Discontinuing Entry Bib Shorts & 3/4 Summer Bib Tights are on the Chopping Block
RedWhite Apparel has had a history of discontinuing products that don't sell well. In 2019, I discontinued The RACE bibshort and followed soon after with a discontinuation of a wide variety of products.
Every year, I review sales data and look for products to trim and remove from the product line. The reason I do this is because inventory of underperforming products cost a lot of money to maintain. I explain more in this blog post.
RedWhite is a small company with limited capital. Every dollar has to be spent as efficiently as possible. This means every dollar has to be allocated to products that earn a rate of return that justifies investing in it. In the past, i've been ill-disciplined and hung onto products that should have been discontinued. The result of that was a lack of capital to invest in products that customers actually want to purchase.
Every year, I develop new products and launch a few. The goal of every new product is to meet a certain demand and ultimately grow revenue. If customers don't purchase enough of a certain product, the business suffers long term since that capital could be deployed elsewhere.
For 2023, I will be discontinuing 1 product and putting 1 more on the chopping block. Products that are "on the chopping block" are new products that have disappointing sales volume and will be prematurely discontinued if customers don't vote to keep them with their wallets.
My motivation for announcing a "Chopping Block" is to give you, the customer, a chance to vote to keep a product with your wallet.
1) Being Discontinued on June 1st : The Entry Bib Short
The Entry Bib Short was introduced in 2019. The strategic purpose of this was to replace the old RACE Bibshort and offer customers a short-distance bibshort at a lower price point.
The ambition / hope for this bibshort was to attract price conscious customers to try a pair of RedWhites and hopefully upgrade to The BIB in future. After 4 years, this did not happen unfortunately.
What I learnt over 4 years was the following :
- US$ 85 is still too high for price-conscious customers.
- Most customers want The BIB and are willing to pay more for it because it has a much better pad and better fabrics. This is proven by the fact that Entry Bibs only sold 6% of the volume of The BIB.
- Customers who buy the Entry Bib Short often don't purchase it again and instead end up purchasing the superior BIB.
There are customers who love Entry Bib Shorts, but unfortunately there are too few of them. After 4 years of watching sales data and talking to customers, i've finally realised that Entry Bib Shorts don't fit in RedWhite's product line.
For this reason, they will not be re-stocked and will be discontinued on June 1st, 2023.
There's limited inventory available now if you wish to purchase it.
2) On the Chopping Block : 3/4 Summer Bib Tights with Pad
I developed the 3/4 Summer Bib Tights with Pad to cater to :
- Customers who need extra sun protection on their legs. For years, these customers have been using leg coolers with their RW bibs. A 1-piece 3/4 bib tight would be a better solution.
- Early Autumn/Late Spring riding. Customers who wear summer tights with knee covers during early autumn & late spring and want a full 3/4 version of their summer bibshorts for these mild weather days. The additional piece of lycra over the knees help keep them a touch warmer.
- Mountain Bikers & Gravel Racers. Several customers have said that 3/4 tights would be nice to do trail & dirt track riding in. The lycra over the knees help keep mud & dirt away from skin and also provide a location for knee guards.
- Wet Weather Riders. Some customers have said that having fabric coverage on their calves would keep road grime off their skin.
- Muslim Customers in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei & United Arab Emirates who want summer tights that cover their knees. This for modesty reasons.
Unfortunately, after a mere 6 months, only 8% of customers bought one and that number has been trending down. On launch, there was a spike in purchases and that quickly (and unnaturally) tapered off.
It appears that the 3/4 Summer Bib Tight does not have a sizeable market. For this reason, I am now moving it to the "Chopping Block".
The Chopping Block is something i've had for a long time. It is reserved for products that are fairly new but have disappointing sales volumes. Putting a product on the Chopping Block means it will be scrutinised for a potential Discontinuation if sales don't pick up in the next year.
The product previously on the Chopping Block was The Entry Bib Short.
In the past, I don't publicly tell customers that a product is on the Chopping Block because I didn't want customers to purchase it out of FOMO - causing my demand data to be skewed. However, I am now doing this to give customers a chance to purchase it and also argue the merits of keeping it in stock.
I welcome comments as always. Please leave them below 👇