Why do Pre-Orders and Back-orders Take so long to get in?

Bbeauty Dolls designs and manufactures it's own product lines. Some of our products are made in small batches in our in-house sewing and design workshop and larger scale collections are manufactured from our designs overseas. It is a long process from the design phase/testing through to the manufacturing production. In prior years, there was an average turn around from when we placed an order to receiving the order in our stock of about 2 months. For 2025 and 2026, we've seen lead times double and factories having a much more inconsistent idea of when production finishes. For 2026 we informed customers that we will pause pre-ordering until the overseas production stabilizes once again and has shorter lead times. This in turn has forced us to order 2 larger production orders each year instead of smaller orders every quarter. This is what is determining restocking and new product release time frames.

As a small business, we watch demand very closely for business so as to not produce items that are out of season or that sit. Some designs are forever in demand and are re-stocked and produced over and over where as other products reach a life span where collectors "already have one" and don't need another. When we start to see that less customers need a particular style or color, we let the stock run out and replace it with a new and fresh design. It is important for our customers to use the "Notfiy when available" button on an out of stock product as it notifies us how many customers are interested in a product and where there is no interest at all. When we place a new production order, we restock the items with the most interest first. This ensures that we are not wasting our efforts producing items that are not needed. It also creates a healthy balance between restocked products and new products.