Erin Wilk, Anatomy of a Skirt in Kitchener, Ont.
Kitchener-based artisan Erin Wilk, owner of Anatomy of a Skirt, says rising pump prices have forced her to scale back her trips on the craft show circuit. She also notes she has had to seek out new materials to create her handmade bags, purses and totes and find new ways of producing items that will be both affordable and attractive to her customers.
Erin Wilk: I have a large customer base in the U.S. so it's getting more and more tricky for them to be able to afford the shipping. And then, [I ask myself] do you pass that shipping cost on to them? Do you absorb it? It's only going to get higher.
At this point have you absorbed the charges or passed it on?
About half and half. Shipping has gone up an incredible amount. In the three years I've been in business, it's almost doubled to ship my items to the states.
Do you order your materials or buy locally?
I used to order them in but [can't afford to anymore] with the cost of shipping. I was using vinyl, which of course is a petroleum product, and the price of it kept going up so I started looking at more environmentally friendly materials, which I think is a smart solution.
It's a challenge to make something people want and to stay true to your art, but also to be able to give it to people [at a price] that they can afford and are willing to pay. You're still going up against the countries that are importing foreign labour or items made with foreign labour so it's cheaper.
In many ways, [the rising price of oil] has been a bit positive for my business, because there is this increase and you have to look at what you can do to change that. It makes you more environmentally aware. I try to use up what I have and come up with ways to incorporate that into my design.
Do you fear customers will become more cautious with their mail-order purchases?
I already see that now. I get many more inquiries asking, 'what's your return policy' and 'can I see more pictures,' and 'if I don't like this do you pay for the return shipping?' I also do get a lot of inquiries, especially from the U.S. and Europe, asking 'can you give me a break on the shipping?' Sometimes it's 20 to 25 per cent of the item cost so people are certainly factoring that into what they're [buying].
Are you scaling back the number of craft shows that you attend?
Instead of going to lots of little ones, I've really consolidated it into looking at what ones are going to be really profitable — which takes some of the fun out of it.
Instead of doing a lot of small shows that I would have to drive out to in southwestern Ontario, I've been looking at what are the large ones in Toronto where you're just making one trip and it's numerous days like the One of a Kind Show.
How would your business be affected if the price of fuel doubled?
That's a scary thought and I know that that's coming.
'People are used to being able to go to Wal-Mart and buy things cheaper — it's hard to compete with that.' —Erin Wilk
It would be very affected because I sell so much online it would be almost impossible to continue doing business as I'm currently doing it. I've already thought of that and have been looking into doing more local craft shows and trying to utilize the local customer base but it's hard when you're a small artisan and you're providing things for a niche market. People are used to being able to go to Wal-Mart and buy things cheaper — it's hard to compete with that.
If it suddenly doubled it would be incredibly terrifying and luckily because I'm a small business it might be easier for me to weather it because it's only me. I don't have any employees so there's no one I'd have to worry, 'can I pay them?' I might lose my studio and have to work out of my house but you're working close to the bone already so there's not a lot of wiggle room but I could get a part-time job.