How to Get Stocked in Shops in 6 Steps. Your Guide to Getting Your Clothing Brand into Boutiques and Retail Fashion Stores.
How to Get Stocked in Shops, Boutiques + Retail Stores
1. Prepare a Wishlist of Boutiques or stores
2. Put together your Wholesale Pricing List with Margins.
3. Prepare your Look Book or ‘Range Catalogue’
4. Clean up Your Social Media Accounts to reflect a strong brand aesthetic
5. Update your website with your best images, delete unprofessional ones and make sure your ‘About Us’ page is looking enticing
6. Create a ‘Wholesale Enquiry’ page on your website
Once you have prepared for wholesale and have all your pricelists ready, catalogs and website materials up to date, it’s time to start getting in front of buyers and getting eyes on your brand.
How to Find Boutique Buyers or Shops to Stock Your Product
This section of the article is about how to get stocked in shops without looking desperate! After all you want to create some hype about your product before it gets in front of the decision-makers. Before reaching out directly by phone or email to a clothing store or boutique to stock your brand, try to use the methods below to get in front of the right people in a subtle way before you pitch them. This will create subtle brand recognition.
1. Start Following Boutiques you like on Instagram and Facebook, and like and comment on their photos, with genuine and non spammy comments. If they are posting stories, make sure you comment on their stories, as this shows up as a message in their DM inbox. This is a subtle way for boutiques to get familiar with your label name, before you approach them about becoming a stockist.
2. Look for ‘buyers’ on linkedin. Many professional buyers for large departments stores have linked in accounts for their professional careers. Its amazing who you can actually find. You can search by profession as well as by store /company name. This technique is more for larger retail buyer finds.
3. Search hashtags ‘ buyer’ or ‘buyerslife’ on Instagram and start following personal accounts of the fashion buyers, as well as the business accounts they might buy for. This is not always easy to do, or a direct match, but sometimes you hit gold.
4. Use the same fashion models or influencers that the boutique/ store uses. The boutiques or shops you ‘really’ want to get stocked in… take a look at the models /muses and influencers that they have recently used in their social media. These are the ‘muses’ or influencers that they notice and follow. So, if you want to get subtly noticed- do a collaboration with those same models and bloggers / infleuncers. This is a way to get your brand seen on the ‘muses’ that the store already considers to be ‘in’ or ‘down’ with their customer or brand aesthetic, so they are likely to pay close attention to brands those ‘muses’ collab with.
5. Look for the ‘Stockists’ Lists on brand websites similar to you. If you are stuck on what shops to approach, find a similar brand to yours, and see if they have a ‘stockists’ list on their website. These are boutiques that already buy clothing similar to your brand, so are great targets! These stockist lists are a great way to quickly put together a ‘suggested retail store’ list to contact.
6. Search ‘Suggested for You’ on Instagram to find similar fashion boutiques you may not have seen before. Instagram also has a feature where if you follow one store or business, there is a ‘suggested for you’ feature that suggests other similar businesses. This means that you can easily find other similar boutiques to the one that you like, and add these to your contact list.
The above suggestions are how to get your brand in front of buyers, before directly contacting the buyer or store. Your are positioning yourself in front of the buyer, and doing very subtle branding before reaching out. Sometimes just following boutiques on social media and commenting is enough for the buyer to reach out to your directly to ask if you wholesale. Other times you will have to reach out yourself in a traditional way, but at least you have already had a presence and perhaps they have already viewed your Instagram before you contact them.
How to Contact a Store Owner or Fashion Buyer
- Visit the store’s website and obtain their HQ phone number or stores number
- Phone the store or HQ and ask for the ladieswear buyer
- Obtain the email address of the Ladieswear Buyer
- Email the Buyer your Look Book and Brand Info
- Include links to your social media accounts
- Follow up with a Phone call 1 day later
- Organize to send the buyer/ owner samples of your product
- Know your manufacturing times and delivery windows ahead of time
- Agree on terms and conditions
- Buyer writes the order and + you begin production.
How to get stocked in shops in the most professional way
So the most professional way to make contact with a fashion store to get your line stocked in their shop is to phone the store and ask for the name of their ‘ fashion buyer/ladieswear buyer’ and their email address.
From here you can email the buyer and address them personally by name. Make sure you have links to your website and social media in your email for easy reference. Include a paragraph about your brand DNA and aesthetic, and any unique points of difference. You want to include imagery of our label, as well as your Lookbook or Wholesale Catalog.
After sending the email Call the store again, and ask to be put through to the Fashion Buyer. ( Ask by name). Use this opportunity to do a quick small 30-second elevator pitch about your brand. Mention you have already emailed through the details of your brand. This gets your email opened, and makes it more personal. ( as we all have those emails from people we don’t know in our inbox and we sometimes ignore and never open. They are more likely to open it after receiving a phone call from you.)
From here, you will hopefully get an’ I’m interested’ response from the buyer, and can move to the next step. Prior to 2020 the next step might involve sending samples to the buyer for them to view the collection, or presenting a ‘range showing’ in their office. From here you will get an order form from the buyer with their qty and styles they would like, and delivery date!
It’s important to know how quickly you can manufacture prior to getting the wholesale order, so you can correctly advise the buyer on realistic lead times and delivery months. Buyers hate when stock arrives late- and sometimes terms and conditions allow them to cancel the order if it’s late. So it’s important you have spoken to your manufacturer before accepting the purchase order to make sure you can fulfill.
Starting a Fashion Label and Want a Fashion Mentor to Help You Succeed?
If you would like to be professionally mentored in Starting your own fashion line- to achieve the success of your line being stocked in retail stores around the world- enter your details below to get sent more details about our online fashion business course program!!
Top Tips to Get Your Line Picked Up By a Fashion Buyer- Interview
What is the most important thing designers should keep in mind when designing a range they hope will be picked up by a fashion retail buyer?
As a Fashion Buyer What do you look for in a Fashion Label ?
What Helps a Collection Sell?
La Mode College’s Key Points You Should Consider as a Designer:
- Have a strong brand ‘DNA’ and set out to be different from the rest!
- Make sure you invest in quality photos of your collection
- Get creative with your photography, and tell a story
- Make sure your production is on time, and you deliver to the retailer on time!
- Use Instagram bloggers, fashion bloggers and style influencers to get the word out there about your collection!
- Meet with the buyers personally if you can
- Above all- be true to yourself and your brand!
Starting a Fashion Label and Want a Fashion Mentor to help You Succeed?
