Cheryl Entry #17

30th January 2019

Our group went to MOX parade from 25th to 27th January. Before turning up for the event, we had a lengthy discussion whether we should try out a new terrarium concept which was to let customers DIY on the spot.

Main Discussion

Is it possible to let customers customize everything from scratch?
- We would have to set up a station to let customers customize it by themselves and we do not have enough space on our given table. If we chose to implement the DIY concept, we would have to pay $52 for an additional table. Not to mention, allowing them to choose the plants and do re-potting on the spot would be messy, difficult to facilitate and risky if they do not do it properly.
Would customers pay more for just adding in coloured sand?
- Pricing is a key issue as we wondered how much customers would be willing to pay for customizing it on their own. We decided on $17 which is $2 more than our ready-made terrariums as it seemed like a reasonable price. They would be able to choose their figurines and add the coloured sands of their choice.
Would this take away sales from our ready-made terrariums?
- Since this is a completely new concept, we intended to target two different customer groups. Youths would likely be more receptive towards this while office-workers and those who prefer our ready-made designs would get that. In the case that the DIY concept fails, we could also make our terrariums on the spot.

There was heavy traffic at Sota. There were always people walking about from each sides and many stopped by to take a look at our terrariums and terracotta pots. On Day 1, we managed to sell our ready-made terrariums quickly within the first few hours of operation, many of them being office workers who worked in the vicinity.

Something that I realized was that our customers tend to be the people who inquired about our products, whereas those who just stood around to take a look were the ones who would walk away without saying anything, despite our attempts at engaging them.

The DIY station was well received, thankfully. Initially, we thought that this would be more popular among youths but most of our customers for this were children. Occasionally, there would be a couple of young adults who spent some time doing this, although not as many as children.

We usually threw in a few touch-up kits according to the colours used and parents seemed to be very appreciative of this. Many of them took this as a nice gesture and were glad that we offered this.

Key Takeaways

DIY stations should be continued at upcoming events if appropriate and it is especially popular among children
Sota is an event that we could go to again as it had a good mix of age groups that suited our products. The only drawback is that our location outdoors make us vulnerable to weather conditions. While indoor booths are available, after looking at the crowd at the Sota event we realized that indoor booths had smaller crowds which makes outdoor ones more suitable for us.

Issue with Pick-A-Plant

The biggest issue we had with this event was that our usual supplier had no new shipments of succulents. For over two weeks, Pick-A-Plant could not give us a definitive answer as to when their new shipment of plants would come in. This was surprising because they had been consistent with their shipment of plants over the past few months, bringing in new plants every Wednesday and informing us of it. We were told 'maybe next week' too many times and decided to go straight to the plant nursery to look at the succulents they had and to talk to them directly. When we went to the plant nursery and asked them about it, we were told that shipments were getting delayed because of Chinese New Year.

We had went down to the plant nursery to choose the best plants available, but the conditions of the plants were extremely bad. We spent close to an hour trying to find the best plants they had among racks of succulents and eventually gave up, picking the few plants in good condition.

By then we were tight on time and had to get the plants, so we turned to Hua Hng to get the remaining succulents. The price of one succulent in Pick-A-Plant is $1.20 compared to that of Hua Hng's of $2.50 as they do not offer any discounts for buying in bulk. While there are many other options such as Bloomart and Rabbit Island who offered bulk discounts, they needed an advance notice of at least two weeks which was time we did not have.

Even after MOX parade has ended, Pick-A-Plant still does not have any new shipments which is worrying. The worst part of this entire experience was that we were given no notice about the delayed shipments even though we have been regularly purchasing from them for the past 3 months. With their lack of consistency over the past month, we might have to change our suppliers now.

On the bright side, the plants we bought at Hua Hng were in great condition as we painstakingly picked out the plants one by one. It took a very long time because we were determined to get the best ones since they were double the price. For now, we will have to wait and see if the situation with Pick-A-Plant improves. Working backwards, if there is no shipment of plants three weeks before our next event then we will have to turn to other suppliers.

Hoping all works out!

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