[Originally published: March 22, 2019 & Modified August 20, 2021]

For the first four years of our shop’s existence, customers bombarded me with questions about whether we would start carrying bra-sized swim. “It’s so needed!” “The only places around here even with swim are Walmart and Target, and it will do SO well!” “If you guys do swim, it will sell out fast!” Admittedly, I was extremely excited about the prospect because the first year we opened, I ordered my own bra-sized bikini and was hooked. Wait, what? This is actually in my bra-size? It’s not some Small-Medium-Large monstrosity? I knew in that precise moment, as sure as I knew the first time I was fitted properly for a bra, that this was an experience every person deserves.

Flash-forward to 2017: After years of customer’s hounding me, I was finally ready to take the plunge and actually bring in some swimwear. Unfortunately, I only had $3,500 in my budget to spare, which is nowhere near enough, and I decided to create a crowd-source campaign to supplement that budget. Bra shopping can be very empowering for people although I realize many major brands have co-opted “empowerment” to the point of being practically meaningless. Nevertheless, I saw every week how getting the right size can make such an impact, how having someone who helps you to see your beauty can improve self-esteem, and how life-changing it can be to not worry about your breasts interfering in your daily activities. I could only imagine the difference we would make for customers by stocking swimsuits!  

As I was diligently working on the campaign, I thought back on all the times people asked for swim or insisted it would do well here, and I thought: This is gonna be a huge success. It was, in retrospect, a failure of abject proportions. I aimed to bring in an additional $10k (maybe more because after all IT IS SO NEEDED GUYS!), but we ended up around $4k. After Indiegogo took their cut and the $400 worth of new fixtures were purchased, we had roughly $3k to add to our opening budget. Nothing could temper my optimism because I simply knew we would be inundated with special orders, and the stock we could afford would fly off the rack so fast that we would be able to keep adding new styles and sizes throughout the season.

Oh sweet naïve little child! For starters, swimwear is hella expensive y’all. With shipping costs, whatever the retail price is, I paid at least half that amount to stock it. Fortunately, bikini tops are comparable in price to bras and are thus more manageable. But people everywhere have been so conditioned that their bodies are always in the wrong somehow and an affront to the rest of the populous that only 30% of my customers wanted those. No, they wanted tankini tops and one-pieces with as much coverage as possible. The cheapest tankini top we stocked cost me $40. Each. This tankini also featured 63 unique sizes, and if I chose to be truly representative, my grand total was $2,520. Granted, we were forced, by necessity, to focus on our best-selling sizes, and instead of the full assortment, I ordered about 40 sizes in that style for a total of $1,600. Remember: This was my cheapest tankini top and did not account for matching bottoms. Other tankinis and one-pieces can be more than $70 per unit. Clearly, the expense adds up fast. As one retailer eloquently stated: “[I] love the idea of stocking swim, but it’s so many SKUs that as a small business, it becomes cost prohibitive very quickly.”

Bringing in swimwear compounds every issue retailers slog through with bra inventory and then adds a host of random variables into the equation for good measure, namely the diversity of individual taste. With bras, people are already finicky about what they purchase, but when you sidestep into swim, the problem becomes exponentially more difficult. As I mentioned earlier, bras and bikini tops share similar features. Both cover roughly the same amount of skin. Some people want neutrals while others prefer print. Some people prefer frill while others like basics. Even with those variations and the vast number of sizes available, it’s stressful for retailers to make the right choices. But with swimwear as a whole, you have other issues to consider. Does the top have a matching bottom they like? Is the color going to please people? Is the print classic, trendy, or hideous? Another retailer weighed in saying “When we moved our store to a bigger location, we decided to add [swim] back as so many customers were asking for it. However, our customers are just too picky for the amount of selection we were willing to devote our stock dollars to. Take yesterday a woman came in asking for a high rise in solid black. It was about 1” too high for her liking. She didn’t like the lower one either. She left with nothing.”

Furthermore, if it’s your first year ordering swim, you also can’t rely on something retailers use in making inventory decisions: historical data. When I placed our fashion orders for regular bras, it was, to put it mildly, more stressful than going to the dentist. More expensive too. You have to look at what kind of cash flow you had in previous years, what sizes sold the most/fastest, and which colors/prints have performed well overall. At the end of the day, you’re placing your faith that the thousands of dollars of merchandise you ordered will sell and that something doesn’t go wrong in between orders. Our first year with swim was the worst. I didn’t know what people would like or what sizes we would see. I also didn’t know how swim would fit or which suits performed best, only adding to the risk and frustration.

By the second year, I had a slightly better idea of what people were asking for, but our budget was still miniscule. I was only able to replenish our core and expand to a few new styles. And you know what? You still make mistakes. Even in more tropical climates where people can swim year round, the process is no less challenging. As this retailer notes: “It is far easier to stock bras for a variety of women because they are worn on a daily basis, and they aren’t subject to seasonal patterns. My major challenges with swim are: 1. Women have such different tastes that it is very difficult to accommodate all types . . . and it always seems like the moment you bring in one style, everyone is asking for the opposite. 2. In a warm climate, it really only works if I carry continuity colors and styles, because fashion swim often cannot be reordered if it sells well. . . Some people find basic colors boring, and I’m always worried that if I order fashion swim and an unable to restock it in a size someone needs, they will go online . . . it’s a lot of work to determine what to order, how to stock, when to discount, etc. that we just don’t have to worry about when it comes to bras.”

However, not every retailer in warmer climates finds it worthwhile to offer swim assortments: “We are in a warmer climate, but people still aren’t buying swim year round. I have a rack full of swim that is now 40% off and will probably be reduced further just to move it out.” The need to discount underperforming swim also creates a stronger atmosphere of bargain hunting both in the shop and online. Retailers with online shopping fronts or who partner as third party sellers on existing platforms like Amazon often aim to regain valuable budgeting dollars through listing older swim at or even below wholesale cost. Consequently, brick-and-mortar stores become vulnerable to show-rooming, where a customer will be fitted for their size only to purchase the product online. This puts more wear-and-tear on inventory and wastes the shop’s time and possibly even paying customers’ time if the store is busy.

What I found soul-crushingly painful about stocking swim was when customers asked me “Is this all you have?” Honorable mentions also include “When will you put this on sale?” and “When will the new swim stuff arrive?” I understand many people have never worked retail, and I also understand many people are accustomed to the deceptive practices of big box and online retailers either over-valuing a product so they can still make a profit when it goes on sale or simply buying and selling in such bulk, that they can reduce the cost without substantially damaging their bottom line. However, we were never that kind of store, and when I heard “Is this all?” in that disappointed tone, I kinda want to yell “YOU ARE LOOKING AT $10K WORTH OF INVENTORY AND A HUGE CHUNK OF MY SANITY! YES THIS IS ALL!” It hurt, people.

Swim taught me a valuable lesson in determining what are demands related to actual deficits in our inventory (more lounge bra options, for example) versus which are demands made with no follow through on the part of customers. There’s probably an underlying secondary lesson about the hazards of people pleasing in business, which I’d like to explore more in a later post. Optimism is a fine thing in business, but you need to balance your excitement to share new products with your customers with what you know you can sell.

Retailers reading through this article are probably breaking out in hives now at the very thought of wading into the swimsuit waters, which is not altogether the message I hope to send. Swim does boost sales in the summer. Those who special order add directly to your bottom line without inventory overhead, and others see that adorable suit you have and turn a $150 purchase into $250. Not to mention, stocking swim can attract new clients looking for local retailers providing a better selection, and once they learn about your store, they come back for other items too, giving you a sort of long term return on investment.

However, looking back on the overall experience in the shop, I would never do it again unless it was on pre-paid, non-refundable special order. That said, I’ve seen some brands expanding swimwear that is more forgiving for fuller-busts, and I think that may be a good compromise for retailers and consumers alike going forward.