Well it’s been several weeks and finally a package from China. I open it with great anticipation and to my surprise it’s wrong. Not horribly wrong, but the colors are not correct - although the artwork was at least printed from the art files I sent. The plastic case is the correct shape, but the plastic colors are wrong, and it contains only 8 bags when I really wanted to get to in a pack.
It looks like I have some work to do – First I fire off an email to Patricia noting the issues. Just a list comparing what the prototype called for and what the factory sent. Then it’s back to the shop to get samples of the plastic to send over as a backup for the factory.
That was pretty quick – Patricia emails me back and tells me they will fix the discrepancies but the factory can only compress 8 bags into the casing at that size and still have it function properly. This means I may have change my claim from 10 to 8 and think about the impact that has on the product’s value….or change the size and think about the impact on the product if I do that.
Along with the first run samples came the first look at the factory pricing. $1.32 USD/5000 FOB Cincinnati, Ohio. Translated means $1.32 with a minimum order of 5000 pieces shipped to Cincinnati including taxes & tariffs. (what we refer to as the “Landed” price)
While I’m waiting for the second run samples to come back from China I’ll take this pricing information and plug it into the pricing worksheet (http://inventoropinion.blogspot.com/2009/05/you-do-math.html) to see if we can make any money on this product - if our landed is $1.32 and we think the consumer will pay $4.99 full retail.
What do you come up with? ….we’ve already designed it, we’ve already had the factory make samples – but can we make any money on it? And ultimately should we give this product a “GO” or a “NO GO” ?
