Steppin' Out
BIG NEWS - PRE-SALES AT ALVIES
by Alvie Faulkenbery, October 10,2022
Steppin' Out
BIG NEWS - PRE-SALES AT ALVIES
by Alvie Faulkenbery, October 10,2022
If you have been following us for a while, you likely would have seen that we are not big discounters here at Alvies. In fact, I wrote a whole blog about Why We Don’t Offer Discounts on Alvies Boots in April of 2021. Outside of the occasional BOGO deal, lowering our price has never been our thing, because we know our products speak for themselves. Plus, most brands that offer discounts have built-in margins padded for discounts, and we refuse to build our business that way.Playing Devil's AdvocateAt Alvies, we tend to play devil's advocate on concepts that we are overly bullish on. And we have been particularly overly bullish about discounting our products. So after a few beers in a late-night ideation sesh, we started to question the idea of pre-selling products before they are released while keeping the integrity of everything we have built. We looked at the risk vs. reward and asked ourselves if it would be worth it if we could trade off learning from our customers before we release the product in exchange for early profit. What made it hard is that everyone at Alvies knows what goes into our designs, craftsmanship, and what it means to have a product that is built to be passed down. But we also realize that we don’t have the big budgets to run costly market tests, customer focus groups, and the ability to get the feedback we need to make strategic decisions around a release. After some lengthy back-and-forth, it felt less and less risky to discount our boots for a short window of the product's life. So we got to work.
If you have been following us for a while, you likely would have seen that we are not big discounters here at Alvies. In fact, I wrote a whole blog about Why We Don’t Offer Discounts on Alvies Boots in April of 2021. Outside of the occasional BOGO deal, lowering our price has never been our thing, because we know our products speak for themselves. Plus, most brands that offer discounts have built-in margins padded for discounts, and we refuse to build our business that way.Playing Devil's AdvocateAt Alvies, we tend to play devil's advocate on concepts that we are overly bullish on. And we have been particularly overly bullish about discounting our products. So after a few beers in a late-night ideation sesh, we started to question the idea of pre-selling products before they are released while keeping the integrity of everything we have built. We looked at the risk vs. reward and asked ourselves if it would be worth it if we could trade off learning from our customers before we release the product in exchange for early profit. What made it hard is that everyone at Alvies knows what goes into our designs, craftsmanship, and what it means to have a product that is built to be passed down. But we also realize that we don’t have the big budgets to run costly market tests, customer focus groups, and the ability to get the feedback we need to make strategic decisions around a release. After some lengthy back-and-forth, it felt less and less risky to discount our boots for a short window of the product's life. So we got to work.
Full Steam AheadWe were all onboard, and we wanted to move fast — we aren’t ones to sit on our hands. We realized that by offering a discount early enough, we would be able to give our customers a chance to buy a product as soon as we approved its sample, and we could do it without affecting the integrity of the quality, our partner relationships, or our processes that make the product and experience great for our customers.
Full Steam AheadWe were all onboard, and we wanted to move fast — we aren’t ones to sit on our hands. We realized that by offering a discount early enough, we would be able to give our customers a chance to buy a product as soon as we approved its sample, and we could do it without affecting the integrity of the quality, our partner relationships, or our processes that make the product and experience great for our customers.
The LaunchWe had to start tweaking our business model to make a pre-sale work — which was more than we anticipated. That included changes to our website, processes, and overall business. It took some time, but after a lot of hard work, we were ready. Starting this Fall, you can expect to see some awesome pre-sale discounts and product releases, and that will continue for the future of our business.
The LaunchWe had to start tweaking our business model to make a pre-sale work — which was more than we anticipated. That included changes to our website, processes, and overall business. It took some time, but after a lot of hard work, we were ready. Starting this Fall, you can expect to see some awesome pre-sale discounts and product releases, and that will continue for the future of our business.
The Details There are some important details to understand about how our pre-sales work:
- Our Pre-Sales are only for a limited time. Once they are gone, we will never discount the product again
- The Pre-Sale only happens during the period in which our product is in production and before they make it to the Alvies warehouse. So it really is like Kickstarter for handcrafted boots. Except it’s the same known quality and craftsmanship that we stand by with all of our products
- Our pre-sales will also be a limited quantity, so you’ll want to get your size as quickly as you can
- Our most loyal customers and email/SMS subscribers will get first dibs with the highest discount before we offer it to the general public. If you haven’t signed up for our SMS and Email, you can do it by entering your email and clicking on the subscribe button at the bottom of the screen.
- Once the product is released, and the pre-sale is over, we will go back to our old ways and never offer a discount again on that product. I guess that one thing didn’t change.
The Details There are some important details to understand about how our pre-sales work:
- Our Pre-Sales are only for a limited time. Once they are gone, we will never discount the product again
- The Pre-Sale only happens during the period in which our product is in production and before they make it to the Alvies warehouse. So it really is like Kickstarter for handcrafted boots. Except it’s the same known quality and craftsmanship that we stand by with all of our products
- Our pre-sales will also be a limited quantity, so you’ll want to get your size as quickly as you can
- Our most loyal customers and email/SMS subscribers will get first dibs with the highest discount before we offer it to the general public. If you haven’t signed up for our SMS and Email, you can do it by entering your email and clicking on the subscribe button at the bottom of the screen.
- Once the product is released, and the pre-sale is over, we will go back to our old ways and never offer a discount again on that product. I guess that one thing didn’t change.
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ABOUT ALVIE
Alvie is the founder of Alvies (makes sense, right?), a man obsessed with boots and flip-flops. He spent six years designing and selling them out of an Airstream. That time was like his vision quest, where he learned everything he could about traditional bootmaking and leatherworking in order to build the best boots and flip-flops on the planet. In addition to being our Presidente and chief product designer, he’s also our resident boot expert and dropper of knowledge on the blog.
ABOUT ALVIE
Alvie is the founder of Alvies (makes sense, right?), a man obsessed with boots and flip-flops. He spent six years designing and selling them out of an Airstream. That time was like his vision quest, where he learned everything he could about traditional bootmaking and leatherworking in order to build the best boots and flip-flops on the planet. In addition to being our Presidente and chief product designer, he’s also our resident boot expert and dropper of knowledge on the blog.