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Dwight

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You have an opportunity to sell brand new skis and ski boots to the beginner market. In the past you have sold Elan, Fischer and Alpina. Going forward Elan probably still makes good business sense, maybe even Fischer of skis too.

What would you do for boots? How many brands would you carry? Need to look at the new Atomic Savor line. Might even look at Rossi. Price points for new boots will be around $200.
 

AngryAnalyst

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I’m interested in the topic but know very little about managing a sporting goods retailer. So, I doubt I know enough to estimate market demand for purchases of beginner gear.

Do you know rough breakdown of existing equipment sales (especially boots) by ability level? How do existing light flex boots sell relative to stiffer options? Do you get wholesale discounts for higher volumes with the same brands such that ordering some stock from Atomic and some from Fischer is less profitable than all one or the other per unit? Do you project enough promotional activity behind the new lines that it will create demand specific to the models?

I would think information like that would be important to making an intelligent decision here. If you can give more details in some form I’m interested.
 
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Dwight

Dwight

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For the current business, it is primarily youth and beginners. Higher end equipment is not sold here. Used market is main inventory with some new gear every few years. Some bad decision in past, plus not stellar snow years have left some "new" inventory still around on year 3. I don't profit margin info and that will certainly come into play. Though there are some coops that a business can be part of to get brand new inventory from a few years ago, which helps in the profit margin.

Even the full scale ski shops, rarely sell flexes over 100. I had to order my 120s from the dealer.

A few things I thought were beneficial on the Women lines of Fischer and Elan are the colors are more unisex, which allows easier selling for light males.

Advertising isn't much of an issue.
 

raytseng

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for the boots if its not high end then its just about having enough to satisfy choice.

If you follow the 3 bears model, you should try to have 3 choices available, with a higher end and lower end choice, even though you expect most to pick the middle choice. Having much more than 3 choices has diminishing returns.

As far as choosing which boots or carrying multiple lines, I think this is where you start getting into the nittygritty of bootfitting because then you may need to determine if 2 choices of similar specced boots are for different feet type, or if they are pretty much intetchangable in terms of foot fitment, and just about the style or graphics.
 

AngryAnalyst

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Sounds like this business is different from the shops I usually visit then. That means my experience as a customer is even less useful than I had guessed.

All I can really offer then is some advice around how to structure the decision. Here it is:

1. What fraction of your overall inventory budget do you want to spend on boots?

2. What fraction of your boot inventory budget do you want to spend on beginner boots?

3. What fraction of your beginner boot budget do you want to spend on a specific line of boots?

4. Are there costs to ordering different lines of boots from an inventory management or procurement stand point (i.e. volume based brand discounts, too many SKUs if you order too many lines)? Do these costs affect the answer to number 3?

5. Will you miss out on sales you could have gotten by restricting SKUs you carry (ex: someone calls saying they want Fischer Vacuum boots. You only carry Atomic Hawx boots)? Alternately, do you often run out of popular SKUs and miss sales because you carry too little stock of the lines you sell?

I would think that if you have historical inventory data using it as a starting point would be helpful to calibrate the answers to these questions. Another approach entirely would be to look at what other retailers in your area are doing and what rental stock the local hills carry as this probably influences brand demand in beginners.
 

Vapewell

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I would include as many brands as possible, but mostly the more reliable ones.
 

Quandary

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Let's assume your beginners are primarily children. The key is not to "sell" to them in the traditional sense but to put together a trade in program where for a stated fee you are provided skis, boots and poles. Each year as you grow out of the equipment you have you trade it in for new to you equipment. The equipment you receive may be new, maybe traded. At any time the customer can stop participating in the program and keep the equipment they have. The shops responsibility is to keep the equipment in good condition introducing new equipment to the pool as needed and removing old equipment as needed.
 

Wilhelmson

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I think that customers want enough variety and knowledgeable staff to feel like they are receiving the right product. Perhaps as suggested more than 3 models may provide diminishing returns, but if having excess at the end of the season is the price to pay for return customers it could be worth consideration. At least see some different brands and 4 buckles. Maybe it’s not a good fit for your area and model. I am thinking about all the wannabes out there on $5,000 mountain bikes.

Our friends did the junior lease program for many years. Now that the kids are teens, they have bought probably at least 6 full price ski/boot setups among the four of them. I didn’t like the shop because it felt like a junk factory with no service; we moved on as soon as we could.
 

Hasbeck

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AngryAnalyst, thanks for the answer. You have good analytical skills indeed. I would not be able to come up with so many decisions for a business.
I am a beginner here and only plan to start my own business. I don’t want to hurry and make everything (or at least everything that I am aware of) right. It is not easy, but I will try to. After some good training as a project manager, I have realized that I lack analytic skills, and now I would like to develop them. Do you know some good online classes that can introduce me to this unusual subject? Something not too complicated and with many examples from real-life practice.
Maybe I take too much time to start and should already be doing something, but I just do what I feel is right.
 
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