Hello, my Lovelies!! I have been busy getting holiday orders out, preparing to shut down The Chandler's Rose website and launching a new initiative to help out other soapers. Well, the last holiday order will be delivered this week. I am shutting down The Chandler's Rose because people don't go to the site to order. Most just send me a message on Facebook. Therefore there is no need to keep the site up. I understand that people like having a website to reference but it is a waste of time for a business owner when people refuse to use said site. So, it will go the way of the Dodo on December 31, 2013. And, lastly in the many soap making forums that I belong to one of the great laments of most of the soap company owners is that sales are down.
This is an anguish that I can understand. In my opinion, this is 10% due to economy, 10% due to the fickleness of fads, 30% due to product itself and 50% due to lack of proper marketing. Some people can't fathom paying $6.50 for a bar of soap when they can go to the $1 Tree and spend $1 for 2 -3 bars of detergent masquerading as soap. Others found purchasing homemade, from local artisans and real soap cool trendy and above all fashionable. That sadly is no longer the case and very few people have stuck with the soaps that they found so alluring and as a 'must-have'. Some soap makers feel that they have a great product but it just isn't so. Unwittingly their friends and family will not tell them some simple truths. Their soap is drying, harsh, lost its fragrance from sitting on the company's shelf too long waiting to be purchased or has additives that the consumer is allergic to. Mainly, the soap is not noteworthy or justifiable. The body butter is too greasy. The lotion separates in heat above 80 degrees. The bath bomb fizzed out in the bathroom cupboard before the customer could use it.
This is not the case for 80% of crafters but sadly it is the 20% that gets the most internet traffic from being bashed. One bad review can taint a small community like this for months and/or years. Human nature has been conditioned to seek out the bad publicity stories rather than the praises and success stories. Sadly, the small business owner doesn't conduct random checks on their company via the internet to keep such stories off the web. Which also touches on my last point. And lastly, the soap maker doesn't have the networking skills to get the word out about their product, takes poor pictures or no pictures of their product or doesn't using every avenue available to get the word out about their product. A lot of people just starting out can't afford to have a website designed for them, a logo created for them or to attend the many craft fairs just to get their name out there.
The market is saturated with people who learn to make body butters, soaps, 'whathaveyou' on Sunday, give them away to family and friends on Monday, open a business on Tuesday, do enough damage to the niche market due to substandard product on Wednesday, bitch about it on Thursday and Friday and then close up shop on Saturday. So having said all of this. I decided to start purchasing from these companies to evaluate: 1. The ease of navigation on their website. 2. The speed of receiving the product post-order (I'm talking pulling product and dropping it into the mail.) 3. The packaging. 4. Quality of product. I am by no means an expert. I know what I like and what will cause a miser like me to part with a penny. My promise is to only post positives. Any negatives will be brought to their attention via PM on Facebook or e-mail. I hope that you all will join me on this journey because I absolutely am excited to get my products from them.
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The market is saturated with people who learn to make body butters, soaps, 'whathaveyou' on Sunday,......
ReplyDeleteYou are so right. I started making soaps back in 1999 and may have given away some substandard soaps. But I joined different Yahoo groups and forums, found www.millersoap.com and learned the basics. My business had been consistently steady until 2010 when most people around here were losing their jobs and homes. The economy in southern Idaho is not improving yet.
On top of that, out of the woodwork, comes many soap makers (only one other uses milk) that have gone to some blogs and youtube, follow those recipes and start selling. I asked one the other day what percent superfat she used. She had no idea what I was talking about! For me, 6% especially on an all veggie bar (no lard/tallow), causes my skin to break out & I'm a far cry from being a teenager. Plus I use bar soap on my hair and 6% leaves it greasy. She insisted I try a bar. I don't know her recipe, but I would hazard a guess it's at 7%, I felt like a grease ball! Doesn't work for me and if I was a customer because I happened across your table at a bazaar, I wouldn't likely wouldn't contact you to tell you that the soap didn't work for me.
Just some of my experience.
Hi SaanenMom!! Thank you for your insight. This market has changed since I started back in 2004. I have watched trends and watched the bigger companies bash smaller companies. It is tough out there. I have been in forums where newbies beg for recipes or say that they just made their first batch and are looking to sell. It is tough out there. That is why I love participating in bath and body swaps. I can tell so much about their products from use. I also beg people for feedback on my products. A few comments from my Thursday market got me to drop a few scents and to improve my formula. I encourage you to give feedback because if not that person is going to continue to sell junk and taint the market. Thanks for stopping by and come again!! :)
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