The Logo Creator - Getting Yourself Into Retail (Marc Sylvester)
Mar 1, 2010
Ever since I can remember, I've had this 'entrepreneurial' attitude. When I was 9 years old, I would visit my local pottery shop and purchase a dozen un-baked coffee cups. I would then draw cartoons on them and would then bring them back to the pottery shop to have them baked.
I then took them to the local fire department and my school and tried to sell them. I did sell a few of them ... but I never made enough to compensate for the cost of the cups, kilning and paints! This is the SAME problem I have with the retail world when trying to sell my logo design software. I've been selling The Logo Creator, in large retail stores like CompUSA, Fry's Electronics and Office Max since 2004.
The boxes each cost (roughly) $3.00 to design. This includes the cardboard, the CD and sleeve, as well as the burning of the disk ...and putting in the 'filler' to make the box appear strong and sturdy on the shelf.
You can hire a local designer, or find one on the net from companies likes elance.com or moonlighters.com. A designer may charge upwards of $2,000 to $7,000 to design the box! (I'm lucky enough to be able to design my own boxes). A good rule of thumb is that you'll most likely spend $3,000 for 1000 boxes.
The least amount that the printshops will let you print is about 1,000 units. It may sound small, but the cost can really add up when a chain like OfficeMax has 1200 stores with each store ordering a minimum of 5 boxes. That's 6,000 boxes! It adds up quick.
Once the boxes are manufactured, you have what they call "Shelf Space" to deal with.
Not all, but some retail chains won't just take a product and put it onto their shelves. They need cash for this "shelf space" first.
Shelf space can get as pricey as $6,000 for just one software product! (You need to sell a lot of product to make up for this. And THEN, you'll find that the retail chain requires it's cut. Sometimes up to 20% ... it gets crazy.
Why the net is taking over
This is why the internet is so terrific. NO overhead other than your time. (I use external eCommerce companies to handle my shopping cart system. They take 20% of my monthly sales. ...but it's WELL worth it I must say).
This is the great thing about creating downloadable software - or anything you can create once and sell a thousand times. An eBook for example. The Retail world used to be king, but I'm putting my money into the web.
It's harder to market yourself on the net beign that there's so much competition. However, that's where your Search Engine Marketing comes in. But that's a topic for a another article.
About the AuthorMarc Sylvester - Owner and operator of Laughingbird Software. Come find out more about The Logo Creator - logo design software for Mac and Windows!.