thoughtful1. Order = Pay.
This took so long because we had to chase down every person who said they wanted a shirt and get them to pay for it. If we do it again, we say "place your order, pay your total, and you'll get your shirt when we hit the minimum order threshold or run out of time, whichever comes later." Pros, no chasing people. Cons, some people may demand refunds if things take too long.
2. Make it clear that the choices offered are the only ones.
We also had issues with a few people going "I want shirt style A, but this color from shirt style B." This, well, wasn't possible, because the shirts didn't exist, but we didn't catch that until Deborah was in the final review of the list. So if we do this again, we need to be very clear on the "what you can get is what's on that specific page" issue.
3. Set a maximum threshold.
This was a super-large order, which also slowed things down a lot. So there needs to be a "no fewer than X, but no more than Y" point.
4. Up the price for 3XL and up.
I hate this. I tried so hard not to reach this conclusion. But...it costs more to print a shirt that's between 3XL and 6XL, and we had a lot of those. I was never expecting to make money on this, and I figured, "well, if someone who orders a S is paying the same as someone who orders a 5XL, it all comes out in the wash." And it did, as far as printing costs was concerned. What I didn't do was calculate for mailing costs. It's about three dollars more to ship a larger shirt, especially if that shirt is not being mailed alone. If I want to be able to afford to print the shirts, and mail the shirts, I need to charge more for the larger ones. I'm so sorry. It's purely financial, and it annoys me deeply.
5. Print more extras.
This time, I ordered three extra shirts, and Amy, who is smart, ordered eight for her bookstore. Amy has been doing a brisk business selling shirts to filkers who missed the original order, and is a happy little clam. I still don't know which shirts are mine, because I'm in the shipping process. More extras would mean a happier answer to "do you have one you can sell me?" inquires.
...of course, all this is academic until I finish mailing. Still, that's where I'm at right now, and sometimes it's nice to think aloud.
October 28 2011, 16:01:14 UTC 5 years ago
#4 is distressing, but realistic. I'm afraid someone -will- Be Stupid, but the fact is that your prices have to reflect the underlying economic realities, and those are based not (in this case) on society being fat-haters, but on the unfortunate fact that it takes more energy to move heavier things than to move lighter things (and you pass the savings on to us).
One of the most bemusing things about your fanac, to me, is how much of it involves packing up and mailing things (but they're cool things, so...)
October 28 2011, 16:57:57 UTC 5 years ago
October 28 2011, 17:42:33 UTC 5 years ago
Functionally, it would mean that people buying the smaller shirts were subsidizing the orders of those buying larger shirts--but there are some sound business reasons for this beyond (problematic -- in both directions) fairness--differing prices impose extra costs simply by differing.
I could go on, but I think it's a more complex problem in theory than it is in this case. (huh. Maybe everything doesn't work in theory after all?)
October 28 2011, 18:41:20 UTC 5 years ago