I don’t mind them, and for indie brands, it is sometimes easier to go in knowing that you won’t get it for awhile but you’ve locked in your place. I’d rather not have to get up in the middle of the night for a launch! I do think it’s important to try not to take on “too much,” and still make the quantity for a pre-order viable to turnaround in a reasonable time frame.
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I don’t mind preorders at all, as long as reasonable expectations are placed and honest timelines and updates are given.
I was apart of a palette preorder back in October; the initial preorder sold out so fast the brand decided to do a rolling preorder, which turned in to a disaster. The customers were told that the stock would be ready to ship about a week after preorder; no one’s palette was shipped within the timeframe that was told to us, but were fed a lot of excuses… I waited around for a month with no word and no shipment and finally canceled my order. It was very frustrating.
On the other hand, I’ve also had great experiences with preorders, from Clionadh specifically. They always seem to have a great grasp on their timeline for shipping out orders and are completely transparent with updates or if something happened to delay shipment. Great experience with them all around.
If its the preorder Im thinking of I also preordered it. The brand would have been better off not doing the ongoing preorder and just saying they didnt expect so much interest and would do a second release at a later date. Better to deal with some disappointed people now than so many angry people over such a long period of time.
Never bothered with it and never will.
My experience with preorders, in general, has been disastrous so I’m not a fan.
If it’s a band I trust in quality and customer service, I don’t mind at all. Never have, but I would be open to.
Have done it once and not sure I will do it again.
I don’t have issues with them. They should be helpful to indie brands for managing fulfillment and the expectation of something nice coming to me down the road is very nice, sort of like waiting for a planned vacation to start.
I’m ok with it, as it’s a guaranteed item. But I’m also not one to have to be on site at a certain time. I’m more of a “pre-order between ‘this date and this date'” kind of gal.
Having said that…..I honestly can’t remember the last thing I preordered. Well, makeup-wise. Unless gaming systems count then it was just at the end of last year.
I lean positive toward pre-orders, unless they sell out super fast as well or only bundles are offered. That just ends up super disappointing. I can’t for the life of me figure out how to ever order what I want from Devinah Cosmetics for this reason.
I don’t mind them if the ship in 1-2 weeks but like Clionadh HELL NO. Half a year is ridiculous.
I’m somewhere in the middle…
On one side I think pre-orders are the most efficient solution. Brands can manufacture the amount of products needed, no waste created by the extra inventory, no issues with not having enough items for people who want the product.
On the other side, it’s quite iffy to put your trust that the product will actually be produced (especially with new brands, but issues can always occur even for bigger brands due to problems with suppliers, factories, etc.).
I personally don’t do ‘pre-orders’ myself, but rather wait for the product to launch at an online retailers.
Nothing I have ever really wanted has sold out that fast.
It’s not a horrible idea. It might even make it easier to actually get a special LE item that one knows is going to sell like hotcakes!
I’ve done one pre-order and that was Clionadh, it was okay, but while you’re waiting for the order to come you see other items that you want and then wish that you ordered a different color etc. I don’t think I would do it again. I love my products from Clionadh though!
Love the policy. Wish Sydney Grace was taking pre-orders for your collab. I emailed to find out if they were and was told no. I would think it would help them to know how much to produce.
Hey Shari,
What takes the longest to get is packaging, since it is manufactured by a third party and has to be shipped overseas, so a pre-order would end up taking 2-3 months to deliver if it was setup like that. They’ve ordered a ton of empty packaging for the launch in advance, and this will allow them to fill a lot of them, allow for sales, and if it sells out, they can get a restock going with the remaining packaging + place a new order for additional packaging if necessary. I would really be surprised if it sold through that quickly!
I think preorders can be a great option for smaller brands. As a consumer in general, I am wary of preorders for products that have not been released or reviewed yet or for companies without a history of timely fulfillment. There are a lot of people who have ended up with video games that might as well still be in alpha testing at release!
I have done it once and I think in the future I will be more careful on which companies I choose to do a preorder. I did a preorder on December 20, 2020 with Clionadh and I made sure my items were standard order, not a preorder. I did this because Clionadh had said in their email “Right now, we are anticipating to be shipping non-preorder sale purchases all throughout January and into February. Preorders will start shipping late February.”. I thought ok, I’ll place the order in December and have it late January, early February, no worries. However, it’s the last day of February and I still don’t have my order. I feel bad for those that had true preorders because their orders won’t even start shipping until March. Clionadh sent me a your order has shipped email on Friday the 26th, but the expected delivery date is March 8th. I don’t expect to receive it even then because of the shipping delays associated with COVID and the bad weather. I feel like this is truly a case of taking on too much. Also, I feel like you shouldn’t keep taking orders, if you can’t keep to your time frames.
I have been looking at Terra Moons. Their products look amazing. I believe they’re based in Tampa. I live about 45 minutes outside of Tampa, so hopefully, the ship/delivery time wouldn’t be as long as waiting for an order to come from Canada. Anyone have success with Terra Moons, as regards to a preorder?