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November 8, 2016June 18, 2023

SALES: The Ultimate Checklist To Prepare Your Meeting With A Fashion Buyer

Bonjour Fashion designers,
Since many of you enjoyed our article explaining how to prepare a meeting with a fashion buyer, we summed up the key points in a checklist with 18 advice.

Before the meeting: Understand the store

Prepare this phase by researching information about the store on the internet, asking other people from the industry or maybe by other brand owners who already worked with them.

1 – What kind of fashion brands do they sell (Style, ethics, origin,…)?
2 – Do they actually buy the pieces or do they work on consignment?
3 – Who are their customers? Understand their lifestyle.
4 – What are their commission rates?
5 – What are their payment terms?

Be able to present your fashion brand

6 – What is your fashion brand concept about?
7 – How does your collection compare with the competitors?
8 – Who is your target customer? Briefly describe how your pieces fit in with their lifestyle.
9 – What is your long term vision for your line?

Prepare your collection properly and organize your documents to ease the fashion buyers’ review

10 – Are all your samples ready and well made?
11 – Do you have a Line Document, a Collection Plan and/or a Marketing Plan?

12 – Does your line document, collection plan and/or marketing plan include these items for each garment in your collection:

The number of pieces
The size options available
The color options available
The fabric options available
The price point – with a detail between wholesale and a suggested retail price

13 – Tag your samples so that you can connect them easily with the items named in your document (with a photo of the garment with a plain/white background for example)
14 – Are you able to provide enough inventory for a large order? For your answer, also take the payment terms information collected into account.

Be prepared to close the deal

15 – How will your fashion brand relate with the store’s current customers? Or will it attract a new potential customer base?

16 – What is your merchandising strategy?
17 – Are you prepared to take the risk if the collection doesn’t sell?

On D-Day, have fun

18 – To finish, make the fashion buyers comfortable, offer some drinks and snacks and relax. Everything will go well!
We keep our fingers crossed for you!

November 2, 2016

SALES: The 6 Key Success Factors To Sell Fashion Online

Hi Guys,
Trends are unanimous: online shopping registers a massive growth (+22% as of February 2016) and outscores brick-and-mortar fashion businesses with a shift from 49% to 51% of total purchases in 2016. Launching an online fashion business is not only less costly but also more likely to grow. That is provided that you do it properly. Here are some advice that we summarized after meeting a few successful online fashion businesses.
Have a clear concept, be consistent
As explained in The Fashion Business Plan and in most of our articles, a clear brand concept and coherence is rule number one to build a successful fashion business.
Why? Firstly because all the fashion professionals (fashion journalists, buyers, PR, photographers, movie producers, investors,…) will ask you the same question: “What is your concept?”. And secondly if your vision is unclear, you will not be able to translate it in a sufficiently striking image and a proper existing lifestyle, meaning you will not be able to reach an adequate target customer. Hence you won’t be able to optimize your sales.

Maybe you’ll sell randomly, but not as much as you could if you had a clear concept. The lack of a clear vision made the best of Michael Kors’s mean quotes on Project Runway:

You don’t want to be the next Teletubby party dresser so take a pen and a piece of paper and write down what your brand DNA is about.
Have a good website that mirrors your fashion concept
All the successful online fashion brands told us the same: a beautiful website that speaks for your brand DNA is a must have. It’s always baffling when fashion brand wannabes arrive on this already overcrowded industry with cheap-looking websites they just quickly made by themselves, on the ground that their products are good enough. However good your pieces are, trying to sell them through an odd-looking website is a loss of time these days.

Furthermore, to maximize your impact, ensure that it reflects the DNA of your fashion brand.
Invest in good pictures
Again all the online fashion brand owners we spoke to agreed that good pictures are a compulsory investment. You need to have neat HD photos of your prototypes, worn by a model who incarnates your brand DNA. Unless you sell your clothes just to earn a few bucks to make both ends meet, if you want to go big with your fashion business, you need to invest in high quality photos. Some fashion designers we know use the strength of their concept to negotiate the prices and collaborate with professional photographers.
You will need to have at least a photograph of each piece with a plain (mostly white) background. If you can, also have lookbook pictures made, showcasing your design in the lifestyle and the spirit of your brand DNA.
Test and validate your concept

You will firstly need to identify what makes your fashion unique, which brings us back to the fashion brand DNA. On the basis of your written notes, tell a compelling story that embodies your concept.
A good method we heard of to test and validate your fashion concept is to think of three different stories that best represent your brand unique value proposition and put them on three different landing pages.
Validate the concept according to which landing page better worked in terms of number of subscriptions.
Build a community

Each landing page and your website should be able to capture e-mail contacts to send further newsletters.
Use social media to convey your fashion brand DNA

Whether with Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or Snapchat, you can use social media to promote your fashion business. The pictures you post should reflect your target customer’s lifestyle. Also use a tone that is coherent with your brand DNA and speaks to your client.

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Build your fashion brand DNA

Find more tools to help you in the number one FXF guide. “The Fashion Business Plan” by Bako Rambini is available on Amazon.

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June 21, 2016June 18, 2023

SALES : How To Best Pitch Your Collection To A Fashion Buyer

Hi Guys,
Designing acohesive collection is not everyone’s cup of tea. Creating a link between your creative instincts and the consumer needs require skill.. But according to industry professionals that’s the easy part when it comes to selling fashion. Your actual challenge as a designer begins when you have to approach retail or fashion buyers in order to pitch your collection so that it can reach your target consumer well within the time and season limits. Below you will find some useful tips from how to catch a buyer’s attention to getting them to purchase your collection:

Getting a meeting with a fashion buyer

– Research Research Research:
The basic and most time-consuming step begins with conducting a detailed and in-depth research of which fashion buyers can best help you reach your clients. The trick here is to determine which niche you will serve and accordingly look for a retail outlet or buyer in that geographic area.
– Getting a meeting with the buyer:
In order to ensure that the buyers actually agree to see you, you can either contact them through telephone, emails or send a letter by post. Needless to say, you might not get a response at the first go, hence a lot of constant pursuing will be required on your part. While sending them a mail or making the first approach, a lot of designers make a mistake of reserving the strongest pieces for the actual sales pitch which in fact does more harm than good. Hence, make sure that you send the strongest pieces from your collection to get the buyers’ attention so that they agree to see the rest of what you have to offer.

Preparing for the meeting

– Preparing the First Introduction:
Once you have got the coveted meeting with the buyer, make sure you cover all the important information you want to communicate. During the meeting, the buyers like to see actual clothing as it woould look in their store. Hence, make sure that all the samples are of the highest quality. Furthermore, do not compromise on the presentation. When the buyers arrive to see you, treat them as your most cherished guests, preparing in advance, welcome drinks and snacks. Do not give them any opportunity to raise red flags against you.
– Ensuring Technical Information:
As a fashion buyer, your client is interested not only in the looks but also the technical specification of your product, eg. How many pieces of each garment are there in your collection? What colour options, or fabric options you have for your pieces? What is the average price point? What size options do you have int he collection? How does your collection compare with the competitors? You have to make sure that you present all these aspects with the help of a Line Document / Collection Plan and or a Marketing Plan so that it is clear enough for the buyer to read.

What’s in it for me?

Just like in any other sales pitch, you can avoid the question ‘What’s in it for the buyer?’. Buyers only buy from people they like, trust and depend on. Hence instead of just going on about how good your product is, try to establish a connection of trust and faith with your audience. You can prepare in advance for questions like:
– Can you provide enough inventory for a large order?
– Do you have a long term/ seasonal vision for your line?

– Will your line speak to current customers?
– Will it attract new potential Client base?
– Do you have a merchandising strategy in place?
– Are you willing to take the risk if the collection doesn’t sell?
If you are able to satisfy these basic concerns of your buyers, you have more than a favourable chance of selling your collection and potentially developing a strong business relation.
by Varun Gupta for Fashion Cross Functional

More information on:
–http://www.thedesigntrust.co.uk/approach-craft-gallery-design-shop-successfully/
– http://startupfashion.com/buyers-meeting
Crédits:
– Photo 1 | Source: Photography by Elizabeth Monge | Stylist: Rauf Noorie | Location: Villagio – Fashion Outlet Chicago Mall

– Photo 2 | Designer: Katharina Domokosch, London College of Fashion 2012
– Photo 3 | Designer: Ivana Pilja

May 31, 2016

SALES: 7 Tips To Improve Your Sales Process And Sell Your Luxury Fashion Pieces

Source: Creative commons – Anya Kvitka (#6166) by mark sebastian

Hi all,

Exchanging with my clients made me realize how painful it was for them to go through the sales process. Is it because you made the piece and you fear others’ judgement ? Are you afraid that the price of your pieces may not reflect their inner value ? Well, when it comes to selling, most fashion designers are reluctant and dream of a magic agent who would do that for them. However, you may not be able to hire one for the moment.
And yet, you may operate a shift in your sales just by changing your focus. What if you stopped focusing on your fears and just thought of the reason why you started designing at the first place and created your pieces ?
People are not buying a mere item. They are buying an idea.
Selling luxury fashion is a matter of emotion.
Passion.

So after our article about marketing tips revealing 7 secrets to sell luxury pieces, here are a few tips from “Selling to the New Elite” by Stephen Kraus, James Taylor and Doug Harrison to help you communicate your passion to your customers.

Demonstrate your customer you love showing them your fashion pieces. Share your authentic passion for what you do and for your products. An interesting way to practice and prepare is to remember your most satisfying interactions with customers. Also describe what you sincerely like in the products and services you sell, go into the details of the fabric, the draping, the cut, the way the color stands out…
Master the art of storytelling. Practice by crafting detail-rich stories about :

you and the origin of your brand.
The origin of a collection and specific pieces. Why not share the ideas you had when you made your moodboard ?
What makes your high-end pieces different from mainstream products. Maybe it’s the technicity of a certain stitch they have been traditionnally doing in your culture ? or the way you use a certain pearl you can only find in one region of the world ?
How your company treats customers and employees extremely well. Maybe you also pursue an old family tradition that you implemented in the way you interact with people ?

Look for a shared interest to deepen the relationship. Observe your customers, try to understand what they may be into, notice what they wear, the stories they tell. Make a discrete self-disclosure and observe whether it is reciprocated.
Present your atelier, your boutique or your showrom, the way a museum docent would. Offer your clients a tour. Show them objects that mean something to your brand and tell them the stories behind. Place your story in the historical context, highlight the origin of the pieces you created, go into the fabrics, the materials and the techniques you used.
Create a ritual of celebration when your customers buy a piece. As they described in Selling to the New Elite by Stephen Kraus, James Taylor and Doug Harrison « Consider Hermès. Sales associatesdon’t slap your purchase in a bag and hand it across the counter casually. It is carefully wrapped in a signature orange The sales associate typically comes out from behind the counter. He or she presents it to you respectfully, with both hands, and expresses happiness for your purchase. »
Ask questions that show your passion and enthusiasm :

Do you want to see something you can’t see anywhere else ?
Do you want to know what really makes this brand different from other ones ?
Do you want to see something truly exceptional about this dress ?
Do you know what first excited me about this fabric ?

Be happy. A Harrison Group and American Express Publishing survey of affluence and wealth in America in 2010 showed that 71% of the affluent describe themselves as happy. Your customers do not shop to be happy, they shop because they are happy. And the best way to reach out to them is to be happy yourself.

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Find out how to build a cohesive sales strategy and other tools to write your fashion business plan, with the number one FXF guide. “The Fashion Business Plan” by Bako Rambini is available on Amazon.

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To receive more fashion sales and marketing articles and fashion designer tools, follow us