Lessons From a Back to School Backpack Blunder

Jacq Tatelman just wanted to keep customers happy. 

As the CEO and co-founder of State Bags, a Brooklyn-based backpack and accessories company, she was excited to see the flood of orders for this year’s back to school season. Every year, it grows by 40 percent, she says. Seeing the start of the school year continue to move up, she figured — why not soft-launch a collection in June? 

Within weeks of launching near the end of the month, Tatelman says the backpacks, which are priced at more than $100 each, sold out. Then the company’s July collection sold out faster. Not wanting to lose momentum, she made the decision to allow people to keep buying backpacks for an August 15 pre-order. In the pressure to keep customers happy, the company removed a little popup that reminded customers that they were purchasing a pre-order. That was a big mistake.

Near mid-July, she learned that the U.S. Customs and Border Protection held their shipment for an additional two weeks. By the end of July, complaints started flooding in. State’s customer service team was fielding complaints on social media and via email. On top of that, some of the bags required customized embroidery, which meant even longer delays. Warehouse workers were pulling 10-hour shifts and picked up weekend hours to meet a 15,000 order backlog. 

“I understand. People are excited about that first day of school picture,” Tatelman says. “They bought this backpack and want their kids to have that moment of going back to school, the tradition, the whole thing.”

For Tatelman, the moment was gut-wrenching. Business was booming-and customers had never been so unhappy. “We couldn’t catch up,” Tatelman says. “I was like, ‘We have to say something.'”

To calm customers, State released a statement on Instagram, apologizing for the delays and offering an explanation. Tatelman attached her personal Instagram to the company’s post to show “this is a mom who is behind the company, so people can say, ‘Lemme look at who this person is.'” State also sent $50 giplaceholderft certificates to thank customers for their patience. 

It was a costly error, to be sure, but one that was jam-packed with lessons. 

Being transparent helped humanize the people behind the scenes, Tatelman says. While many wrote to her saying that she should take the post down, she said it felt authentic for the family-owned brand, which she founded alongside her husband Scot in 2013.

In the future, better communication both internally with a remote team, and externally with customers (like the pre-order pop-ups the company has since gotten rid of) could have helped alleviate the situation. It’s important not to “make decisions in a silo,” Tatelman says. Try to involve every part of the team to help anticipate problems you haven’t considered, she adds. 

Tatelman says she’s still working through delays, but she’s hopeful to be back on track soon. The company expects to fulfill orders up to the first week of August by Sunday, and it’ll be working through 500 of 6,500 remaining customer service tickets every day. 

The whole ordeal has kept her up at night. While she’s taking notes for next year, this time around, she’s just putting her head down and doing the work. After all, the only way out is through. There’s no secret playbook, says Tatelman, referring to what she’s done to get through the situation. “When it’s your business, there’s no way to escape it. This is the path we’re on, this is what we chose.”