What To Keep In Mind While Purchasing Wholesale Clothing

What To Keep In Mind While Purchasing Wholesale Clothing

In case you plan to start your own clothes boutique, it makes a lot of sense to know how to buy wholesale clothing from the market. This is a B2B transaction which would be done between your boutique and the clothing distributor. The purpose is to purchase the material at the distributor’s price, mark it up, and then sell it to the consumer.   

What if you wish to place an order outside the country?

There are clothing distributors who purchase the clothing material you are looking for and then sell it in your own country, but after adding importing fees and taxes. Of course, when the clothes line you are looking to purchase is one-of-a-kind, there is no option but to go through with this purchase. If that’s not the case, always search for a distributor who has shops in your city and can easily supply there. By virtue of purchasing from the distributor’s office in the same country, you are bound to face fewer logistical issues.

Is it a good idea to purchase wholesale clothing from a new supplier?

Any new supplier should be able to supply exactly what you need, or else there is no point sticking to his or her business. Unfortunately there are a number of suppliers who seem to have established themselves in the market since a long time, but are actually just sourcing products. While looking to make a purchase, you must ask them where the products are made, or else supply could become difficult at a later date.   

Setting the payment terms

Among the various aspects of knowing how to buy wholesale clothing, payment is an important component. In most cases, the wholesale clothing industry works on the 50-50 principle, where 50% is paid in advance and 50% upon delivery. It makes sense to pay 100% upfront only to those genuine suppliers for whom you have been customers for a fairly long period of time.  

What are the return policies?

Before you place an order for wholesale clothing, it is always a good idea to find out the details with respect to the returns policy on a particular product. You must ask the supplier upfront about the same. At times, money back is also part of the policy, or the manufacturer may return the money after deducting the restocking fee.

There are sections in the above policy which also apply to the late arrival of your product, and you need to find out about whether you get credit for the future or not.

While trying to understand how to buy wholesale clothing, a critical part is to get the material within a specified time. For this, you need to match the lead times of a particular supplier with the time on hand for you. In most cases, products are shipped on the same day as they have been ordered.  

Not all products are manufactured from scratch; there are many of them which are assembled as well. Wholesale clothing companies or vendors get these clothes dyed as per supplier requirements. The minimum quantity that needs to be ordered is not fixed, through there can be differences.

by Anna M – July 17, 2020