Refresh PornNewz for the latest stories!

PornNewz Goes out to Stores, Distributors and Interweb Nuts all over the freakin' place!!
Our advertising team visits stores around the country everyday!!

The old cliche is that the numbers don’t lie. The adult retail business should be all about the numbers. You’re running a business, and you live and die by the numbers. So let’s look at some numbers.

Each week there are a little under 100 releases from adult studios (minus comps and catalog). According to IVD (the leading distributor), the average price for those 100 titles is a little above $16. So if you wanted to carry those 100 titles every week you’d be looking at spending $1600 each week, which adds up to over $6000 per month. To make your profit you’d need to do about $5000/week in sales. (I subscribe to the ‘3times’ mentality…1 time to cover the cost of goods, 1 time to cover the overhead, and 1 time to make the profit that enables you to expand, advertise, etc.). If you derived 50% of your sales from rentals and 50% from sales, you’d need to have about 800 movie-night rentals per week @ $3 and sell about 80 movies per week @ $30. Now of course you will make more money with novelties, magazines and sell-through…but what I’m trying to convey is that trying to carry everything from everyone might be a little unrealistic. That’s why buyers have become more discriminating in what they stock on their adult shelves. However, many have went in the wrong direction. They use the quantity over quality mentality and buy simply the cheapest “New Releases” available. The problem is that those DVDs aren’t the good ones. So, while you may have saved money, you now have a unit of inventory that no one wants, and that will be played out immediately. You should also question why that title is so cheap. Chances are it doesn’t involve new footage, and doesn’t use the top talent, directors and action. Another old adage comes to mind: “You get what you pay for”.

Here’s a chilling reality that few people think about. Go look at all the movies on your shelves. You got a nice section of some studios built up right? You got that deal from them for a bunch of “new” titles for $3 and you made a big section hoping your customers would eat it up. Well instead of looking at your inventory as what you got…think of it as….what is left. That’s right. Everything on your shelf is stuff that hasn’t sold. Unless you just recently stocked it, it’s leftovers. The demand for it is only going to diminish. If it’s still priced the same as this week’s releases, there’s no way most of them are going to compete.

But you had titles that sold. They sold the first week you put them out. They were out on rent for weeks then some guy bought it. Where’s that title now? Would it still sell if it were out there? Maybe. Maybe not. But you’ll never know. Maybe the next time that company releases a title you should order 2 or 3 copies. They’ll all rent enough to make your money back, and then they’ll sell out. That’s a winning formula. So why is it I see stores that say…”Oh yeah Hush Hush…they sell out as soon as I get them”. Then order more, silly!

If you mosey on down to Austin, Texas and go to any Dreamers store, you’ll see the owner posts his stores 3 principles. They are posted for everyone to see, customers and employees. They are:

  1. Bring in the new. (New titles, new prices, new products and new customers)
  2. Replace what moves. (If it’s popular and is in demand, keep riding that horse)
  3. Discount what doesn’t move to make room and pay for the new. (Discount the price as time goes on to ensure you get rid of that product)

Pretty simple, but incredibly effective. It’s no wonder that these stores are the single best adult retail stores I’ve ever seen. This company should be the model that all other adult stores strive to be. From the top down, this is a top notch organization that just does everything right.

A lot of stores do some things right, and some stores do a lot of things right. But one area where I’m constantly amazed is how little effort seems to be put into really analyzing the numbers. I know some people don’t like crunching numbers but if that’s the case you shouldn’t be a buyer. You should be a stat junkie who’s constantly trying to analyze your data, detect trends and make adjustments. You should be picky, but be smart about being picky. Carry just the top notch titles, they will be the ones that will be constant money makers. Reorder those titles that keep getting rented or bought. Restock best sellers every week. Mark down that stuff no one wants until you find a price where it will move. That’s retail.

It’s tempting to see the adult industry through the wrong lens. If your focus is on titties, ass and hot chicks…you are doing it wrong. You should see every DVD as a widget…some more valuable than others. I remember when I was a buyer and being super excited when I negotiated a great deal on a top line of transsexual titles. I have zero interest myself in transsexuals, but I knew that this was a top line, that my customers would love it and appreciate it, and the proof would be in the sales. I tracked the sales and immediately saw the results to be even better than I projected. This is the approach you must take as a buyer. If you are selective about what you carry, smart about the price you carry it for, and take the time to see the product all the way through the retail cycle, you will see the results you want.


Comments

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Our Title

Our Sponsor

Sponsor Links

Clickable version of PornNewz newzletter!!

To advertise with us: