Ab/Dl Businesses

[Dirty Diaper/Maxipad Lover]

As far as diapers are concerned, I think people would appreciate a wide variety. What I like about ABUniverse's business model is that they supply commercial diapers as well as their own. What I would do is arrange products on a spectrum.

• Medical: Diapers for 24/7 use, severe/overnight incontinence protection etc.

• Active: Diapers that are for daytime use, moderate/heavy incontinence protection etc.

• Convenience: Diapers that are more underwear-like (i.e. "Pull-Ups," training pants)

• New Style: Diapers modeled after baby diapers from 1980-current

• Old Style: Diapers modeled after baby diapers produced before 1980

Obviously, there would be some overlap.

I know there are several cloth diaper manufacturers, but not enough disposable manufacturers that are "AB-aware." I would encourage casting a wider net of disposables. I'm in my late 20s, so I come from a generation that wore diapers with more prints than diapers from previous generations. So far, I don't see a lot of variety that would come close to emulating the diapers that I wore in the 1980s. I would love to have a site that has disposables from all eras.

You make a good point about ABU's business model. If I remember correctly, they also offered actual children's diapers at one point as well--it wasn't a large selection though, and they were heavily marked up over what you'd pay at retail. The diapers that were offered though were ones that were popular among the AB/DL community--the two that I remember seeing were Pampers and GoodNites. This was an excellent idea, and one that I would like to see implemented again on a larger scale. The trick here though is going to be not marking up the children's diapers to the point where retail is less expensive. ABU was charging $40 for GoodNites that were normally less then $20 at retail, and it was quite obvious why they weren't selling. It wasn't a lack of demand, but the fact that the product was overpriced. The same holds true of the Pampers--it just cost a lot less to buy them somewhere else.

[Wetdl]

You know, a half way point to all of this is forming a buying club.

Find whatever product to do first, say Onesie's, take a poll for interest and style that seems workable for the most people.

Negotiate with a supplier (or from some member who wants to get it a try) for a large buy.

Some problems are obvious, not all promises to buy will pan out.

There will be people who complain about quality, no matter what is produced.

The same idea might work for a diaper buy as well.

One thing which should be remembered is this, I believe this site is supported by the vendor's we would be competing with.

But then again, perhaps they would consider a lowered price in exchange for a group buy.

[sarah_ab]

the problem is, and i'm not saying this to dash any hopes... we really are a SMALL majority of people... the reason why speciality niche shops are more expensive is because otherwise there is not enough business to stay open... of course having an internet store will make it open to more people.... but we are still a small minority.... another is , where would all these products be stored... if you are relying on the manufacturer to ship them, what garuntee do i have i will get it in a timely manner if you are not in control of shipping....

However, it would be cool to have awebsite where one could peruse clothing, diapers, nuk 5's, furniture, and other abdl products in one place...

however 1. don't forget the plus size abdl's when selling clothing 2. don't forget some 'bondage' type stuff, like locking plastic panties and diaper covers, pj's that zip in the back, locking mittens, pacifier straps to keep it in the mouth etc....

[Horndog]

For a small majority of people, we sure have quite a few businesses that do well. Are we a small majority of people? Sure, but the AB/DL populace has grown significantly in the past 20 years.

[sarah_ab]

either its grown, or the internet has just allowed us to connect in ways never before.... probably a little of both, because for exmaple, without the internet i never would have been aware of this fetish... of course with the population growing, it makes sense that the amount of people who are engaged in thiswould also grow, but proportionally to the entire world population, has our percentage really increased? i dunno.. but regardless, if you could make this work, and sold enough plus sized baby products at decent prices... i'd buy a membership.

[TBlazer]

Maybe this was already mentioned, but heres a take on things-

As an artist, much of my work sold through retail is on a consignment basis. I set the price, and the store carrying my work gets a percentage, from 30-50 percent-though an online consignment fee would be better at 5-10 percent. How about starting with an online consignment shop where products are shipped directly from the creator? This would be great for clothing. My favorite Ab clothes are the ones that fit the best, and thats hit or miss with generic sizes shipped in from dubious third world countries. There are plenty of AB clothing producers on Etsy and Ebay that could benefit from a single marketplace.

And the registration fee thing would ensure NOBODY purchased products from your website! Kick that idea out the door.

[Eric Hardfellow]

I agree with Tblazer on the registration fee. I could be wrong though, i frequently am, and I completely understand where your coming from horndog, and i think it has potential to be a good plan, but at the moment i feel it would alienate a high percentage of possible customers and i'm not sure if suppliers would be willing to give a big enough discount to encourage or even justify people paying a registration fee.

Maybe a better idea would be to build a relationship with the manufacturers and see whats the best price on products they can give you, or look into manufacturing yourself, see how much it would cost to produce products locally and then see how much it would cost to manufacture abroad. Then work out how much potential that idea would have.

Just food for thought really.

[Horndog]

I've been thinking about this for a while, so I retooled a few things. I spoke to a few people over IM and e-mail, who contributed a lot to a potential business plan. So here goes nothing:

Let's scrap the registration fee.

By not having some sort of upfront cost, people won't be buying into discounts -- so what do we do?

I've reassessed AB/DL-aware businesses online to see what works and what doesn't. Customers tend to invest their money in businesses that offer a variety of products, superior customer service, and discreet shipping. However, customers are dismayed by high costs -- and with a struggling global economy, people have toned down on discretionary spending. It will be an uphill battle to really promote an AB/DL business during a time like this, but the businesses that always do well rely on two significant factors: reliability and convenience.

An AB/DL business should have a wide selection of products, and create an impression on customers that we're like a giant warehouse with aisles of inventory from diapers to clothing to furniture. We really want to sell the fact that we're catering to a way of life; a way of life that is care-free, pleasant, and easy.

There would be categories that cater to every facet of AB/DL from people who wear diapers once in a while, to ABs who will invest in a crib, and put money down on big-ticket items that add to the infantilism effect.

Diapers

I propose this superstore have its own "diaper center." Customers can browse the site, and choose the diaper (cloth or disposable) they personally want by browsing through creative options and preferences. To find the diaper you're looking for, there will be questions that narrow down the search results, such as:

• How physically active are you on a daily basis? (Active)

• How many times do you, or would you wet daily? (Medical)

• Do you like wearing diapers that have the classic baby look? (Old Style)

• Do you like wearing diapers that have the modern baby look? (New Style)

Notice what was in parenthesis? Those are the categories I proposed in this post. The categories would now be part of a scale that each diaper is measured by. The scales would be calculated by crowdsourcing user feedback, so people can make a very informed purchase based on the consensus from other consumers. Not included in the preference/option list are items like stuffers, swim diapers, and specialty diapers, which would be listed as accessories.

So let's say I'm looking for a diaper that fits someone like me who is physically active, but is a heavy wetter during the day. What do I do? On a scale from one to five -- one being not active at all to five being always active -- I slide the scale to four. And how many times do I wet? I slide the scale to four with one being 1-2 times a day and five being 8-10 times a day. The selection is narrowed down to a few diapers, though I know that the store carries every single major diaper brand that I know.

The preferential (not personal contact information) data collected from members would be retrieved by merchants and affiliates, who could then use the data to produce their own diaper brand, and effectively expand our overall inventory.

Clothes

Clothes would be arranged by gender and age (ageplay years).

• Baby Boy (0-24 mos.)

• Baby Girl (0-24 mos.)

• Toddler Boy (1-4 years)

• Toddler Girl (1-4 years)

The store would offer shirts, pants, sweaters, onesies, bodysuits, swimwear, sleepwear, and accessories. Accessories could include things like training pants and underwear -- such as underwear provided by Tiger Underwear (I was contacted by these people recently, and they expressed interest!). Of course, the sizes would be in the adult range (S, M, L, XL, XXL, and custom). There would be a 30-day return policy except for things like training pants, and clothing that could get soiled.

Living (Furniture and Toys)

There would be a large selection of furniture including the following:

• Cribs

• Changing Tables

• Potty Chairs

• Dressers & Armoires

• Bookcases

• Hampers

• Nursery Storage

• Gliders & Rocking Chairs

• High Chairs

• Toy Boxes

• Mirrors

• Playpens

• Toys for Boys

• Toys for Girls

More categories to come.

[Bettypooh]

HD, the thoughts are good ones- just remember to cross-categorize enough to make finding any specific thing easy. That's one of my beefs with some websites: Their percieved category for something isn't mine so it makes me have to dig till I find it. And keep the initial indices fast-loading. Nobody likes to wait for things which don't interest them till they can get to the page they want to see.

For some of your product line 'drop shipping' would work well, thus saving you inventory cost. The probelem here is it seems that many suppliers are regularly out of a given product on a rather regular basis. For those the only solution would be to keep that stock in inventory yourself. The upside of this could be that if you could bulk purchase, the prices might be lower for you and not elevated for us. Then you'd be the place folks looking for that product became loyal to! One thought here is Bambino's in a small size- perhaps a big enough order would convince them to run off a batch.

Another angle is that if you became a large enough distributor you might convince some wholesalers or manufacturers to let you be their main or exclusive distributor, thus saving them the cost and problems associaed with keeping an active sales program going. That level would take time to achieve but doing it would be a coup-de-sales extrordinaire for you. It fits in perfectly with a 'super-store' concept.

One thing I would do is to be sure to offer low-cost 'entry-level' items. Not everyone looking around can afford or even wants the best- many of us have to make do with what we can afford even if we'd rather have better. That 'value line' needn't be extensive and our ABDL knowledge here could help you choose the best value cheap items that actually perform for the money. Nobody likes buying failures no matter how cheap they are! Actually that is where you'd have one up on almost all your competition- you know the trends and issues better than non-ABDL's can understand.

Let's keep the ideas going!

Bettypooh

[Horndog]

There will always be that initial offering of inventory. The sliding scale is just a feature that customizes the shopping experience for those who want to make a more informed purchase. If you know what you want right off the bat, then it's just click-and-go.

If or when an AB/DL business plan takes off, gets implemented and becomes successful, then we can talk about being exclusive distributors for wholesalers and manufacturers. I'd love to do something like that, but at this point in time, that's putting the cart before the horse.

My plan would include entry-level accessibility for people who want to make that value purchase. However, value doesn't necessarily equate to cheaply made goods. It would still be quality, but it would be products that cost around $1.30-$1.45 per diaper. A lot of brands fall under those specifications.