So recently we took a short break from socials to clear the mental chatter, focus on the kids and see what would come up.
We've had BIG goals for Akwa Baby since the very first conversation, and when it's your business, it's your baby, and you give it everything. We took on the massive task of attending three international trade shows this summer and although it was a great first start, to be real, we didn't take over the kids fashion world and we still have a lot to prove, it was a knock because we had a big wake up call about how small we actually were vs the rest of this eco-system.
So, we took a minute. We stopped trying to move so quickly and just put the tools down.
We looked at how we could stop trying to compete with the bigger brands and enjoy the wins of being a smaller business. Our biggest sellers to date have been the Celebrate Colour t-shirts, people love this positive message, but our challenge has always been in placing orders up front and then working to sell our products. We've been looking at pre-sale models for a while, inspired by some really beautiful brands that do this and also, because whole heartedly, the planet's issue with landfill and fast fashion really plays on my mind.
You see big brands going under, you see Black Friday sales going crazy and we just do not want to contribute to the issue of oversupply so, we are starting to work with a pre-sale model that will allow us to create certain products and with a pre-order window and then create only what's been ordered.
For those who haven’t met this model yet, pre-order is basically offering your customers to order an item before final production, pre-order as a whole for the fashion industry is better because no unnecessary waste needs to be produced, we only produce what we have received orders for so fewer, unsold items is better for everyone. I am waiting on the first pre-order retail stores to open - I think it could happen!
This week we released our first pre-order new parent and baby gift set, which is available now for delivery by 19th December, and later in the week we have new t-shirts and sweatshirts to celebrate! We will release sneak peeks and exclusive offers via the newsletter so head to the home page to sign up if you haven't already :)