Comments on: What should my wholesale minimums be?

By: Diane

Diane — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 15:24:46 +0000

It sounds like a confusion of “personals” with “minimums”. If a line can afford to offer personals I say, great, exposure especially on fashionable folk is a big plus. Whether one can do personals is often a function of ones CFO or factor and shipping policies. What I would really appreciate input on is the full range of terms and minimums. This information is almost impossible to obtain. When my company did not impose minimums we often bore the brunt of nasty returns from stores enraged that another store carried our line. When buyers are simply “cherry-picking” it is hard to avoid conflicts. However when we began to have minimums we were faced with ugly scenes at trade shows as buyers would actually become verbally abusive and storm out of our booth over minimums. Of course other lines have minimums but I feel like a spy ferreting this information out. Why the secrecy?

By: Timo Rissanen

Timo Rissanen — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 16:19:37 +0000

Great post! Whilst I didn’t have minimums, I used to offer a discount for orders that were (I think – this was six years ago) for orders placed in a 1-2-2-1 ratio, as in S-M-L-XL (or alternately, XS-S-M-L – I used to sell a fair bit to skinny boys). I think the discount was 5% and I had quietly added it to the wholesale price, of course. Most retailers went for the discount. I did this after the first season to discourage bitsy ordering, of which only really one retailer was guilty of. She certainly didn’t order for herself as this was menswear, but it used to kill me to walk into her store and see how my things were merchandised (or rather, not). It was a mess and the shop is but a distant memory now. On more than one occasion, I filled a single-garment order with the sample; never got one returned, even when the size was wrong. Of course this was years before I found Kathleen and the book. I might still be doing what I did then had I come here earlier – though no regrets about where life has taken me since!

By: Kate Rawlinson

Kate Rawlinson — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 21:03:24 +0000

Just out of interest, have you also changed your position on buying fabric wholesale for personal use? I noticed that in the book you say you shouldn’t buy fabric from your wholesale suppliers to make clothes for yourself, but what if those clothes are effectively samples?

By: Morgan

Morgan — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 21:21:03 +0000

another incredibly insightful musing on this ever-changing industry. i can’t express how invaluable everything on the site is….!

By: Marie-Christine

Marie-Christine — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 11:18:34 +0000

That makes a lot of sense. Yes, gratitude decay is a big factor in balancing being able to buy someone else’s products at wholesale vs them buying yours. But I completely agree that if I were to spend a lot on a product (especially from someone I didn’t know very well) I’d like to be able to give it a good test run. Can I wash the blouse, is shrinkage appropriate, does the bag wear well more than a month, can I put the library books in it? Some quality problems leap out at you, some are only evident in wearing. Radically new designs especially need to be tested in real life (I don’t do capes because I like backpacks, etc).
It’s true that someone who buys your stuff may well also recommend it to someone else who does buy it, and you may never know. It may even be that someone sees your stuff on them and orders it because of that, then you’ll really never know. Good reputation isn’t something you can follow and quantify, it needs to be reflected in all actions all the time.

By: Marguerite Swope

Marguerite Swope — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 16:57:02 +0000

When I say I sell at wholesale at shows, these are trade shows not open to the public. My sales are to other vendors or stores. I consider it a professional courtesy and expect the same in return. We all shop each other at shows. In no way are we competing with our stores–$1000 is a lot of personal sales to me, but in the grand scheme of nationwide sales, it’s nothing and doesn’t hurt my stores.

Marguerite

By: Carla Dawn

Carla Dawn — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 16:39:42 +0000

Interesting post, really each company has to figure this out for themselves, selling individually at wholesale may make sense for some, but not others. When I wholesaled, I would allow personals only within an order of the same, but my minimums were very low on many items (as low as 3) usually based on cuttings- I did not want to be left with odd-one off skins at the end of a run and since I offered fabrications that changed continually this made sense. I generally did not sell personals to buyers who did not carry lines like mine. Or to any “buyer” out of the blue, unless the item could be added to an existing cutting and was 100% pre-paid (with a surcharge) . Never, ever wholesale terms. Otherwise I got their info so they could be informed of any sample sales.

By: Barb Taylorr

Barb Taylorr — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 14:11:50 +0000

Great post, I agree that there can be more to gain by allowing people to buy one-offs than you are likely to ever lose. Store owners know other store-owners & if it’s not right for thier customers it may be perfect for their friends who were not at the show. Networking is more than just talking to people.
In regards to minimums, isn’t there a relation to lean production here? If you don’t want to fill your warehouse with goods that you have no orders for, it follows that you need to respect that same concern for your customers. If you have set up your manufacturing in a way that allows you to build to order & deliver quickly, you should be able to fill smaller orders, and encourage customers to reorder as needed. That keeps their shelves full of the colors and sizes that are selling!

By: kathleen

kathleen — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 12:08:46 +0000

have a minimun on my items because if I sold at wholesale to anyone who asked

I never said and will never say, to sell wholesale to anyone. I regret my entry was not interpreted as I intended it to be.

By: Teresa

Teresa — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 07:31:45 +0000

I have a minimun on my items because if I sold at wholesale to anyone who asked I would take business away from the retailers and galleries that carry my handwoven, hand dyed garments and yarns. I need to have those galleries and stores stay in business. It is part of my food chain. I also need them to carry my items and why should they carry something at retail if I sell at wholesale to anyone?