Tag: shelly chaney

DollarDays’ Nonprofit Purchasing Index Reports Top 10 Most-wanted Items for the Holiday Season

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DollarDays today released its first Nonprofit Purchasing Index (NPI), which reveals nonprofits’ top 10 most-wanted goods for the holiday season. Based on nearly 12 years of purchasing data, the NPI highlights the products most frequently purchased from DollarDays by the company’s nonprofit partners. Since 2007, DollarDays has processed more than 141,000 orders with over 56 million products for nonprofit organizations.

This year, the most-ordered products on the NPI are personal care items, which include soap, deodorant, lotions and oral care essentials. DollarDays has sold more than 22 million personal care items to nonprofit organizations since starting to aggregate its purchasing data. This category represents nearly 22% of all nonprofit orders for the holiday season and 40% of total units sold.

“Personal care items are used by organizations across the country because they’re critically needed by so many, allowing them to focus on their core missions while saving time and money,” said Shelly Chaney, Vice President and General Manager of DollarDays. “The items also provide basic necessities that meet a variety of needs for homeless shelters, people who have been forced to leave their homes because of a natural disaster, or for basic personal care needs. When nonprofits buy from DollarDays, they can be assured they’re purchasing quality products.”

Rounding out the top five on the NPI are holiday-themed items (15%), such as gift-wrapping supplies, decorations and books; toys and games (14.7%); winter accessories (12.6%); and clothing (7.4%).

Chaney added, “Nonprofit soften get unwrapped donations and have holiday-themed celebrations. DollarDays offers inexpensive gift-wrapping supplies and decorations to make sure they can provide wrapped gifts and affordable celebrations during the season.”

No. 3 on the NPI is toys and games. DollarDays is a wholesale toys destination, selling 8.2 million toys to nonprofits since 2007. Recently, DollarDays partnered with the U.S. Marines Toys for Tots Program to provide personal assistance for more than 800 Toys for Tots Coordinators across the country. DollarDays’ 2018 holiday toy catalog also gives organizations like Toys for Tots convenient access to the right toys for kids of all ages.

The complete list of the top 10 most-wanted products for nonprofits based on DollarDays’ NPI is as follows:

  1. Personal Care
  2. Holiday & Party Supplies
  3. Toys & Games
  4. Winter Accessories
  5. Clothing
  6. Socks
  7. Food
  8. Blankets
  9. Baby Care
  10. Hygiene Kits

“Our partners such as United Way, Salvation Army, Good360, Catholic Charities and Rotary receive a high volume of product donations leading up to the holidays. In some cases, the contributions don’t meet all of their needs, so they use donation dollars to purchase items that fill the gaps,” explained Chaney. “This is where DollarDays comes in. We provide a wide variety of affordable products that help our partners stretch their dollars so they can help as many people as possible.”

As a leading supplier of wholesale goods for the past 18 years, DollarDays has collected a significant amount of data that the company shares with its partners and uses to improve its own operations. This information helps DollarDays’ customers track their spending habits, refine their processes, monitor cost savings, identify new opportunities and maximize their donation dollars. DollarDays also plans to use its extensive data resources to publish a variety of procurement reports.

“Selling products is only part of who we are,” said Chaney. “We’ve collected a wealth of data over the years, which our nonprofit partners use to help extract trends down to the product and regional levels. We share this information in an easy-to-understand and visual way so if our partners have questions, they can quickly find answers and discover new ways to assess their projects and achieve their missions.”

About DollarDays
Founded in 2001, DollarDays is the leading supplier of wholesale goods for nonprofits, businesses and betterment organizations. By sourcing affordable products, backed by exceptional service and meaningful community engagement, we strive to inspire and empower our customers to accomplish their missions to improve the lives of people around the world. Recognized as the City of Phoenix Mayor’s Office “2018 Product Exporter of the Year” and Internet Retailer Magazine’s “B2B E-commerce Marketer of the Year” for 2016 and 2017, DollarDays is headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona. For more information, visit www.dollardays.com.

Good360, DollarDays Grow National Partnership

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Good360, the global leader in product philanthropy and purposeful giving, and DollarDays today announced a new partnership that will increase the support of disaster-relief efforts, upholding Good360’s mission to get the right goods to the right people at the right time during all phases of disaster recovery. The agreement builds upon DollarDays’ efforts over the past three years to support Good360 and its diverse base of more than 75,000 nonprofit partners.

DollarDays is currently a leading provider of needed goods through Good360’s online community. Nonprofit organizations looking to maximize their donation dollars can access high-quality, low-cost products for their own charitable efforts. Highly needed products include baby and school supplies, blankets, hygiene kits, and clothing basics, such as shirts, hats, gloves, socks and underwear. DollarDays also supports Good360 with as-needed special orders, recently providing backpacks and school supplies for distribution within the Good360 nonprofit membership network.

“Good360 understands and invests in disaster-recovery preparation like no other organization,” said Shelly Chaney, Vice President and General Manager of DollarDays. “They’re ready to respond and quick to deploy the necessary aid when and wherever it’s needed to people struggling to endure unexpected challenges. By combining Good360’s expertise and experience with DollarDays’ wholesale supply engine, merchandise networks, pricing negotiation skills, and data and analytics tools, we’re creating a powerful force to respond to disasters.”

“With DollarDays, we get to work smarter and more effectively as partners together,” said Howard Sherman, CEO of Good360. “We can source exactly what is needed in the disaster field in order to meet the needs of our nonprofit partners as the demand arises. This relationship also allows us to pre-position highly needed, ‘no regret’ items that can be deployed quickly to disaster-impacted areas. DollarDays has created products and programs that help us and our partners, and will add tremendous value to our disaster-relief efforts.”

In 2017, DollarDays also donated five percent of sales for a week, raising more than $32,000 to help Good360 mobilize its recovery efforts in Texas following Hurricane Harvey.

About DollarDays
Founded in 2001, DollarDays is the leading supplier of wholesale goods for nonprofits, businesses and betterment organizations. By sourcing affordable products, backed by exceptional service and meaningful community engagement, we strive to inspire and empower our customers to accomplish their missions to improve the lives of people around the world. Recognized as the City of Phoenix Mayor’s Office “2018 Product Exporter of the Year” and Internet Retailer Magazine’s “B2B E-commerce Marketer of the Year” for 2016 and 2017, DollarDays is headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona. For more information, visit www.dollardays.com.

About Good360
Good360’s mission is to transform lives by providing hope, dignity, and a sense of renewed possibility to individuals, families, and communities impacted by disasters or other challenging life circumstances who, without us, would struggle to find that hope. As the global leader in product philanthropy and purposeful giving, we partner with socially responsible companies to source highly needed goods and distribute them through our network of diverse nonprofits that support people in need. Good360 has distributed more than $9 billion in donated goods around the world, helping its network of more than 75,000 prequalified nonprofits strengthen communities and improve the lives of millions. Good360 is proud to partner with corporate donors such as Walmart, UPS, CVS Health Foundation, Amazon, Advance Auto Parts, RH (Restoration Hardware), American Eagle Outfitters, Tempur Sealy International, Mattel, Gap, Inc., Eddie Bauer, Levi Strauss & Company, and JPMorganChase. Good360 is a registered 501(c)(3) organization. Learn more at https://www.good360.org.

Private-label Products: Bringing Value to Our Nonprofit Partners

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Private-label offerings are playing an increasingly critical role in some of the country’s largest online marketplaces, with house brands now accounting for as much as 30% of all sales. This trend not only indicates changes in the way consumers shop, especially when searching by brand and price, but also presents a new challenge for online retailers seeking to remain competitive.

For DollarDays, developing affordable, private-label brands as a means to better serve its large nonprofit customer base was a no-brainer. The company launched its Big Box™ bulk school supplies line in spring of 2017, contributing to a reported sale of more than 11 million units of school supplies annually. Big Box™ encompasses a full line of high-quality, low-cost school supplies, pre-filled backpacks and pencil pouches, and flip-flops, all of which has been hand-picked by DollarDays’ in-house merchandising team. The company plans to expand the line to include additional school essentials through the end of 2018.

“We understood private labels had to become part of our go-to-market strategy,” explains Shelly Chaney, Vice President and General Manager of DollarDays. “Online shopping means our customers have the ability to compare products and have better visibility on quality and price points. With private-label lines, we can better hit these targets, giving even more value to our nonprofit partners.”

Encouraged by the success of their Big Box™ line, DollarDays next pursued the opportunity to create a backpack label that met their nonprofit partners’ needs for premium bags at an entry-level price for backpack drives and other back-to-school initiatives. The resulting Forward™ backpack line, rolled out in early 2018, features a more spacious front pocket, reinforced strap-to-bag seams and contoured, fully adjustable shoulder straps with mesh. This attention to detail helps ensure Forward™ backpacks can compete against more expensive brand-name lines.

“With our private-label brands, we’re able to customize every aspect to the needs of our very niche consumers, like nonprofits,” says Melissa Castelo, Senior Product Manager at DollarDays. “It enables us to control not only the brand positioning but the distribution and activation, as well.”

By building out its own labels, DollarDays has found new ways to differentiate itself during the search process and drive destination shopping. Additionally, the company can continue to offer national brands and remain competitive in a “good, better, best” scenario while still capturing market share with an aggressively low price point. Through the remainder of 2018, DollarDays will continue to explore other product categories that may help them increase their presence outside of school essentials.

“Consumers today expect exceptional products at a price point that is cost effective,” stated Chaney. “We’re working on cultivating other private-label lines that focus on helping our nonprofit partners meet the fundamental needs of communities around the world.”

Back to School Bucks Seasonal Trends, Becomes Big Business

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As national uproar spreads around teacher pay and educational funding, questions are also being raised around whether schools are increasingly underfunded for classroom supplies. Class supply lists continue to grow and are becoming more costly for families nationwide. DollarDays, a premier supplier of school supplies, recently released a report that up to 85% of supplies were being purchased outside of the traditional month of August, indicating more teachers and parents are making purchases throughout the year for items normally supported with tax dollars.

“The average class list costs parents more than $400 per year per child,” explains Shelly Chaney, Vice President and General Manager of DollarDays. “[W]here we used to see back to school as a seasonal event, we are now seeing individuals making purchases throughout the year, often to offset the needs in classrooms.” […]

When it comes to school supplies, DollarDays is one of the most popular back-to-school destinations [online]. [The company currently] offers over 75,000 [bulk] products sold at wholesale [or below-wholesale] prices. [A]fter 17 years in the industry, [DollarDays] truly [knows] how to source and support the products that ensure retailers keep high margins without being concerned with warehousing product.

“Stocking the shelves with school supplies is about finding the right mix of offerings,” says Chaney. “We can partner with retailers to determine the right category mix, select the correct packaging options and determine whether planograms are the right methodology for their space, all while offsetting costs. This level of partnership ensures our customers have the right solution to sell these products and meet the needs of their own customers.”

As more schools face economic challenges and many districts transition to year-round curriculums, it’s no doubt […] retailers will continue to see the back-to-school industry break out of the traditional seasonal time period. In fact, it may be just a matter of time before school supplies become routine items for any retailer’s product mix.

Original article here: https://independentretailer.com/2018/05/08/back-to-school-bucks-seasonal-trends-and-becomes-big-business/