Establishing wholesale terms and sales policies
Posted by Kathleen Fasanella on Feb 17, 2009 at 2:08 pm / Fulfillment, Sales and Marketing / Trackback
The question below was posted in the forum, I don’t usually cross post between the two but since the search function in Word Press is so lousy, I thought I’d create an amalgamated post to highlight most of the entries on this subject as a refresher. I just wish I’d done it sooner, before everyone trotted off to Magic, some for their first launch.
Next week I have a meeting with the corporate menswear buyer of a small apparel chain on the west coast. My partner and I only have a few pieces to show for Fall 2009, but I don’t know information such as “start ship date” or “cancel date”, etc. Doesn’t this depend on when the buyer needs the product? Who dictates this? When should I assume we would ship for fall? How much time is there typically between a start ship date and a cancel date? What about terms? We are not set up for credit card orders, but would want to receive a check by the ship date. How is this stated on the line sheet? What if we would like 30% of the order at the time we cut the fabric, i.e. 8 weeks from delivery date?
As I said, we’ve discussed all these topics a lot so rather than rewrite what’s already been done, it’s best to feature the highlights in two sections. First are forum threads, second are blog entries. Be sure to read the comments on the blog entries! There’s a lot of information in comments recounting personal experiences.
Forum:
Sticky: Order forms and sales policies
What’s your return policy?
What sales terms should be included on sales order form?
What are your minimums?
Do you require deposits on wholesale orders?
What do you do if buyers cancel orders or don’t pay?
Are orders are a legal contract?
Selling Seasons
Making the transition from consumer direct to wholesale
Meeting with a buyer
And about 2,134 other threads judging from the looks of it.
Blog entries: Read the comments too!
Who sets delivery dates?
Timing of seasons
When are markets held?
Buyer’s timing calender
Establishing payment terms
The skinny on retail
Compromising with retailers
Selling clothes to stores
A retailer’s question on order cancellation dates
Net 30 and getting deposits for orders
Returns policies
Retail buyer complaints
5 Responses to “Establishing wholesale terms and sales policies”
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February 18th, 2009
8:31 AM
I can share my T&A (Time and Action Calendar) for product development and production – I will forward this to Kathleen’s direct E-mail and you can ask her.
You are most welcome to use it as a model to develop your own suitable for your particular business.
Pls. keep in mind that this is for a small Company manufacturing overseas.
Also our Market dates may be different than yours and everything is build around
Market. I hope you find it helpful.
February 18th, 2009
11:36 PM
this is so helpful to me as i am going to my first trade show in two weeks! so much for going to bed early!! i cautiously come to fashion incubator, because there is usually something very pertinent that i get sucked into! thanks again, kathleen for helping make this process a whole lot easier.
July 6th, 2010
11:29 PM
This is exactly the info I’m looking for as well (and the reason that I’m sleepless at 2:30am). Could one of you possibly share the T&A calendar with me as well if you see this late follow-up post? Thanks
July 7th, 2010
7:18 AM
Adam, I’ve posted a comment with the file upload location before but some comments keep disappearing and I don’t know why. It’s permanently stored on our forum in the technical documents library. Rita’s T&A is also known as a production schedule and is similar to the one in my book but hers is specialized to her product type.
July 20th, 2012
5:21 PM
[...] In a nutshell, this no-name store gives you 100-200 square feet of space for nothing once you’ve paid a “set up” cost of $1,000 to $5,000. You’ll need to have a person on the floor to sell your stuff ($$$ in wages), and fixtures and displays ($$) to say nothing of product ($$$$). Once you sell something, you get 60% of the sale with no specifics on how timely payments are made to you or anything else for that matter. I’m guessing that if they have any takers for this deal, designers will be cycled from the front of the store to the back if their stuff doesn’t sell because the store won’t settle for 40% of nothing when they can resell that slot to someone else for $5,000. Over and over. That’s not the worst of it. “Deals” like this seem to grow legs and pretty soon, that sets expectations for people who have limited experience. Plenty of people who have been around will tell you this is not the norm. You’re better off being old school when it comes to establishing wholesale terms and sales policies. [...]