News

NEAFP Poll Question: “What is your average sales total per transaction?”
Results:
$0 to $20 : 11 %
$20 to $50 : 63 %
$50 to $100 : 17 %
Over $100 : 9%

Taking into account the average suggested retail of alpaca clothing and accessories, the majority of farms and retailers reporting in on this poll are selling on average 1 to 2 items per transaction. Farms and retailers can increase the amount of items sold per transaction, upping their average sales transaction, by utilizing the technique of Cross-Selling.

Cross-selling is the action or practice of selling additional products and services to an existing customer. Alpaca products are a great candidate for this sales method because the majority of items compliment each other and it's an easy leap from one product to the next.

Product Placement & Positioning

• Whether it is at the farmer's market, the retail store, or your online web store, complimentary products should be showcased together to help steer customers towards purchasing them both. Selling matching hat and scarf sets are a great way to increase the transaction amount per customer. Keeping them together in your retail presence is key. It's also a great idea to dress up a display or use a poster to showcase the items together on a model or mannequin. Anyone familiar with shopping at big box retailers or in catalogs can attest to the effectiveness of displaying items together as they would be worn by the potential customer. Seeing is believing!

• In your farm store's cashier area or online checkout page, offer your lowest cost items to people just about to check out. If you have ever purchased a pack of gum at the grocery store, this cross selling technique has successfully worked on you. Items like Boot Inserts, Felted Soaps, Bird Nesting Balls, and the like are all great examples of small, low priced items that are great additions to your customers shopping cart.

Incentives
In today's economy, most people are looking for incentives to help them pull the trigger on their next purchase. Offering special incentives based on # of products and overall sales total can help push your potential customers to spend more per transaction.

• • Free Shipping on Orders Over XYZ

    • Free shipping on online orders is a tried and trusted method of increasing total spent per customer. If your average sales transaction is $40, try setting the Free Shipping bar at $75 and watch as customers mix and match items to meet the sale requirements, increasing your average sales transaction. Be sure to monitor your shipping cost per each transaction to ensure it's positively helping your bottom line. Short time windows can help boost the call to action and increase the effectiveness of this type of incentive.

• • Buy 3 pair Socks, Get 4^th 30% OFF

    • By offering this type of incentive, the person is getting a better deal by purchasing more of a product they already want and could possibly purchase again in the future.

    • Socks are a great example:

Regular Price: 3 pair Socks @ $20 a piece = $60

30% off Incentive: 4 pair Socks @ $18.5 a piece: $74

You've successfully increased your sales transaction total without sacrificing much of your profit margin.

Bundle Up
By bundling up already complimentary items and offering a slight discount, more customers will likely purchase the set rather than the individual item. Almost all alpaca clothing and accessories can be bundled up together, here are some proven examples:

• • Sock and Boot Insert Set

    • When a customer is buying socks, offer a slight discount on boot inserts.

    • Regular Price: $20 per pair of Socks, $10 per pair of Inserts

    • Incentive: $20 per pair of socks, 10% off each pair of inserts bought with socks.

      • Customers will be more likely to purchase inserts along with their socks, bringing the transaction total up to $29 versus $20.

• • Hat and Scarf Sets

    • Offer a slight discount with Hat and Scarf sets to increase the likelihood they are purchased together.

• • • • Regular Price: $60 per Scarf, $40 per hat

      • Incentive: Save 10% when purchased together.

• • • Offer prepackaged sets or allow customers to mix and match from all styles to increase total sales transaction.

What all these cross selling examples have in common is that they offer complimentary products to an already interested customer. It's important to not overstep this boundary and mutual respect between you and the consumer. Your goal is to increase the transaction total for each customer but not at the cost of the entire business relationship. By offering a wide selection of products at varying price points and using these cross-selling techniques when it will benefit the customer and yourself, you will be increasing your average sales transaction without cutting into your profit margins.

To all that answered our last poll, Thank you much! Keep your eyes peeled for our next NEAFP Poll!

This month's NEAFP Note made it out the door just in time!

Topics Include: Shearing Weekend, Browse Products by Fiber Requirement, News Articles of Interest, and Upcoming Fiber Collections for the 2nd half of 2012!

View the NEAFP Note here: http://eepurl.com/lYZFb

or scan this QR Code with your mobile device:

Upcoming Fiber Collections for 2012

 Put your fiber to work without breaking the bank on shipping costs! We highly recommend you participate in one of our upcoming fiber collections to help increase your profit margins. We will haul your fiber back to our mill free of charge and get it into the manufacturing chain as quickly as possible. By far the most cost effective way to take advantage of our fiber pricing and pay below wholesale on our finished goods.

We also will deliver orders to shows for free! Just place your order online within a week of the show and let us know you'd like to pick it up.

Save the Dates!

EMPIRE Extravaganza Alpaca Show - October 12th to 14th
Syracuse, NY
http://www.empirealpacaassociation.com/extravaganza/

Green Mountain Alpaca Spectacular - October 21st and 22nd
Worcester, MA
http://www.nealpacaclassic.com/

VAOBA Expo - December 8th & 9th

Richmond, VA

http://vaobaexpo.com/

New Guide: Fiber Collection Guide

In 2011 the amount of fiber we collected at collections tripled from the previous year and we learned a lot along the way in handling the increase in volume. We want 2012's fiber collections to run as smooth as possible in order to quickly and accurately get everyone's fiber checked in to their fiber bank accounts. To do so, we sat down and put together this Fiber Collection Guide, it covers the most important aspects of participating in one of our fiber collections.

A must see for all alpaca farms planning on participating in one of this year's fiber collections!

Download: NEAFP Fiber Collection Guide (PDF)

We are excited to announce our latest project, the 2012 NEAFP Product Photoshoot!

Our goal was to showcase our alpaca products in action out in the wild. While brainstorming with the photographer about the look and feel of the shoot, we soon realized we are blessed to live in such a beautiful coastal New England town. We spent a few days with family and friends, setting up on several locations across our hometown, Westport, MA.

Locations ranged from Chris and Shelley's alpaca farm, Golden Touch Farm, to Horseneck Beach with many in between.

The combination of our amazing models, locations, photographer, and products has turned out to be a recipe for success. The New England heart and soul has been captured in this photoshoot, and we couldn't be happier with the finished results!

Keep your eyes peeled as these photos begin to creep up in our online product catalog.

In our cleaning adventures today we stumbled across a handful of High Calf Socks - Size Medium - with Red Bands that we would like to closeout. These socks are in perfect shape and come labeled, we just will no longer be offering them in the red color so stock up now!

Marked down over 40% with no fiber required! -> Grab them here

There has been an overwhelming response to our Spring Closeout announcement!

As of 4pm 3/26:

The Abnormal Mittens are now sold out.

The Abnormal Survival Socks are about halfway gone. We still have dozens in all 4 sizes but LARGE and X-Large are getting low. As we sell out of them in certain sizes we will be keeping this space updated with the latest info.

Thanks again!

We are happy to announce that our boot inserts are now available in Medium, Large, and X-Large.

We've listened to your feedback and believe these inserts will become even more popular with the new size offerings!

We wanted to let everyone know that our office and mill will be closed for a week starting on March 11th, 2012. All orders placed during this time will be processed and shipped out starting March 19th. All customer support inquiries will also be answered on 3/19/2012.

All orders placed before 3/10 that meet their requirements will be shipped out before our mill and office close so plan accordingly!

We've also updated our F.A.Q. page so if you are having a support issue double check that!

Head directly to the NEAFP Note: http://eepurl.com/i9WMj

This month's newsletter announces our upcoming Fiber Collections, the release of a new Fiber Collection Guide, and product improvement for 2012! Be sure to check it out and download our new Fiber Collection guide.

Head directly to the NEAFP Note: http://eepurl.com/i9WMj

We wanted to start off 2012 on the right foot with a brand new item, just in time for the frigid winter months!

We also will be running a fiber collection in Missouri this July, full details in the newsletter.

Read this month's NEAFP Note in it's entirety: http://eepurl.com/ij8qI

Or scan this QR Code:

Just as the frigid air moves it's way across the United States, we are happy to announce the latest addition to our product catalog. Our new Bouclé Lined Alpaca Mittens are sure to be a hit. We have combined a thick outer shell knit from our soft U.S. alpaca yarn with an ultra-fine bouclé style acrylic lining. The combination will keep hands warm and comfortable in a wide range of temperatures. Limited manufacturing run, sold in 6 packs while inventory lasts.

Available at both Fiber and Wholesale pricing!

It's the busiest time of year for everyone so we wanted to give a heads up on our current shipping time tables so you can plan accordingly when ordering.

Currently orders placed that meet their requirements are shipping in 1-2 days and our goal is to keep this pace through the upcoming holidays.

Here is a UPS Ground Time Table Map

Need your products for the holidays or an upcoming event? Let us know in "Customer Notes" at checkout and we will adjust shipping as needed.

Thanks again for another record breaking year. 2011 has proven to be the most exciting year to date for the U.S. alpaca fiber industry and we look forward to riding this wave of momentum right into 2012!

NEAFP's Mill & Office will be closed 12/24 through 12/27 and then again on 1/2/2012.

We just wanted to give everyone a heads up that NEAFP will be closed this Thursday and Friday, the 24th and 25th, for Thanksgiving.

Orders placed by 11am on Wednesday the 23rd that meet all their requirements will ship out that same day.

Thank you for your continued business and we hope you all have a safe and healthy Thanksgiving! We all have a tremendous amount to be thankful for!

Sale has ended! Thank you all!

It's time to stock up in preparation for the winter storm's on the horizon! We are pleased to announce our latest sale:

Before the Storm Sale!
November 1st through November 15th, 2011

Free UPS Ground Shipping on All Order's over $350
+ 10% OFF the Following Products:
    - Classic Watch Cap - Dozen
    - Ribbed Knit Scarves - Dozen
    - Camouflage Masks - Dozen

Qualifying items are already discounted in the product catalog for both fiber price and wholesale customers! Free Shipping will automatically appear in your shopping cart when your order qualifies!

During this time period we experience an extremely high volume of orders so please consider this when placing orders needed for upcoming events. If you need your products by a certain date, let us know in the 'Customer Notes' section at checkout so we can plan our order queue and adjust shipping as needed.

UPS Ground Timeframe Map

During this busy season we are taking about 2 to 3 days to get orders that meet all their requirements out the door. Use the above map from UPS to help plan your ordering out for the winter months.

Thank you for making this another record setting year! We look forward to servicing your needs in this upcoming busy season storm!

UPCOMING FIBER COLLECTION / ORDER DROP OFF

11/12 and 11/13 - New England Coastal Classic - Worcester, MA

We will have our booth setup showcasing our newest products and providing information to new and existing customers. Chris will also be giving a seminar on the current state of the U.S. Alpaca Industry and how New England alpaca farms can position themselves to benefit from it.

Free DELIVERY to the Show, just place your order a few days in advance and let us know in the Customer Notes section you plan on picking it up!

Here in New England the temperature and leaves are finally starting to fall. In this month's NEAFP Note newsletter we share the Farmer's Almanac Winter Forecast for the entire United States, as well as list out the upcoming fiber collections and how you can participate in them.

Head to this month's NEAFP Note now: http://eepurl.com/gvDRL