I’ve always had the ‘entrepreneurial’ spirit. I remember, being 9 years old, going down to the local pottery shop and buying a dozen un-kilned coffee mugs. I drew cartoons on them (I was a wanna-be cartoonist back in the day) and brought them back to the pottery shop to have them Kilned (baked).
I’d eventually take them into my local police department or church … and sell them. I did sell a few, But I never really made a profit. The price of the actual mugs, the kilning and paint all cost much more than what I made from sales. This is the same dilemma I have in the retail world. I’ve been selling my own logo design software product in retail stores such as Fry’s Electronics and Office Depot for a few years now.
Each box will cost (roughly) $3.00 (USDollars) to design. This includes the actual box, the CD inside, the sleeve the CD is put into, burning the CD and putting in the cardboard to make the box thicker.
To design the artwork of the box, You can hire a designer. If you’re really bold, you can find one on the web. Companies like eLance.com allow you to pick and choose designers. An artist could potentially somewhere around $3,500 to $8,000 to create the artwork for the software box! Something to keep in mind, You’ll spend roughly $3,000 for 1000 boxes.
Most times, 1,000 is the smallest amount you’ll be able to print. This can really add up when a large chain (Office Depot for instance has 1200 stores nation wide). Each store may want a minimum of 5 boxes on the shelf. That’s 6,000 boxes. At $3 a pop!).
Then, you have something called “Shelf Space” to deal with.
Not all fo them, but most retail chains like you to buy this shelf space.
Sometimes, shelf space can go as high as $5,000 for one product! You need to sell a boat load of software to make up this 5k. Then, the retail chain takes it’s cut. Sometimes up to 10% …It can all get a bit nutts.
The Internet vs. Retail
This is why the internet is so terrific. NO overhead other than your time. (I use external eCommerce companies to handle my shopping cart system. They take 20% of my monthly sales. …but it’s WELL worth it I must say).
This is the great thing about creating downloadable software – or anything you can create once and sell a thousand times. An eBook for example. The Retail world used to be king, but I’m putting my money into the web.
It’s harder to market yourself on the net beign that there’s so much competition. However, that’s where your Search Engine Marketing comes in. But that’s a topic for a another article.
Marc Sylvester – Owner and operator of Laughingbird Software. Come find out more about The Logo Creator – logo design software for Mac and Windows!
This entry was posted on Monday, March 1st, 2010 at 3:06 am and is filed under Web Design. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.