Tag: fashion store

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?

• 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!