Hammock Retail "store"

[The Tree Frog]

Would you travel to a location to see, test, feel a variety of hammock materials and hammocks from a variety of cottage vendors?

Of course we can all attend a hang and check out each other's gear. But wouldn't it be nice to be able to go to a location, like a retail store, and try before you buy?

One could set up shop, arrange deals with the cottage vendors to demo and sell hammocks and gear, DIY supplies, etc. it would be a great way to compare all of the options out there at once. Perhaps have some in stock items, and otherwise, order while looking at samples. That might also take some of the phone call or email pressure from the vendors and get quicker answers to the buyer.

Just my thoughts, but would you drive to a location...an hour away...two hours away...to have a better selection in front of you?

[OCDave]

2 hours? Probably not. While it would be outstanding to have products in front of me when I am in a buying mood, I would rather buy with a minimum mark-up. Seems that any "Brick and Mortar" site would require a level of support from the vendor or mark-up by the retailer.

[sr1355]

We are approached all the time by retailers interested in adding product but they want 35-45% discounts off our prices.... Anyone in this industry will tell you there is no way to give those sort of margin discounts. We are basically selling to the consumer at wholesale pricing and would need to mark up our offerings another 25-35% to provide discounts retailer need...

[The Tree Frog]

We are approached all the time by retailers interested in adding product but they want 35-45% discounts off our prices.... Anyone in this industry will tell you there is no way to give those sort of margin discounts. We are basically selling to the consumer at wholesale pricing and would need to mark up our offerings another 25-35% to provide discounts retailer need...

I was thinking more of a "cottage" retailer. If I were to do this, for example, I would not require those steep discounts. The concept would not require a full brick and mortar store front, would not be open all hours, and have little overhead. Instead would have limited hours and/or by appointment only. Combine this with other streams of income and come away with a win-win-win scenario.

Just putting feelers out there so any feedback from forum members or cottage vendors is appreciated.

[sr1355]

Sounds like a great idea if you can work the details out. It sure can be hard for some folks to spend $$$$$ on hammock, quilts, and tarp going off nothing more than reviews, pictures, and if they are lucky video...

[The Tree Frog]

Sounds like a great idea if you can work the details out. It sure can be hard for some folks to spend $$$$$ on hammock, quilts, and tarp going off nothing more than reviews, pictures, and if they are lucky video...

Thanks Paul!

Does anyone think it would add or take away from the personalized service some rave about? Certainly it's great to talk to the people who actually make the gear. But getting your hands one the actual material that will be used and getting answers and info immediately has a plus as well.

[atrane21]

I've looked at doing a very similar idea. The main problem i found that i would run into is for cottage vendor gear the margins aren't very big and would make it tough to make it worth your time. The way i was considering to do it is have an outdoor retail store with a cottage vendor area in it just for something different.
The other big issue is having a retail store in general is tough just because of the online market. It seems like it would be a really fun challenge but there are a lot of big obstacles for sure.

[xrayit]

I think you would run into the same issues brick and mortar stores have, you will get a lot of foot traffic and spend an enormous amount of time on the selection of the perfect gear and lose the order to a cheaper online source. Not sure you could provide enough value added service to be competitive. If you were to stock lets say high demand hammocks for immediate over the counter sales you could in theory add an acceptable up charge to cover your cost of money, rent, utilities and time and may have some quick turn over on some items, other duds you will have to discount to convert the stock into cash while the product still has some value. Another problem is the used market, I run into the used market issue daily as I sell high value capital equipment, I sometimes end up spending a lot of time and energy selling my new products and lose the sale to a used equipment broker because he is essentially selling the same product as I am (my product that I built) at a much lower discounted price that I could never match with new equipment. I do spend a large amount of time with this customer that just bought my equipment even though I didn't make any additional money in the sale. Would you provide any type of service if the customer walks in and has brand x hammock but didn't buy it from you? You would have no obligation but also have the chance to cause goodwill issues for your self and the manufacture.

From my point of view I see little incentive for a cottage vender to give big discounts to retail outlets, you would be in theory placing orders for multiples of the product, your orders will be in addition to the orders that are being placed at the correct level of profit to sustain the existing business, the addition of your discounted sales would require the addition of resources. The idea of we will make it up in volume for a manufacture really does not work, lost revenue is lost revenue that can rarely be made up by losing more revenue on additional sales. The real killer for a cottage vendor is the loss of good will, you will not be in the same attitude as the actual cottage vendor, he has reputation and pride in his product as well as an existing customer base, if you as a retailer screw up it's rarely the retailer that takes the long term hit, the retailer just goes away but the bad mojo the retailer placed on the cottage vendor and his product does not go away. This can be something as simple as not answering an email or voice message, goes back to controlling your level of service and product quality and since you are not an employee or have no real interest in the cottage vendors business this alone would be a deterrence.

[GreatBigDave]

I don't see an opportunity to pay rent much less salaries. From what I can see, the cottage equipment community here operates on tiny margin. We, the consumers, benefit directly in price from the weightlessness of Internet sales and distribution. To maintain the same price point and pay for retail distribution, the manufacturing process would have to become cheaper - lower quality, cheaper labor.

[Gresh]

I was thinking more of a "cottage" retailer. If I were to do this, for example, I would not require those steep discounts. The concept would not require a full brick and mortar store front, would not be open all hours, and have little overhead. Instead would have limited hours and/or by appointment only. Combine this with other streams of income and come away with a win-win-win scenario.

Just putting feelers out there so any feedback from forum members or cottage vendors is appreciated.

We have that - it's called the PSH Gear Loaner Program, and anybody who'd like to is welcome to come to my "shop" (my workshop in my back yard) and sample any of the gear we have available from UGQ, Dream Hammock, Hennessey, TATO, and the now defunct Hound Dog Hammock Gear.