Feedback appreciated!!!

diddygez

Hi I am in the process of setting up a business whereby I visit Private day nurseries / toddler groups and measure / fit and sell childrens shoes? If you are a parent is it something you would consider and on avg how much do you pay for kids shoes? Also i would carry samples and then take orders delivering & fitting within 3 days at which point payment would be taken? Any advice wuld be much appreciated
J

slummymummyof3

Wouldn't most parents be at work when you visited?

diddygez

I would be there all day so they could either wait until they collect their child or I can measure , select styles to suit ready for when they pick up child

moneypooh

No, TBH regarding nursery.
When I or OH collected our children, we just wanted to leave for home. It takes a few minutes to find out how things have gone that day and then off. Usually loads of parents collect at the same time and timing would be difficult. I wouldn't stay for sure. If parents were collecting and had time maybe.

However, a playgroup is a more relaxed setting and could be more feasible.

Do you have large shops near you, like outlet stores?? There a quite a few Clarks outlet shops and they offer great value for money.

Savvy_Sue

I might have used such a service, but I would never have wanted to order shoes that I didn't know for certain were going to fit, so you may find you need to carry a lot of stock to make sales.

timnicebutdim_2

Recently a professional photographer visited my sons nursery who took really good photos of each child and then gave samples to the parents (only of their child of course). We could then place an order through the nursery. I thought it was a good idea, we nearly bought some but it was £10 a pop which i thought was a bit steep..... In this case I think the business model is clever; presumably they cut a commission based deal with the nursery and they make a profit if they sell a certain no. of photos.

For shoes however I don't think they will sell as well, because parents wont have the time (or inclination) to stand around and chat. Plus, no offence but I don't think parents or the nursery would be that happy having a salesperson around either. There are also safeguarding issues especially if you have to measure their feet and interact with the child....

Maybe one idea would be to leave samples, some brochures, marketing material etc in a big basket with an order form (like they do with books). Cut a deal with the nursery so that they get a % of sales. That way you do minimal work; the hard work is finding outlets, negotiating deals, marketing etc... It would need to presented in a way that shouts it's a great deal all round.

Playgroups however I think would be a lot easier..... Incidentally we would pay about £10 for a pair of shoes, maybe £15. Perhaps you could do BOGOF offers or offer shoes that you can't find on the highstreet??

mum-of-3

diddygez wrote: »

Hi I am in the process of setting up a business whereby I visit Private day nurseries / toddler groups and measure / fit and sell childrens shoes? If you are a parent is it something you would consider and on avg how much do you pay for kids shoes? Also i would carry samples and then take orders delivering & fitting within 3 days at which point payment would be taken? Any advice wuld be much appreciated
J

I wouldn't buy shoes in this way and would feel very uncomfortable if someone were to go in to my daughters nursery to measure her feet.
You may measure and fir the shoes, but a parent still likes to choose the style of the shoe and also see the child walk in it. My daughters have wide feet so they are different sizes in different styles.
I dont see what you would gain as a parent by someone going into your child's nursery to measure fit shoes which they parent would still want to see and choose.
I get clarks shoes for my kids age 1, 4 and 8 and prices range from about £20-34 they have wide feet so I cannot get away with cheaper shoes.
Have you done some market research yet? Why not ask some local nursery's to see if you could ask the parents some questions when they collect their kids to see if they though this kind of service would benefit them!

motorguy

diddygez wrote: »

Hi I am in the process of setting up a business whereby I visit Private day nurseries / toddler groups and measure / fit and sell childrens shoes? If you are a parent is it something you would consider and on avg how much do you pay for kids shoes? Also i would carry samples and then take orders delivering & fitting within 3 days at which point payment would be taken? Any advice wuld be much appreciated
J

I think the last thing parents will be considering is buying shoes when they drop off / pickup their kids - often to very tight schedules.

Also, people wont have time to talk to you in the mornings, so your going to rely on 'hot spots' of probably 1300-1400 and 17-1800. I would imagine its not a quick process so you could spend 20 mins with one parent, whos only thinking about buying the shoes, then you'd have to order the shoes, go back and hope to meet the parent to take payment.

Finally, what is your USP here? Surely most (all?) parents just take their kids shopping with them on a saturday and will buy shoes according to their budget? Are you hoping to compete on price?

Pennywise

Who are you competing against? If you're trying to get market share from Clarks than you've no chance as they've got the reputation for good quality shoes, good fitters and the money back/replacement guarantee. If you're trying to compete with the cheap and cheerful shops, can you really be cheap enough - if people want cheap, they've no allegiance and you'll lose your customers as soon as a shop starts selling them 50p cheaper. I don't really see a market at all. I'm very much a Clarks' customer and it would take a lot for me to buy from anywhere else - I wouldn't buy from you just because they were cheap, I'd want some guarantees of quality and after-sales service and that will be very hard to achieve for any new-starter.