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How to sell to retailers/boutiques

Hello,

I wanted to know when I go to retailers/ boutiques how do I go about discussing the money aspect of it? Do I sell my clothing line at wholesale price or do I sell it per unit? Do I ask them to pay for half of production up front?

Thanks,

Tiffany

Tags: business, fashion, how, retail, retailers, sale, to

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Permalink Reply by Fashion Business Designer™ on June 29, 2011 at 1:45pm

Hey, Tiffany!

Congrats for deciding to become a fashion business independent!!! :) We need more entrepreneurial fashion people to challenge big corporations, and huge conglomerates to make this industry a fair marketplace!

Anyway, when you wholesale you go and sell directly to businesses (i.e. boutique owners or buyers from big department stores ), or you hiring an sales agent or distributor, or you use an own or third-party showroom. Usually you "sell" your collection to buyers in advance of your sale season getting forward orders (promises to buy) in trade fairs. If we were very lucky and we lived in Utopia Land, the boutique owner or big retail buyer would pay fashion designer an advance payment that will cover its costs for production (but in reality this commonly occurs with bridal, haute couture or any other designers that sell made-to-order garments for its private customers)!

You can develop a wholesale price structure. For instance you can offer your buyer "if you buy me 30 to 50 outfits/piece/etc I'll give you $100 per unit, but if you buy me between 10 to 30 I'll cost you $215 each outfit/piece/etc".

Feel free to ask if you have more questions. :)

Rod

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Permalink Reply by Tiffany Freeman on July 8, 2011 at 10:08am

Thanks! this was very helpfully

Also when is the best time to show buyers Spring and Fall samples for buyers to make orders and to hit stores in time?

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Permalink Reply by Fashion Business Designer™ on July 8, 2011 at 10:30am

Hi, Tiffany!

Well, thank you!

Spring, Fall? You mean both main seasons, right? Or did you mean to say Autumn/Winter (September/October) or Summer/Spring (February/March)?

In any case, I'll assume you are offering wholesale ready-to-wear.

So Autumn/Winter would hit stores in September/October) and Summer/Spring would arrive in stores in February/March. Therefore trading for A/W typically would be done August to January; and for S/S, January to July.

If you were doing pre-collections you could present your samples 3 months ahead of main seasonal catwalks shows. Additional selling periods are available if you can replenish your goods throughout the season (think about providing festive ranges, precollections, cruise lines or preseasonals, or supplying "short orders" for fast fashion multiples, etc.).

Rod.

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Permalink Reply by Paulinajo on October 10, 2011 at 7:43pm

Hi Tiffany, if you use http://maeok.com you can set the delivery dates in to the future and in essence collect the money up front. The big department stores don't work this way though, they usually want 60 to 90 days.