out probably a few new scents like max 3 that align really well with the rest of the collection that I've already built up, but I'm also going to really re-emphasize a lot of the core collection year-round products that can be applicable more so in the summertime than maybe other times of the year. My favorite example, sandalwood musk and high tide. It's my best seller. But when I think sandalwood, musk and high tide, first of all, the description says, "Smells like a high tide morning walk on the beach with top notes, etc., etc." So, the description of it is already just so like summery, beachy, and what you would typically think of during a summer launch or collection. Retaking product pictures in some sort of summery scene instead of what I already have on my website can be like a way to just reimagine the same exact product just in a different way. Even some things you might not think of like espresso bean and tonka sweet cream tends to do well in the summer because people think of going out to brunch and going to cafes, being out and about. And I find that the espresso bean and tonka sweet cream is one of those scents that people kind of align with more so in the summer. And so definitely going to push this along the same lines of brunch and like sweetness and enjoying like being out and about. Buttercream whip and pine. The description says smells like a picnic with your favorite people on a bright sunny day with top notes, etc., etc. And then similarly, wild berry fields and bubbly lime smells like a cheery homey gathering with loved ones. Top notes, sugar, lime, cranberry, etc. All of these descriptions I could probably apply to any season ever. Like I can make the twist to say that the wild berry fields and bubbly lime is more applicable in the fall time cuz they're hints of cranberry or it's more applicable in the springtime cuz like the wild berry. But the point is that you can talk about the products that you already have that are pre-existing in a different way and have them be almost just like a new thing to your customers in the new season, but it's still like the same exact product.
The less work your customers have to do to imagine what it would be like to own that thing, the better. Because that's just how we are as customers. We don't want to necessarily think about things like for a long amount of time, play with our imagination and like figure out like where we could place the thing, how it will fit into our lives. When it comes to products, I noticed that a lot of the shops that do well are the ones that like literally tell the customer like this is where you put it. This is what it's going to look like. This is the experience you're going to have. This is how you feel. This is how you'll be cool once you get it. This is how you'll be happy once you get it. And with that messaging, you can like use whatever words that you want to use. So although some are more obvious like sandalwood musk and high tide being really beachy, I can do the same with the espresso type candle or the wild berry or the buttercream. And I think that's what I'm going to do. Same goes for colors. I like recently launched this beautiful red classic gingham scrunchie and I think I mean even with this outfit it goes so well with like everything every season. I launched this right around Valentine's Day and so obviously people were grabbing it for that season but in the springtime gingham is really in cuz of picnics. In the summertime, gingham's really in. Especially red because of Fourth of July and also just like it being farmers market season. There's a lot of bold reds everywhere. In the fall time, gingham is back again. And then during the holiday time, again, red is like such a big color during the holidays. You can make this work and convince a customer that it works all year round. Obviously, there's some products that you can't do this with necessarily if you have like a big Santa Claus on something. That's probably only going to work out during the Christmas holiday time. But one of the things I like to do with my business is have things specific enough where I could talk about them again in a way where a very like niche group of people can really align with the product, but at the same time have the product be general or vague enough where customers can use their imagination once they receive the product and apply that product to other parts of their life during different seasons with different outfits in different homes, different aesthetics, etc.
The main point I'm trying to make here is that when you try to sell a product and you've gone through maybe like 20 different products and none of them are selling in the way that you want them to, the answer is not to release that 21st product or the 22nd. I mean, it might be, but chances are that's not the solution. We have to rethink maybe how we're releasing the products, who we're sending the messaging to, what platforms we're using, how the marketing is going, and maybe retry some of those past products. And, you know, don't give up on them so easily. Or maybe use all those things you learned from those past products to make this new product come across more valuable to the customer.
Okay, I just made and set two different candle options, and I think I'm going to go with both for the summer collection because they just align so well with what I'm trying to do here. These are the summer candle color schemes. I shouldn't even say candle. These are just like the color tones that I'm going with for the summer collection. And I say that so confidently because I'm obsessed. I usually start with the candle labels that I'm going to create for a new collection and then find things that match those labels or I start with the dead stock fabric because there aren't that many options when it comes to dead stock fabrics. So I kind of have to work with sometimes what is out there and then kind of bring those colors into the rest of my products. I've kind of gotten into the habit of having three main products in all of my collections. that includes candles, scrunchies, and pouches. And I do want to develop past that, but for right now, that just aligns well with my brand and what I know my customers want. So, thinking about that tote bag and thinking about the ceramics that I really hope the samples come in really soon because I'm really excited about that. Considering those two things to like round out the collection, I made these two candles and I have a third one in mind as well along with the color scheme that I'm going for. And I'm so freaking excited.
As I'm making all these products, I'm always like trying to hype myself up and get excited about all these things because if I'm not excited to make this stuff, then no one else is going to be excited to buy it. I'm always considering like, all right, am I excited about this because it looks exactly like someone else's or it looks like exactly what's on the market right now, or is it because it's like unique and a little different, a little like whimsical? Is it something that I really wish I had in the past and now I finally have it because I made it? are the products really like melding well together into like a full-on collection where it really represents what I'm trying to do with my brand right now. And I like continue to ask myself questions and remind myself like why I'm creating all these things because I feel like at the end of the day customers can really tell when you just created something just to create something which is fine. In fact, we should we should all be creating just for the sake of it. But when it comes to running a business and having products that customers will actually buy, I feel like customers are really good at kind of subconsciously being able to tell like, "Oh, she probably didn't put her whole heart and soul and mind into that one thing versus the product where you do put like your whole self into it." I feel like people are really good at picking up on that. And so I feel Oh my gosh. Especially this Black Festival one. I'm not revealing it yet because I don't think that the products themselves will be like fully revealed by the time this video comes out. But oh my gosh, that one's so good. This one's just a little It's different. It's different. It's not what I'm in the mood for right now, but it's going to be so good. Yeah, it's going to be really good to balance out the three candles that are coming out with the summer collection. I'm so excited.
All right, so I think I'm good with color scheme and products for the most part. That's so freaking exciting. We can come up with hypotheticals all we want, like, oh, customers would want this, they'd want that, they'd want it bigger, they'd want it brighter. But until we release the thing, we don't have actual set answers to any of those questions. So, we just got to release the thing. The way we can start guaranteeing that customers will like what we put out is to know them better. And the way we get to know them better is to spend more time with them. You spend more time with customers by having them purchase what you already have at your store or having them just experience it and visualize it on your social media page, through your email, newsletter, whatever it is, and have them be part of your community. that is an ongoing journey as you grow your brand until they resonate really well with one of your products eventually and you can take note of that.
So, I have been sitting here coming up with even more products I could add to this collection, different variations of products. Like I just made a whole bunch of mini scrunchies, which I'm calling mini scrunchies, but they're actually just normalized scrunchies. But when I think about what the aesthetic of this collection is going to be, as much as these all scream and shout Monica's collective, sorry I didn't cut any of the threads off yet. They don't scream and shout the collection I'm trying to put out in the near future. Maybe these could be saved for another time. They could be saved for like a smaller drop. They could be put out really whenever. But low-key me continuing to create and to add on is kind of a distraction because I think I said this in the beginning. It's not quantity of products that matters. It's quality and value. Even if I only put out literally three products in this collection with just one variation per product, one tote bag, one candle, one scrunchie, if each of those three things just resonates so well with my ideal customer, it shouldn't matter that I only am putting out three things. They should sell really well on their own because we're looking for bestselling products, winner products, not just like a shop that has a million and one different things. and believing that because we have a million and one different things, it'll cater to a million and one different people and I'll sell a million and one pieces of inventory. That's not usually the case.
If we go back to the examples from the beginning of this video, although Rare Beauty has a bunch of products, the one product that actually generates a good chunk of their revenue is just the blush that they offer, the liquid blush. For Baze, the luggage company, they now offer so many different products, but again, their core product, the thing that is still the best seller. It's probably just one variation of those suitcases or even like a carry-on bag or something. Tala, the activewear brand, I actually am not sure what their best seller is, but I do know during the holiday season, their loungewear did really well again, even though they offer so many different sorts of apparel at this point. So, even though I offer a bunch of different products and I want to continue to offer more products at different price points at different even slightly different aesthetics, you know, change up the variation of sizing of one of my core products, that's almost like extra work. That's something I can work on almost like as a side project, as something that I continue to do without sacrificing the foundation of the business, which is building core best-selling winter products. So, as much as I love these, I might wait to drop these during a different time or even put these out before the summer collection and have them just be like a fun little thing to add to the shop because they are a smaller item. They come at a more affordable price point, which can help my shop in general when increasing order values, but it's not something I'm going to focus on being like the thing that I'm like necessarily known for, you know?
Anyway, I feel really good about the threeish products that I have going on. I feel really good about this summer collection. I hope this video helped you just like consider what you are putting into your shop as a small business owner and consider that what you already have might be like the only thing you need. Either way, we all find success in different ways. So, let me know in the comments what you all think and I will see you all in the next one. Bye.