Analyzing The Wet Shaving Market in 2023

The wet shaving market is beyond fickle. As a prime example the Britons are as "mad as March hares" (to quote Kaiser Wilhelm II) over some "dud" Mitchell's Wool Fat pucks. From all the "gnashing of teeth" you'd think someone tried to steal the Crown Jewels!! Has one person called the co. to see if they will replace the duds? Of course not!! It's better to sit around and bitch and whine about the purported death of an "institution" that has been around since 1893!!     

When Williams, founded in 1840, "folded their tent" there was but a slight ripple over here about it. The US market is constantly changing and those who cannot adapt get washed away like tears in the rain. In the past ten years there has been some great soaps go away, e.g., CRSW, The Strop Shoppe, etc. New makers filled the void quickly. The dogs bark, but the caravan moves on. 

In the case of Williams soap pucks they stopped being a thing many years ago well before the brand was finally dropped. They were a corporate brand in a portfolio and once they changed the recipe and turned it into a detergent puck it was no longer the Williams everyone was accustomed to. It was like Invasion of the Williams soap puck snatchers.

I did receive an email welcoming me to Blackbird and a second email with user information including a YouTube video link on care and use of the razor I purchased.  That is a first for me and really appreciated as this is the first SE razor with AC blades that I've ever bought.  Hopefully it will answer any questions or concerns that I might have although I have no problem coming onto DFS and asking questions - members are always ready to help.  I think sending a user information like that to new buyers is a great business practice which also likely cuts down on inquiries and even possible returns.  Makes sense.  Thanks again Shane.

Appreciate this feedback. I'm proud of those emails and glad to hear you find them valuable!

I posted earlier that I had finally taken the plunge and bought a Blackland Razors  razor - the Ti Vector.  I had been dancing around the issue of getting one for probably a couple of years (thanks DFS Vector thread) but I had been waiting to see if my favourite Canadian vendor would restock.  They had carried it once and were leaving it up showing as sold out so ...but as Shane pointed out Backland isn't wholesaling anymore so if I was going to get one it had to be through Backland directly.  The thing that tipped me over the edge as far as buying one now was, I must admit, Shane's post on Blackland's view of the market and also his views on business and employment practices.  I respect that, although I was still faced with the decision as to whether to buy what for me would be the single most expensive shaving item I've ever purchased.  But I decided to stick to my practice of (where possible) buy local from people with integrity and shared (my) values and I bit the bullet.  The new customer discount helped as well.  I haven't received it yet but it's on the way.  I did receive an email welcoming me to Blackbird and a second email with user information including a YouTube video link on care and use of the razor I purchased.  That is a first for me and really appreciated as this is the first SE razor with AC blades that I've ever bought.  Hopefully it will answer any questions or concerns that I might have although I have no problem coming onto DFS and asking questions - members are always ready to help.  I think sending a user information like that to new buyers is a great business practice which also likely cuts down on inquiries and even possible returns.  Makes sense.  Thanks again Shane.

I predict you are going love it! I had the stainless steel version for about 5 months, and couldn't get along with it as a daily shaver, but man, it was great. I finally parted ways with the SS Vector. Then I read some posts regarding the titanium Blackbird and how it felt less "aggressive" than the SS 'Bird. What tipped me over to buying the Ti Vector was an article Shane wrote regarding the face-feel of titanium. I am using it all this week, and enjoying it very much! I truly hope you will, too! Congrats!

I think the thing we need to keep in mind is that despite shaving being a worldwide practice, the “artisanal” wet shaving market is a niche market. I think for that reason in a large part the artisanal market demand is relatively inelastic - so is the general shaving market because while market conditions may lead to a general cutback in spending it like won’t lead to an explosion in growing beards for economic reasons. I also think the niche market will grow particularly on the younger end of the demographic. There’s more young potential wet shavers every day while sadly, albeit naturally,  my end of the demographic is shrinking. More old guys might discover or rediscover wet shaving every year but the reality is that more of us are falling off the branch every year as well. Make sure you make provision for the distribution of your wet shaving accoutrements, particularly if you’ve got items of significance or value or even if it’s just run of the mill stuff. It’s cool to have and use your dad’s or your grandad’s shaving stuff. Even if it’s beat up and gross, it can always be cleaned up and restored. 

I saw an item on the news that Amazon is now taking as much as 50% if its merchants' sales. I’m not clear if it was sales, profits, margins or what but my first thought was holy mackerel! Is what they’re doing for merchants really worth that? Why not get a shopify account and get at it? I know there’s fulfillment etc but there’s got to be a better way that allows more of the profit to stay with the person who created the product and risked their capital.

So that's how you describe it? "Falling off the branch." I got a chuckle out of that one.

Yes, I can attest to the fact that Amazon does take a HUGE chunk. We pay them 3 ways.
1. A percentage sales commission
2. Fulfillment By Amazon fees that covers, shipping, customer service, and storage.
3. Any advertising of our products or brands in the Amazon universe. It works with keywords sort of like Google Adwords.

It is the cost of the EYEBALLS on your product. They can ship WAY cheaper than we could ever hope to and it is nice to send cases of product to them and they distribute. The one thing we don't like is we sometimes get blamed for stuff that Amazon actually did. We got a 1 star scathing review because the customer got a "used" puck of soap. That's not supposed to happen, but someone in the chain put a returned puck back in to the warehouse. We got another bad feedback because the customer was fed up with the Amazon drivers bringing packages to the wrong door of his house. Overall though there's plenty of 5 star reviews to offset those.
We have a website, but the choice becomes spend the money to market and drive traffic to the website or go where the volume of customers are. People are already on Amazon shopping and with a huge portion of the population on Prime, well you know our answer.
Keep a lot of a little or keep a little of a lot. That's the choice we make.

I think the thing we need to keep in mind is that despite shaving being a worldwide practice, the “artisanal” wet shaving market is a niche market. I think for that reason in a large part the artisanal market demand is relatively inelastic - so is the general shaving market because while market conditions may lead to a general cutback in spending it like won’t lead to an explosion in growing beards for economic reasons. I also think the niche market will grow particularly on the younger end of the demographic. There’s more young potential wet shavers every day while sadly, albeit naturally,  my end of the demographic is shrinking. More old guys might discover or rediscover wet shaving every year but the reality is that more of us are falling off the branch every year as well. Make sure you make provision for the distribution of your wet shaving accoutrements, particularly if you’ve got items of significance or value or even if it’s just run of the mill stuff. It’s cool to have and use your dad’s or your grandad’s shaving stuff. Even if it’s beat up and gross, it can always be cleaned up and restored. 

I saw an item on the news that Amazon is now taking as much as 50% if its merchants' sales. I’m not clear if it was sales, profits, margins or what but my first thought was holy mackerel! Is what they’re doing for merchants really worth that? Why not get a shopify account and get at it? I know there’s fulfillment etc but there’s got to be a better way that allows more of the profit to stay with the person who created the product and risked their capital.

So that's how you describe it? "Falling off the branch." I got a chuckle out of that one.

Yes, I can attest to the fact that Amazon does take a HUGE chunk. We pay them 3 ways.
1. A percentage sales commission
2. Fulfillment By Amazon fees that covers, shipping, customer service, and storage.
3. Any advertising of our products or brands in the Amazon universe. It works with keywords sort of like Google Adwords.

It is the cost of the EYEBALLS on your product. They can ship WAY cheaper than we could ever hope to and it is nice to send cases of product to them and they distribute. The one thing we don't like is we sometimes get blamed for stuff that Amazon actually did. We got a 1 star scathing review because the customer got a "used" puck of soap. That's not supposed to happen, but someone in the chain put a returned puck back in to the warehouse. We got another bad feedback because the customer was fed up with the Amazon drivers bringing packages to the wrong door of his house. Overall though there's plenty of 5 star reviews to offset those.
We have a website, but the choice becomes spend the money to market and drive traffic to the website or go where the volume of customers are. People are already on Amazon shopping and with a huge portion of the population on Prime, well you know our answer.
Keep a lot of a little or keep a little of a lot. That's the choice we make.

Of course that makes sense, otherwise you wouldn't do it right?  It still seems a little like old school protection rackets...nice place you have here, it would be a shame if anything were to happen to it...  I'm kidding because as I posted earlier it's not about the mousetrap or at least not all about that.  You can have the best product but if nobody knows about it then you will have a very small market and won't stay in business long.  I'm not that knowledgeable of the various options that merchants and artisans are faced with in the online universe these days but I know that not everybody goes the Amazon route.  There has to be fulfilment services available to those who either dont need or dont want the amazon level of service.  I'm curious what Shopify is doing to compete.  I know someone who works there so I'll have to pick her brain.

On the subject of reviews, I've stopped reading them and I won't give them either other than on DFS where my thoughts might actually have some use at least to those who know my likes/dislikes.  I've seen articles indicating that a large proportion of online reviews are either paid for or otherwise untrustworthy.  I get tired of seeing five star reviews that say something like "I haven't used the product yet but it was well packaged and arrived quickly" Can you wait til you at least use the darn thing ?? Then theres your experiences - it would be gross to get a used soap from amazon and a lot of people don't necessarily understand how the fulfillment works so you get the bad review.  I've always thought a shrink-wrap no-tamper band around soap tubs would be a good idea but only a few do it.  Maybe the heat required to make the wrap shrink is bad for the soap?? One extra step /material in an already slim margin business?

Shopify doesn't do any fulfillment. I use if for my other business.
There are 3rd parties out there, but that's not the point. The point of FBA (Fulfillment By Amazon) is really about having your product be PRIME and getting the traffic to see your product. There's no Shopify anything that can substitute for that.

I’m closing this thread for now and I’m going to delete some posts.

I’m reopening this thread because I believe there has been some excellent posts and information shared here particularly from the merchant community (which includes artisans) who are in the trenches and I’m hoping that will continue. I understand that sometimes people can have strong feelings on some issues particularly when it relates to livelihoods but please keep in mind the (few) rules we have here on DFS and keep the discourse civil and respectful and refrain from personal attacks of any kind. This admonition applies to the entire DFS community including moderators.

I think the thing we need to keep in mind is that despite shaving being a worldwide practice, the “artisanal” wet shaving market is a niche market. I think for that reason in a large part the artisanal market demand is relatively inelastic - so is the general shaving market because while market conditions may lead to a general cutback in spending it like won’t lead to an explosion in growing beards for economic reasons. I also think the niche market will grow particularly on the younger end of the demographic. There’s more young potential wet shavers every day while sadly, albeit naturally,  my end of the demographic is shrinking. More old guys might discover or rediscover wet shaving every year but the reality is that more of us are falling off the branch every year as well. Make sure you make provision for the distribution of your wet shaving accoutrements, particularly if you’ve got items of significance or value or even if it’s just run of the mill stuff. It’s cool to have and use your dad’s or your grandad’s shaving stuff. Even if it’s beat up and gross, it can always be cleaned up and restored. 

I saw an item on the news that Amazon is now taking as much as 50% if its merchants' sales. I’m not clear if it was sales, profits, margins or what but my first thought was holy mackerel! Is what they’re doing for merchants really worth that? Why not get a shopify account and get at it? I know there’s fulfillment etc but there’s got to be a better way that allows more of the profit to stay with the person who created the product and risked their capital.

So that's how you describe it? "Falling off the branch." I got a chuckle out of that one.

Yes, I can attest to the fact that Amazon does take a HUGE chunk. We pay them 3 ways.
1. A percentage sales commission
2. Fulfillment By Amazon fees that covers, shipping, customer service, and storage.
3. Any advertising of our products or brands in the Amazon universe. It works with keywords sort of like Google Adwords.

It is the cost of the EYEBALLS on your product. They can ship WAY cheaper than we could ever hope to and it is nice to send cases of product to them and they distribute. The one thing we don't like is we sometimes get blamed for stuff that Amazon actually did. We got a 1 star scathing review because the customer got a "used" puck of soap. That's not supposed to happen, but someone in the chain put a returned puck back in to the warehouse. We got another bad feedback because the customer was fed up with the Amazon drivers bringing packages to the wrong door of his house. Overall though there's plenty of 5 star reviews to offset those.
We have a website, but the choice becomes spend the money to market and drive traffic to the website or go where the volume of customers are. People are already on Amazon shopping and with a huge portion of the population on Prime, well you know our answer.
Keep a lot of a little or keep a little of a lot. That's the choice we make.

Of course that makes sense, otherwise you wouldn't do it right?  It still seems a little like old school protection rackets...nice place you have here, it would be a shame if anything were to happen to it...  I'm kidding because as I posted earlier it's not about the mousetrap or at least not all about that.  You can have the best product but if nobody knows about it then you will have a very small market and won't stay in business long.  I'm not that knowledgeable of the various options that merchants and artisans are faced with in the online universe these days but I know that not everybody goes the Amazon route.  There has to be fulfilment services available to those who either dont need or dont want the amazon level of service.  I'm curious what Shopify is doing to compete.  I know someone who works there so I'll have to pick her brain.

On the subject of reviews, I've stopped reading them and I won't give them either other than on DFS where my thoughts might actually have some use at least to those who know my likes/dislikes.  I've seen articles indicating that a large proportion of online reviews are either paid for or otherwise untrustworthy.  I get tired of seeing five star reviews that say something like "I haven't used the product yet but it was well packaged and arrived quickly" Can you wait til you at least use the darn thing ?? Then theres your experiences - it would be gross to get a used soap from amazon and a lot of people don't necessarily understand how the fulfillment works so you get the bad review.  I've always thought a shrink-wrap no-tamper band around soap tubs would be a good idea but only a few do it.  Maybe the heat required to make the wrap shrink is bad for the soap?? One extra step /material in an already slim margin business?

I stand corrected on the Shopify fulfillment thing. I literally got an email today about the Shopify Fulfillment Network (SFN). However, it still is basically not doing anything to sell product because all it does is take the work of shipping out individual orders that come from your website.

It is tough to see CG, ATT, Monzingo and others closing their doors.  Inflation is tough, support small businesses when possible.