By Ed Avis
Costume businesses need products to sell all year, not just at Halloween. Fortunately, new NCA Vendor Member Western Fashion offers a wide variety of costumes that sell in every season.
“In 2014 we started doing flapper dresses, and that was a big hit for us, so we slowly added more costumes in other categories, like gothic, pirate and Victorian,” says PJ Gupta, general mananger of Western Fashion. “And these costumes are good quality, not just one day use.”
Gupta, who is the youngest son of company founder Sam Gupta, says that many of the company’s costumes and accessories are ideal for festivals such as Coachella and Burning Man, as well as Renassaince festivals, Mardi Gras events, and raves. Other specialties of the company include fetish items, men’s costumes -- such as Victorian coats and top hats – and plus-size costumes. All of those products keep store cash registers ringing all year, not just at Halloween.
The company gets ideas for new costumes from social media and Pinterest and by attending festivals and events to see what’s popular, Gupta says. They have an in-house designer who creates some of the designs, and they use the design capabilities of of the factories they use. The company launches dozens of new products monthly, all of whch can be found in the New Items category on their home page, westernfashioninc.com.
Another profit opportunity for Western Fashion customers is the firm’s drop-ship capability. For example, an NCA member store can post info and images of products on their own website, and if a product sells, they email the order to Western Fashion and they drop ship it to the customer in packaging that identifies the store as the vendor.
“That way if a store is interested in an item but doesn’t want to stock it, they can sell it through their website and we’ll handle everything else,” Gupta explains. “Shipping is usually $4 to $6 and we ship within 24 hours.”
Stores looking for deals can search in the “Weekly Deals” tab on Western Fashion’s site, where products are half off. The company only sells wholesale, and there is no minimum order. And NCA members get free shipping.
When asked what sets Western Fashion apart from its competition, Gupta stresses three things: “We are a family business, so we take care of each customer personally. Second, we ship out orders within 24 hours and usually the same day. And third, we never have any quality problems; our customers are 100 percent satisfied.”