One of the hardest things to get right when running a small independent shop is what stock to buy, and how much of it.
It’s especially hard when your business is pretty new, and pretty tiny (with a tiny stock-buying budget to match!).
When I started Land Tales, which is an online shop together with seasonal pop up shops, I had an idea of the kind of products I wanted to fill the shop with: beautiful things made in the UK. But I had no idea which specific products customers would buy, and how many items I'd sell in any given week, month or season.
So I took a super cautious approach and bought the smallest number possible of each item, to test what would work well.
Even now that the shop's been open a year and I have a better sense of what Land Tales customers are typically looking for, the business is still very small, and sales can be unpredictable, especially in this rocky economy.
So I still take that same cautious approach, buying small quantities of products for the shop, and seeing what does well before buying more.
There are benefits to this approach, the main one being that it reduces waste; it's kinder to the planet than taking a risk on a large quantity of something that might sell quite slowly.
But there are a few challenges that come along with it.
Firstly, things often sell out quicker than expected. When that happens, those little "sold out" labels start popping up on products on the site, and you might find you can't get that item you've been coveting as it's suddenly unavailable.
The other challenge is that it can take a long time for products to arrive back in the shop once they sell out. Even if I'm on-the-ball and re-order things in advance of selling out, there's still often a wait before the products arrive back in stock.
That's because so many of the products you'll find at Land Tales are made by hand, using slow craft processes such as pottery and wood-turning, that simply take time.
When I order a batch of new pottery, for example, the ceramicist has to order the clay and materials, make the forms on the wheel, fire them in the kiln, glaze them, then fire them again, before they're ready to be packaged up and sent to Land Tales. The process usually takes around 6-8 weeks, but can take longer if the potter has a busy schedule with other wholesale or client orders, as well as making their own work for sale.
Today (I'm writing this in June) there are quite a few lovely items showing as "back soon" and I'm eagerly awaiting their return. There's a restock of beautiful ceramic tableware made by Florence Ceramics in her Bristol pottery studio arriving very soon and I can't wait to get those items up on the website. Depending on when you read this, those items might already have landed in our Florence Ceramics collection - take a peek here!
And there are new pieces coming soon from Celia Wood, who makes joyful handpainted pottery in her Edinburgh Studio.
Selwyn House are also hard at work on a restock of some of our beautiful wooden tableware and home accessories made from sustainably sourced British timbers. As soon as they arrive at my door, they'll be straight onto our Selwyn House collection.
So while I hope you're always able to find what you're looking for at Land Tales, there might be times when that disappointing "sold out" or "back soon" sticker appears on the product page.
When that happens, you can always click "Notify me" to receive an email when it's back in stock. And as Land Tales is run by me and I love helping customers find the things they're looking for, you're always welcome to contact me at hello@landtales.co.uk if you want to know when something will arrive back.
Hannah x
P.S. Curious to know what's flying off the shelves at Land Tales at the moment? Head to our Bestsellers page for a look at things our customers have been loving recently.
