Do you buy your spiritwear before selling or after?

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Matt Harrell

• November 06, 2019 18:06

Some PTAs seem to buy all their merchandise upfront and the manage all the inventory in the school building. 

Others will pre-sell all their orders and then know how much to order. 

How does your group handle this? What are the pros and cons to each approach?

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  Melanie Paul

  • December 27, 2019 22:34

  Thanks for the feedback, ladies! Do you have any tips for units who may be nervous about using this method versus having the items on hand? Any tips for organization and keeping things on the "back end" running smoothly? 

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  Tiffany Shire

  • November 20, 2019 17:00

  In the past, we've maintained inventory during the year. Then at the beginning of the year, we'd do pre-sales for any items not currently in inventory.

  This year, I went with a new vendor and tried to do pre-sales only.

  I found that there were challenges both ways.  If inventory is maintained, then funds are tied up when the spirit wear doesn't sell. We just have inventory sitting in a closet, the money is spent, so we no longer have access to those funds.

  With only doing pre-sales, the challenge was estimating how many items would sell in order to determine the cost per item. My initial estimate was higher than what actually sold, so the cost per item was slightly higher, and we ended up barely breaking even.

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  Matt Harrell

  • November 20, 2019 20:03

  Thanks for sharing Tiffany! That's pretty insightful. 

  I appreciate you leaving a comment. We're actually about to launch this Community in a much bigger way and there should be a lot more activity. 

  Stay tuned! 

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  Katrina Soutar

  • November 25, 2019 21:47

  We submit spirit wear orders and have them full filled. The majority of our sales are through MH which allows us to easily filter and review orders that have been placed.
  We do not keep inventory, only sample sizes. There can be a few weeks delay before delivery but we do not have issues with it.

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  Molly Edwards

  • November 27, 2019 01:07

  We do not keep inventory of our spirit wear. We also do most of our sales through MH so it’s very easy to keep tract of what we are selling. We do keep some of our magnets stocked just because we have to buy a minimum.

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  Melanie Paul

  • December 12, 2019 02:05

  Katrina and Molly - Do you find that with not stocking inventory on your items, it's more cost-effective for your unit? IE not buying inventory you may not sell? 

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  Katrina Soutar

  • December 12, 2019 12:24

  Hey Melanie! For sure. It is also nice that we do not have to front the money. We only pay for the items after we have received money for the sale so it is great for cash flow as well.

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  Molly Edwards

  • December 12, 2019 19:54

  Yes, it is definitely more cost effective. We aren’t having to guess what people are going to buy and pay upfront.

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  Ashley Smith

  • January 23, 2020 14:49

  We do an initial Spirit Wear order based on last year's total numbers. We usually purchase 2/3rds of our total inventory from last year.  Then in October/November we do a preorder sale for anyone who missed out.  

  So far, we don't have a ton of inventory left. It all fits on one cart in our PTA closet (which is phenomenal-our treasurer is amazing).  We also sell Spirit Wear to teachers and staff at cost so we always make sure we have enough for the staff/teachers. They can only wear jeans if they are in Spirit Wear on Fridays, so that is a major incentive.

   

   

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