by Brigette Mashile
In 2021 I made a decision to go retail. I have been thinking about this for maybe a 100 years LOL! In line with my creative procrastination talent, I think and ponder and wonder and eventually go in scared. After this decision I had to decide how; I then approached my options and received 2 yesses. So now, we are mainly online with Shopify and Zando. This sound easy right, like just two more sales channels. Alas, my brain has been fried with set up on both platforms, it took 4 – 6 weeks to complete the set up. Even with help!
One area I want to go into is all the payment options I now have to deal with due to having new sales channels:
CUSTOM ORDER
Cash, Card, and Bank payments
Cash is king but highly risky in custom orders. If you price an item on the spot and accept a cash or card payment, you better be sure of your pricing. The process should be clear from calculator to your brain, so that you don’t under price. Especially for items you are still to find the fabric for, or are still to confirm the prices for. Clients don’t appreciate prices changing after paying a deposit.
Cash payments are also risky as YOU have to go deposit it yourself into the business account. The trip from your workspace to the bank is the longest ever, you will be tempted to get petrol, buy a milkshake, or wait, we need bread today!!! You have to be disciplined. And the trip is another cost to you.
Card payments are best, the money is in your account immediately. Of course, you need a POS machine (a cost), and you will pay a fee for this service. We have a YOCO, it is compact and works; plus has an app that allows you to do more like sending payment links. The payment links do take 2-3 days for the money to be cleared though.
Bank payments (EFT) give the power, effort, and responsibility to the client. Your work as a businessperson is giving the correct account number to the client; and on some busy days this is hard! LOL.
PayPal
This one is the one that will allow you to receive dollars! And yes, I’ve had an account for years but never used it. Well, this year someone found me and decided they wanted a dress from ROKA ROKO. This one took maybe a day or two to confirm my personal details etc. It is way simpler for clients to pay on this one, and the money is in immediately.
The trick; is getting the money out of PayPal into your South African bank account. I should mention that you can also have bank payments for foreign currencies; the list of what is needed is a bit longer though and gave me a headache. After winning with the client paying on her side, I was hit with a surprise with the process to transfer the money into my account. The best and easiest (not so easy to do though) was to get a bank account, sit with the bank consultant, link it to PayPal and transfer. No, it is not as easy as I am writing, LOL, its harder if you are like me with technology. The other thing to keep in mind is every time the money is moved; it is moved at the current exchange rate at that time. And yes, there is a PayPal and bank fee. I like PAYPAL. I will keep it going forward.
RETAIL
Online – PAYFAST
I have had a Shopify account for a few years, I just never let it work for me. Here we are in 2022 and I am giving it a chance and myself a go at it. Setting up Payfast is made easy on Shopify, but yes you need some technology knowledge to navigate. For me, I had to activate it and pay an amount for this. Payfast is the 3rd party or middleman between me and Shopify. Please note there are other payment options on Shopify, I just settled on this one.
Payfast gives you an account; the money goes into this account when paid by the customer on Shopify. It will take a day or 2 to show up in the Payfast account, then a day to allow you to transfer it into your bank account; and another 2 days to show up in your Business Bank Account! So, in total, 4-5 days; which is not in line with my 5-7 days delivery promise. This means I need to start the item before I receive the money; risky yes, building a trusted brand? YES.
Online: Zando
This is the newest one to me. The agreement is simple; the money goes into the wallet we have on Zando; and the money can be paid out every month. This is the winner for me. If you look at a lot of my writing about money, I talk a lot about needing a way to have income come in at the same time in a month to cover expenses better. I talk a lot about the fact that we make money, but it is scattered over the month! This messes up with everything. In real life bills are paid at one time in a month, not every minute. You miss a payment today, tomorrow you are in arrears!
We are yet to receive our first payment from Zando. This will be at minus the fee we pay to Zando and the delivery they handle for us. Please keep in mind that this means we are making dresses as per orders we receive every day with cashflow we have, not from these sales. This means you need to have money to start this sales channel. Luckily it is not exorbitant as we are still building traffic to our product; unless your items are selling like hot cakes!
Please note all these can be used how your business needs to; and there are other options available. Also, there are other features I am yet to discover on each; this is what I have experienced in the 3 months of 2022. I believe in sharing knowledge to help others as we go. These ways are the ones that are working for us so far, who knows maybe this will open other option others know of. These are also safe so far as we all know digital and financial crimes are rife worldwide.
This piece is to help people who are considering other ways of selling, without the big words on the internet. Written by a 36-year-old, sitting in a coffee shop trying to sell as many dresses as she can. I am not employed by any of these organizations and have no financial nor digital training; just roaming on a laptop attempting them right has gained me this much knowledge. I think its that stubbornness I have; using it to WIN!
Brigette Mashile is the founder and creative force behind Roka Roko, a custom fashion design business based in Johannesburg, South Africa. The company passionately delivers quality tailored and trendy fashion to make their customers happy, and specializes in styling women by creating unusual combinations with fabric, culture and style. Brigette has a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Witwatersrand and a Fashion Diploma from Studio5 School of Fashion. She’s a former fashion buyer for a major retailer in South Africa, and an international direct selling company. She’s been passionate about fashion since the age of 10 and gained invaluable experience in the fashion world running informal fashion creation businesses until the day her own Roka Roko brand was born. Find out more by visiting the Roka Roko website www.rokaroko.co.za
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