B U S I N E S S M O D E L

Having already intoduced my business and how I am using it to base my FMP around, I thought it would be necessary to expand on this by looking at my business model.

To begin with, similar to every other business, I have expenses, and I have to add that into the cost of the clothes I sell, for example, when sourcing my stock, I generally have to pay out a lot for the stock itself, for shipping if sourcing internationally and customs duty tax if what I pay is above the minimum threshold to have to pay customs.

Starting a business in a competitive market is tricky as I need to identify how I can stand out to my competitors. At the moment, I am looking into the possibility of lowering my price point for each item, but in order to do this, I need to find a way to source cheaply. The reason why I think price reduction could work for increasing sales is because Depop especially, is known for being expensive because the majority of resellers on the platform are charging minimum prices of about £40, and most young people don’t have that kind of money, which is why a lot of them turn to Vinted as that is known as a cheaper alternative to resale. As I am starting out with my business, I am looking for a quick turnover and so, my prices currently, I believe reflect that considering the fact that I have expenses when sourcing overseas.

A business model in simple terms can be defined as a business plan for making a profit. Once I factor in all of my expenses and the cost of the stock itself, I can work out how much profit I can make, I usually do this by working out how much I paid out in total and then work out, if I was to sell this stock for £20 an item, how much profit would I make after I make the money back that I paid out. Moving forwards after university, my intention is to identify a niche and how I can bring in more traffic and create appeal to my brand.

Aswell as looking at profit and expenses, I also factor in the clothes I source. For example, I make sure to work with a supplier that provides handpick services so that I can examine each item and determine whether I could sell that piece, and how much I could sell it for. My Italian supplier of which offers this service is a supplier that I keep going back to, as from previous experience, I know that the quality and rarity of their vintage 2000s pieces is unmatched to any of my other suppliers. However, they tend to charge more for each individual item which means that the price that I list the item for, has to go up.

Referring back to my FMP, I intend to take my approach to sourcing stock into sourcing clothes for the photoshoot, this approach of handpicking the best of the best for my customers. I want my customers to buy into investment pieces and so, I always try to ensure I am sourcing good quality vintage clothes - I will never accept a fast fashion label.

Moving onto the marketing aspect of my business, since I started out, I have stuck to promoting solely on TikTok as it is easier for gaining more reach and bringing in more traffic. I don’t have many followers and I don’t get thousands of views but making the TikToks has made a difference and has definitely brought in new audiences. If I have had a recent stock delivery, my content plan usually consists of posting previews of stock drops, this creates demand for the products and brings customers in before the drop has even launched, so in that sense, TikTok is a very useful tool. When I take on my business full time, it is my intention to build up my following on TikTok and create a community of new and returning customers.

As mentioned before, my idea for my FMP is not something I will be physically putting into practice, as it is just a trial to see how I could introduce size inclusivity into my business in the future. Therefore, I want to keep my social media campaign seperate to my TikTok as it will confuse my customers seen as I will be posting my usual content for my business. I have created an Instagram account for my business which is where the social media campaign and all of my FMP work will be exhibited. I also believe that instagram is more of a solid platform for engaging with a new audience and for exhibiting a social media campaign. As for promoting my products that I sell, TikTok is more easily accessible for gaining traction to my stock drops and increasing sales. However, for the social media campaign, I am not promoting a product, I am instead trialling an idea for my business, therefore, Instagram would be the more suitable platform to exhibit this on.