Does discontinuing a fragrance hurt business

[summerbug]

I have been wondering what to do with this issue for awhile now and thought who better to help me out than the board!

One of my suppliers has "disappeared", gone out of business, skipped to Mexico or something! Her website is still up but no one is receiving any orders, she's not returning e-mails or phone calls. Several people even have pending lawsuits against her. This has been going on for several months.

I buy my sugar cookie from her and it's my 3rd best seller. I have been testing like crazy to find a replacement and nothing even comes close. (I've found replacements for everything else).

Do I settle for a fo that smells different and just note it as a new formula? Or do I just discontinue it and hope that my other fragrances will pick up the slack in sales?

What would you do?:undecided

[Buttercup]

tell your customer that fragrance has been discontinued, but you can offer her a similar fragrance. It has never hurt my sales when they were discontinued.

[mountainmadness]

I would find a replacement. If it wasn't a good seller I would probably just discontinue it but since there is a demand I would find another.

Ask the board what they suggest for a comparable scent. There are enough FOHO's here that have probably used the same scent from the same company and can offer suggestions.

A similar thing happened to me... not the whole supplier drama but two of my favorite scents were discontinued by a supplier. I eventually found replacements that I like better and actually sell better.

When and if you do change you can let your customers know that it has been reformulated.

Jennifer

[Raggedy Dani]

Bummer on that situation. BUT I gotta tell you that Just Scents has the best Santa's treat I think it's called. Very strong sugar cookies scent. I love it.

It may be more better than what you had before.

HTH

Dani

[summerbug]

Thanks for the feedback everyone! I will continue to test until I come up with something. I have already found good replacements for 5 of her FO. Now I am just needing Sugar Cookie, Birthday Cake, and Spiced Pear.

Back to the drawing board - thanks!

[bugtussle]

Try BCS Sissie's Sugar Cookie. It is the BEST. Carole

[Gravity]

Millcreek's Birthday Cake... is.... amazing. I just got done raving about it in my Millcreek thread a little bit ago.

[sudsnwicks]

I don't think it would hurt business. Because if there are other scents to choose from, the customer would simply find something else they like. As an example, I was a fan of victoria's secret's tranquil breezes. When they discontinued that, I found something else I liked - raspberry glace. When they discontinued that too, I switched to pear glace, and so on, you get the picture. By the way, if you are looking for a nice spiced pear, Peak's is really nice.

[jldorrington]

i've discontinued alot of scents cause they just weren't selling as well as others and the most we've gotten from people was ohh why are you getting rid of it, it smells so good .... in my mind i'm thinking "are you gonna buy it? no? ok thats why were getting rid of it" people usually find something they like even better