Finding A Bestseller

One of Safavieh for Martha Stewart Rugs’ first bestsellers was an interpretation of Stewart’s love of faux bois into a pattern for a Tibetan rug

Industry veterans weigh in on what it means to develop a bestselling product

While the development process cannot be boiled down to an exact science, experts in home fashions assure that creating a bestselling product requires no retail voodoo or Faustian agreement, but instead, a keen sense of intuition, a knack for knowing when to strike and just enough assertiveness to introduce new ideas to consumers without pushing them out of their comfort zone.

Recognizing A Winner

Jennifer Sheridan, national sales manager, C&F Enterprises, explains that defining a bestseller is about recognizing one in the market.

“You can’t exactly plan for it to happen every time, but it’s that one item that really gets people on the fence to commit,” says Sheridan.

According to Sheridan, C&F usually has at least one bestseller a year that blows its clients away, like its Natural Shells Collection, which has been successful since January 2007. The collection met an intersection of high functionality, the perfect price point and a wide demographic. While the coastal motif is regional, what gives it national appeal is its functional 100 percent cotton and washed palette with soft colors—a great fit for a casual lifestyle.

“Natural Shells has sold well in large catalogs and online stores. In every tier it has been the number one requested item,” says Sheridan. “Because of its success, we pushed it to the forefront, expanding it from bedding to table, bath and hard goods. Once you find a line that will resonate with both large and small retailers, you work to round it all out.”

Marketing

In the rug sector, when Safavieh introduced the licensed Martha Stewart Rugs in January 2007, the bestsellers were defined by the number of re-orders, which were greatly influenced after consumers saw how the rug designs easily coordinated with Stewart’s other licensed furnishings. The success demonstrated how marketing also plays an important part in creating a bestseller.

The Air Collection is one of Edie, inc.’s new natural fiber fashion bedding lines.

According to Arash Yaraghi, principal of Safavieh, the rugs get more attention because of the Martha Stewart label and the innovative design, construction and color that serve as translations of the lifestyle expert’s style sense. One of its first bestsellers was a rug that interpreted Stewart’s love of faux bois into a pattern for a Tibetan rug. Other bestsellers unique to Martha Stewart are the Journey pattern, a colorful update of the tiger design, and Amazonia, another skin-inspired pattern.

As Martha Stewart collections show, marketing has a lot to do with how well a product sells.
“In addition to it being displayed fabulously to show buyers the breadth of its collection and how it can be coordinated, behind a bestseller is the education and enthusiasm the sales reps provide the buyers,” says Sheridan. “You could have the best design, but if that’s not backing it, it won’t sell.”

Home Source International also understands how marketing is crucial to demonstrate the versatility of its bed to bath concepts. The company usually does this by showing off its extensive selection of colorways for basic bedding and bath products.

One of Home Source’s bestsellers is its super absorbent and eco-friendly Microcotton story including a towel, a cotton reversible rug and the Ottoman Ribbed Matelasse shower curtain that sell well because all tiers coordinate. Every year Home Source introduces new colors into the market. The 25th color for Microcotton will be launched in January 2009.

Another bestseller for Home Source is its bamboo sheeting. Home Source was the first to introduce the 100 percent bamboo sheet, which took six years to perfect, currently available in eight colors. It will introduce one new color for the September New York market and another in January 2009 for its bamboo sheets, coverlets, shams, blankets and throws.

“We respond to trends in the eco-friendly sector of the market, but we really focus on providing classic designs driven by color,” says Scott Sorgeloos, vice-president of sales, Home Source. “If a color doesn’t sell well, it goes back into development. If the buyer doesn’t like it, we take their word seriously, because they know the end consumer. The best way to market our concepts is to change up vignettes to show ways to coordinate, and make sure retail vignettes are showing the same styles that are in our current catalogs.”

Tweaking A Bestseller

Shown is Home Source’s Bamboo Collection in sable, but for January, the company will debut a new 10th colorway

When performance starts to wane for a bestseller, it’s time to take a different approach. According to Sheridan at C&F, this could consist of introducing a new colorway or an entire re-interpretation for a new collection, as long as it isn’t predictable.

To build upon the success of Natural Shells, for January 2009, C&F’s next step is to add a few highlight colors and transfer the shells to another object, using the same fabrics so that the new bed can be merchandised side by side with Natural Shells, which is also introducing updated accessories.
“There has to be a plan behind every launch,” says Sheridan.

For Safavieh, expanding upon a bestselling rug can go a variety of ways.

“Stewart’s contemporary rugs set the industry trend and the colors, which coordinate with her other licensed products that resonate with consumers,” says Yaraghi. “If a design represents a new construction, we want to expand on it with new patterns. If the rug is in an existing construction, we maintain sales by adding colorways and the sizes offered.”

As another veteran in the business, Nancy Koltes of Nancy Koltes Fine Linens has found that keeping up with the demands of consumers by tweaking bestsellers is vital, especially in today’s shaky retail environment.

Koltes has made a business of selling quality linens, imported from Italy since 1984. Nowadays she is best known for her yarn-dyed jacquards for bedding. Koltes contends that you need to stay true to your niche. Years ago, Koltes explains that she was known for prints, but what sells is heavily dependent on how things trend.

“While we don’t follow all fashion or color forecasts, trends do influence my collections to an extent,” says Koltes. “You can’t move in and out of trends at the fast pace that runway fashions can. You need to build onto the past with patterns or new colors. Colors especially inform how the design reads and can make or break a design.”

Koltes’ switch from prints to jacquards was heavily influenced by the nature of the home fashions business.

Nancy Koltes Fine Linens is known for her jacquard bedding, like this Quebec Collection.

“When American mills entered the luxury bedding market, as an attribute to get noticed they pushed the thread-count issue, influencing other mills in the late ’90s to experiment with thread-counts, leading to the development of finer yarns and quality jacquards. I love color, I am a fan of yarn-dyed jacquards and we were one of the first to bring in colored warp, and we had success. The jacquards made a more elegant statement and continue to evolve.”

Tried-And-True Styles

Because of the traditional style her client base has come to expect of her linens, Margaret Scheffs, owner of Blauen Ltd.’s, keeps designs fresh and saleable by updating what has worked well for her company over the past 25 years: pink bows for little girls, and sailboats for boys.

“We manufacture high-end, classic collections of fabrics and embroideries, imported from Europe. In this niche, people gravitate to classic design and that’s what they come back to us for,” says Scheffs.
Scheffs says that even when she offers damasks in a variety of soft colors like lavender, green or yellow, people will still buy pink and for the embellishments buy bows over the elephants or giraffes.

“When it comes to forecasting a bestseller, we have to make sure that we keep up the high quality of our linens,” says Scheffs. “Because we are custom, people have the free range to design what they want with our fabrics. In terms of tweaking with trends, we have also created modern looks for certain customers by supplying the embellishments like ties or knots. Because we are custom, we have that versatility.”

The best selling fabric for boys has been Aralie, a blue-and-white cotton damask windowpane. As the first fabric Blauen sold, it’s now offered in every color and combo possible. For girls there are two: Orchidee, a floral cotton damask and Celeste, a dotted fabric.

Timing Is Everything

When working intuitively to develop a bestseller, timing counts. Edie Roberts of Edie, inc. says that finding a bestseller is reliant on many factors relative to the consumer you want to reach.

“For our larger buyers, the design process is based on previous success,” says Roberts. “If darker colors proved successful for a fall season, for the next collection you may want to use a similar look in a lighter palette. We have a broad customer base, from large retailers to specialty stores, and not all translates from store to store. You want to repeat the good history that you created [for that specific customer].”

While Roberts asserts that no one should follow upcoming trends to a “T” so that your collections don’t look generic, she reviews market trends, shops stores and looks at what’s selling at high and low price points. But influences aside, it boils down to timing.

“In a perfect world, you want to be ahead of the trend curve, but not too much. Timing is everything. If you are too early, you may as well be too late,” says Roberts. “Over the past few seasons, we’ve done a lot with sateen and sheen with polyester fabrics, but now it’s trending toward natural fabrics. I noticed this a while back, but held off—just because I’m ready for new material or construction doesn’t mean it will retail. It has to be introduced at the right time.”

This season, Roberts is moving forward with her natural fiber collection, Air, Earth, Fire and Water.
“From season to season, what makes a designer a designer, perhaps influenced by my own training in apparel, is to have one eye on the retail environment and one on the aesthetics,” says Roberts. “There is no formula, unfortunately, but I also see that as a fortunate thing—it makes the business interesting.”

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