Running a Limited Run to Test Demand

A test run only teaches you something if you change one variable at a time and decide in advance what result would make you reprint. Twenty pieces is enough to test a design. It is not enough to test a design, a garment, a colour and a price simultaneously, which is what most first runs accidentally do.

Be Clear What You Are Testing

Write down the question before you place the order. "Will people buy this design" is a real question. "Will merch work for us" is not, because there is no result that answers it. If the run sells out you will not know whether that was the design, the audience being generous at launch, or the fact that you only made twenty.

The most useful first question is usually about the design, because the design is the thing you are least certain about and the thing that is cheapest to change. Garment and colour choices can be made conservatively for the test and revisited later.

One Variable at a Time

If you want to compare two designs, print both on the same garment, in the same colour, at the same price, and put them side by side. If you want to compare two garments, use the same design on both. The moment you print design A on a heavy hoodie and design B on a light tee, you have learned something about the weather and nothing about the designs.

There is a cost to this discipline. Testing two designs across one run means splitting your quantity, and split quantities give you noisier results. That is an acceptable trade when the alternative is a clean result that means nothing.

The Size Spread Is the Real Data

Almost everybody records how many pieces sold and almost nobody records which sizes. That is backwards. Total units tell you whether the design worked. The size distribution tells you how to place the next order, and it is the single piece of information that will save you money for years.

Because the minimum is twenty pieces per order with sizes mixed freely, you are not forced into an even spread. You can order the curve your first run actually sold. Keep the record somewhere permanent, not in a message thread.

• Log every sale by size, not just by design, from the first order onwards.
• Note the date each size sold out, because a size that went in three days was underordered.
• Record what people asked for and could not get, including sizes you did not stock at all.
• Separate pre orders from stock sales, since pre orders reflect intent and stock sales reflect impulse.
• Keep the leftovers list, because unsold sizes are as instructive as sold ones.

Decide the Stop Rule Before You Print

Agree with yourself, or the committee, what counts as a pass. Something like: if it clears within six weeks, we reprint with a corrected size curve. If it takes longer than three months, we do not. Writing that down beforehand is the only defence against the very human tendency to reinterpret a mediocre result as encouraging once you have grown fond of the design.

Set a fail rule as well, and make it something you would actually act on.

“"Selling out is not a result. Selling out in nine days and selling out in nine months are different businesses."”

Limited Edition Is a Promise, Not a Tactic

Calling a run limited edition does create urgency, and it works. It also commits you. If you print a second batch of something you told people would never be reprinted, the people most annoyed will be your best customers, and they will remember. That is a real cost that is easy to ignore at the point of sale.

If you might reprint, call it a first run, or number the batch rather than the design. Both create the same sense of a moment without closing a door you may want open.

Pre Order or Print and Hope

A pre order removes almost all the risk from a test but changes what you are measuring. People commit money and then wait, which filters out impulse buyers and gives you a cleaner read on genuine intent. Printing first and selling from stock captures impulse and gives you a better read on how the design performs to people who see it cold.

Neither is wrong. Just be honest about which one you ran when you interpret the numbers, and remember production starts at artwork approval, so a pre order window needs to close early enough to leave room for it.

Reading the Result Without Flattering Yourself

Strip out the people who would have bought anything you made. Committee members, family, the ten regulars who always support you. What is left is the actual signal. If the run only cleared because of that group, you have learned that your core supports you, which is worth knowing but is not evidence of demand.

A test that fails cleanly is a good outcome. It cost you one small run and it stopped you from placing a much larger one.