Preorder step by step
Preorder. A wild animal? A term for professionals? A reward? Something unique, available only to few? Or maybe something else? This magic word emerges from time to time in bebywearing groups, at lives ... What exactly is it? Let’s get to know a preorder step by step! In this article we will deal with LennyLamb preorders. Most often in preorders we make wraps so this is what we will discuss, but if the material has the right parameters, it can be a whole range of products available just like in the regular offer.
Who needs a preorder?
In short, the preorder is a unique meeting between the manufacturer and a group of interested customers, a kind of group order, but not a ready product, but the one that is just about to be created - which is important - as a result of cooperation. It differs from standard orders in its limited availability, and the customers often participate in the process of creating. Additional attraction is that all copies may be numbered. For people who like unique items it is an important message - if you meet the same wrap on the street, you don’t feel irritation but the thread of agreement and you certainly will not walk right past him or her indifferently.
From a formal point of view
Preorder is an order paid before the product is made. This is a common rule applied by all companies that perform personalized orders. At LennyLamb, we divide the purchase into two installments and ask for payment of the first one before we order the yarns (most often luxurious blends) needed to make the material.
Pattern - I've seen you somewhere
Most often, the preorder is based on the well-known and popular LennyLamb pattern in which someone noticed some new potential. But we all know that the pattern is only a part of the wrap. That's why when the design is chosen - be it by the producer or by the client, it's time for the next stage. Sometimes there are several designs in the pool and discussion is taking place simultaneously. To an inexperienced person at this stage it will be very difficult to get the impression that he is keeping up with developments. This stage is a bit like tracking several monitors at once at an emergency staff meeting.
A guide for yarn - how to get into the big world being a small spool;)
You must try to break through, and it’s easiest when you belong to an exclusive club of wool and silks. If you are cotton, try to have a beautiful, unique colour, necessarily matching the season in which you are to appear. And if you're white or black ... well - count on getting into the warp. And now seriously: from the customer's point of view the preorder is attractive because it can affect not only the model, but also the remaining parameters of the fabric - colour, composition, thickness. It's possible to fantasise, and maybe even make dreams come true. It is easier in a group of several dozen people than in the case of a pattern addressed to several thousand recipients. The greatest emotions arise on both sides of the monitor as far as blends go, i.e. yarns enriching cotton, ennobling it. They can be: linen, silk, wool (eg merino, cashmere, angora, alpaca). They are so great that one would like to put them in the fabric all at once, but they are just like spices - if you add to the dish all you have in the drawer, you will not only be unimpressed, but you can predict with a high degree of probability, that it will be inedible. That's why in LennyLamb we have technologists - experienced "chefs" who enter the action when all the invented ingredients are collected and respond to them with the language of the concrets - what is possible and what the effect there will be.
Simulation - graphic designers in action
Stories are stories, but if we are to believe them, words, impressions and dreams will become concrete can only when translated by graphic designers. If you happen to listen how they consult and argue, you might think that it is some forgotten poets society. Well, but if you think about it, it truly takes a poet to put the word on the picture. Simulations, of course, do not reflect perfectly how the material will look, they are always burdened with a smaller or larger margin of error, but this is the charm of the preorder, it is a kind of trip into the unknown.
Elections - the first round
At this stage, the parallel process of creating a preorder Facebook group reaches development peak. If so, then it's time to present the simulation and vote. This is a very difficult stage for at least several reasons:
it is not possible for the simulation to accurately reflect the discussion, because firstly it is always a compromise, a version, variation; secondly, it is a transitional stage between imagination and fabric - already material, but two-dimensional
every interested person is strongly attached to his/her vision which means that choosing one only is difficult first, secondly, when democracy works and the majority selects the winner, "losers" do not always share the admiration of the conquerors and it happens that at this stage they give up and quit.
I say check - second round
The pattern’s chosen, bluffing’s over. If it is technically possible, we make a sample on the real material. Simulations or photos of the samples go to the aforementioned facebook preorder group and are followed by the order form. Only now you can order a wrap (or other product if it is available on the form).
Stay calm if you can :)
The time from placing the form to closing it is quite nervous for both sides. Bringing the preorder to this place is a very complicated and laborious process for the company. For the customer, placing the form seems to be synonymous with the order, but it is not always the case. At LennyLamb, we weave the material if 50 meters are collected. If for some reason it fails, then the preorder will not see the daylight and, despite the huge contribution of work on both sides, will go to frozen ideas.
Almost the finish line (but only almost);)
After closing the order form, we ask customers to pay 50% of the order value and at the same time we order the necessary yarns. We do not refund this fee if you change your mind, because it is a personalized order and as such does not end up in a permanent offer. A working solution for people who want to cancel an order for some reason is the invoice sale, usually in the preorder group.
Waiting time
The preorder, unlike the regular purchase from the manufacturer or on the secondary market, differs also in the fact, that you have to wait for the ordered product. This is because the material is woven only when a group of orders gathers. Sometimes waiting for the rare yarns can extend the waiting period considerably. In extreme cases it can be even a dozen or so weeks.
They lived happily ever after
When we weave the material, customers are asked to pay the second part of the invoice. We sew, we send. And this is the end. For us. The wrap heads into the world. We regret that sometimes it does not come back to tell us its story.