Behind the Scenes – When you think you're doing everything right, and then—boom…

The Bleuet fabric really took us by surprise! Here, we’ll give you a behind-the-scenes look at what happened at Majam when the collection was released, the decisions we made, and the stories that followed.

On April 6, 2023, at 6:00 p.m., the gong sounded to mark the launch of our new collection. And ever since, we’ve gone from one surprise to the next with our Bleuet fabric…

To give you some background, at Majam we create fabrics—mostly for our limited-edition collections—and we always try to estimate the right quantities. The fabrics are delivered in rolls from textile mills, and we then cut them to create our various kits (sizes 34–48 and 46–58) as well as to sell fabric by the yard on our website. Upon receiving the rolls, we cut the fabrics in advance and then list them on our website based on the stock we’ve cut. 📋

For our new Spring Time collection, we made two decisions:

• Do not cut all the rolls of Bleuet fabric so that you have some in stock
• Set unlimited inventory on the website for products containing blueberries.

Our goal in doing this was to let you order whatever you wanted, figuring that we’d have more than enough to supply all our customers at the preview, and that we’d figure things out later.

But first, why was this decision made?

In each of our previous collections, certain fabrics would sell out in some sizes or kits while ending up in surplus in others, which left customers disappointed and left us with excess inventory… In other words, everyone lost out. 😓

You might be thinking, “Hey, Majam, come up with some statistics!” Yes, that’s true, but as of now, we still can’t predict what you’ll like. Our company is still too small to have reliable statistics on this. (But we’ll get there 💪)

So this time, we decided not to cut all the rolls in advance, so we could see what you'd like, and then cut the rest of the rolls according to your preferences over the next few days.

Up to that point, the idea was good, but what we didn’t anticipate at all was that all the pre-order requests for the spring collection would be for the Bleuet fabric! 😵😵😵
So we weren’t able to readjust our inventory as we’d hoped to do after a day or two of orders to make sure you could get what you really wanted… Within a few hours, it was all gone—we’d sold our entire stock of fabric. But at the time, we didn’t realize it because the fabric was still uncut on rolls, and our customers could keep ordering since the inventory was listed as unlimited…

The next day, when we started preparing our orders and doing our checks, we began to realize there was a problem, so we immediately called our supplier to rush another production run. He did everything he could to deliver the fabric to us as quickly as possible. We were supposed to receive the fabric this week—the week of April 17. We’re saved!👼👼👼

We posted a note on the website so that customers placing orders would know they would receive the fabric at a later date when they placed their order. New customers were therefore placing their orders with full knowledge of the situation, but those who ordered during the pre-release weren't…

Among our customers who placed orders during the pre-release, a number of them requested that their orders be delivered at the same time as their box (this is a perk for our box subscribers). The boxes will be shipped on April 24 and 25.
We ran the numbers—the timing worked out—so we reorganized the entire team’s workflow to receive the fabric, cut everything specifically for those customers, and ship their Bleuet fabric along with their boxes, just as they’d requested.
It was a roller coaster ride and a lot of work, but everything seemed to be falling into place. 😊

But here’s the thing: we were told today (April 20) that the fabric won’t be delivered this week after all, but rather by the end of next week. I don’t blame our supplier, because I know their normal production lead time is three weeks; they tried to speed things up for us, but between the holidays and vacation time, they ultimately couldn’t deliver any sooner… Unfortunately…

We wondered what to do, and in the end we decided to ship partial orders so our customers wouldn’t have to wait too long. 🦄 Abracadabra—we reorganized and took the necessary steps to ship all the packages without the Bleuet fabric.
Once we receive the fabric, we’ll prepare the rest of the orders and send them in a second shipment. We’ll be honest—we’re disappointed and wish we could have provided better service, but we also know we did our best given the circumstances.

We wanted to do the right thing to avoid the frustrations of previous collections by proceeding this way, but we didn’t anticipate such a high volume of orders for a single product. Now we’re focusing on what matters most:

• We've managed to create a product that you love and that makes you want to sew 🤩🤩🤩
• Learn, test, and keep improving by looking for better solutions! 😁

There you go—now you know all about our adventures! See you soon for the next episodes 💙