A True Story.....
Our customer ordered 10 aluminum license plates from our web site about 3 years ago. A few days later she reordered 10 more license plates. We contacted our customer and they shared with us the lack of products from any supplier that actually represented her market. We thought this is a simple problem to fix. We created 3 more license plate designs and the same thing happened, she ordered 10 of each and then reordered 10 more of each again a few days later.
Naturally we thought we were on to something, so we created a few coffee mug designs and they ordered 12 of each and guess what the same thing happened again. Three years later they currently have over 25 coffee mugs designs and they order every week. They are also offer the largest coffee mug variety in the area.
We have since done the same thing with keyrings, metal signs, canvas prints and t-shirts.
If we had not spent the time on the phone and actually being in her store and watching the customers we would still be providing 10 license plates at a time.
This is not rocket science but it is a business relationship where "partners" work together to determine the direction of growing this particular business.
The money that used to be tied up in the backroom is now being used for products that actually sell.