Buyers Questions...Answered

Thanks to the ladies over at BijouCo, we got a list of questions for our team of experienced buyers. You may have noticed to the right, we have clickable tabs for "Requests", "Ask The Buyers", and "Ask The Designers". If you have any question that you would like for us to discuss in our eBay group and blog about, feel free to send it in. No matter what the question is, it will be listed. You can remain anonymous too. So here is the first one we got, and as we get more we will answer more at a time:

What prompts you to be a repeat buyer from one designer?

We all agreed that Quality, Communication, and Turn-Around Time are probably the most important.

Also mentioned were good quality blanks (like tees, jeans, etc.), good packaging (also meaning that the garment doesn't arrive to you smelling, or badly in need of ironing), resell value, and the designers style. Also, for communication, we tend to buy more from designers that we have formed a friendship/relationship with. Not that it is necessary in order to get our business, it just seems that when we are in need of a custom, we might turn to our "friends" first.

So this question got me thinking of the exact opposite...What would make you stop buying from a designer? Here is the response I got:

Turn-Around Time OVER 6 weeks. IMO, 6 weeks is the very longest I think buyers should wait for a custom, no matter how detailed.

Poor Construction and Bad Customer Service are also big. Here is an example of something that happened that I think is bad customer service:

You win an auction at a certain price, and then the designer offers it in their store for the same price with a Best Offer feature. Obviously another buyer will give them an offer and end up getting it at less then you bought it for in auction. This might not be customer service, but it does make the customer feel as if they got ripped off a little, and also like they aren't as important as a bidder.

Okay, thanks for reading and sending us those questions! More answered next Friday!