Suppliers?????

I am also looking to open a boutique selling good quality women's clothes from small designers. I found the website for the Pure exhibition very helpful (google will bring up the url).

Like Nikki I am new to this industry and I haven't yet approached suppliers yet as I want to be able to talk the lingo first! So can Nige explain what MOQ and forward/short orders mean? Also can you recommend any good books - I have only found one textbook which is really geared at fashion buying degree students and one written by an american about the US market, neither particularly helpful.

Thanks, Emily

WARNING LONG POST

Hi Emily,

Sorry for the use of acronyms, MOQ means Minimum Order Quantity. This varies from supplier to supplier, established suppliers often put a figure on the minimum order, some I have used in the past will quote between £1000 and £2000, this is generally to discourage the market stall end of the business and creates a certain amount exclusivity against their brand. Other suppliers will often have a MOQ set in units, so they may say a minimum of 20 pieces or 4 pieces of each style. Again some will relax this policy after the first order.

Forward Orders - Many suppliers protect themselves by only dealing in forward orders, this means that at the trade shows like Pure ( twice a year at Earls Court) buyers will need to place a complete order based on the samples the suppliers are showing. The suppliers then get these manufactured over the next few months and when they are ready they take a payment from the buyer and dispatch the stock. With this type of ordering there is very little chance of repeat ordering, so if you have a line that is moving well it can be annoying that you don't have enough stock to meet the demand. So you need to get your buying right at the shows.

Short Orders generally work in the same way but the supplier will often order additional pieces and if you have a line that is moving well then the supplier may be able to re-supply you mid season. There are not too many suppliers that work this way as it increases the chance of them getting left with stock. In general I have found that suppliers that have retail outlets as well as wholesale are more likely to work with short orders.

I am not aware of any books, we have been fortunate enough to employ staff that have come from a retail background, our manager used to run a large GAP store and comes with a great deal of experience. We accept that there are people out there that know more about our business than we do.

As far as buying goes it has been a case of learning on the job, we have made some mistakes but learnt from them and generally not bought from those suppliers again.

You will often find that the trade shows will run free seminars over the 2-3 days and we have picked up some great pointers from them.

The best system we use for buying effectively is to categorise our stock by price for example a gown that sells for £125 to £150 is cat A, £151 to £175 cat B etc. We then look at our sales data over the year and can see that 30% of our sales were cat A, if our stock holdings are 50% of cat A then we are clearly over stocked there and will buy less in that price range at the shows.

I trust this makes some sense.

Regards,

Nige
www.minxeveningwear.com

Sorry error!

Nikki,

When you visit the trade shows the suppliers almost always print on the labels when the items are available for delivery, if not ask them and then allow another 4 weeks for safety!

You may also find that they will have a rail the shows exsisting stock, if you think that any of the lines will stand up for the winter season then you will probably be able to get hold of that stock earlier.

Can I ask which part of the country you are thinking of opening in?

HTH

Nige
www.minxeveningwear.com

Hi Emily,

The reason I ask is there are a couple of places (I'm sure there are more) that you can go and buy short order stock direct from wholesalers without the hassle of trawling the trade shows.

As I am based up north I tend to use Manchester, and Leeds but in your neck of the woods you might want to go and park your bike around Finsbury Park in London. In general you will still need to buy to a minimum amount (maybe a couple of hundred quid) but these can be useful ways of getting stock a little cheaper; particularly important at the start when cash flow is crucial.

A clichés for you:

God is in the detail - If you get stock cheap then it can be made to feel (appear) a lot more expensive with some clever packaging. I am sure I am going to offend someone with this remark but I stand by it all the same.
Women are a lot more emotional in their shopping than men! If you are selling to women then many of them will leave a shop happy that they are carrying there purchase in a stylish looking bag (60pish each) irrespective that they have just spent £50 or more! One of our packaging details is to place the till receipt into a small folded card of the same size, the card has our logo, website and contact details printed on it. As a man I am amazed at the amount of positive comments we get from this, we want to continue the experience throughout their time in the shop and beyond.

HTH

Nige
www.minxeveningwear.com