Congratulations. Now you are in front of the fashion buyers and they're interested in your collection, you have been able to sell them with your amazing sales materials logbooks, land sheets, web presence. At this point, you're asking yourself, how can you make it beneficial to yourself? Before you can visit buyers in their office, you have to be prepared and know what you need to negotiate with them. The very first thing that you need to negotiate is your payment terms. certain companies will want to pay your net 30 which means that they will pay within 30 days after the product arrives.
Others will pay 60 or even 90 days. This is the common practice in the fashion industry and you have to be familiar with this terminology. However, you can always ask for 30 or 50% of downpayment and announce your terms. With thumb stores, especially those that are less than two years on the market, I would not recommend going less than 100% of prepayment. You don't want to go with an order. And then to find that by the time you produce it, the store will be closed.
Now you don't want this situation. Sometimes rather than placing an order a buyer will offer consignment at this store. The buyer won't buy the product, but they will put it in the store and pay you for anything the consumers buy. And here is the thing. To me, it's very unfair conditions. However, dry exceptions.
If you really value this store, and it has a lot of potential for your line, it's okay to go with consignment in the beginning. But you should pre agree with this story. That you will do consignment for a certain period like three to six months maximum, and then will require an order from them. Second, it's always good to calculate in advance at which point you can give a discount, you need to collect orders to meet the production minimums, right. So you have to stimulate buyers to order more from you. For example, you can give the price of $100 for ordering 10 items per item or you can give $95 for ordering 20 items per item.
Or you can give a 10% discount for an order starting at $5,000. So you really need to prepare those level of discounts in advance before the meeting and use this instrument to negotiate and offer a better terms. Another thing to discuss and negotiate his logistics. First of all, you should know exactly what your delivery time is and be ready to announce when you will be able to deliver the order. Second, you should know how you ship your products from the factory with labels and need pre packed or from your distribution center the warehouse. In the beginning you will take care of the shipping costs so it's better to find out where you need to deliver the order.
Next, Next, you need to understand what exclusives you can offer to this client. What products from your collection Can you give them for exclusivity or maybe in special colors? Remember, stores don't want to sell the same items. So they will often ask a designer for exclusivity. So note for you be proactive and have in mind what you can give them for exclusivity. Then show them your willingness to collaborate.
Ask about promotional tools such as free samples, Corp advertising or trunk shows, of course free samples here I mean that you are ready to provide free samples for them. Anyway, your goal is to show that you want to make efforts to stimulate demand for your product and generate traffic to their store. Overall, my recommendation is to announce your terms and then negotiate. Don't push too hard in the beginning as your goal is to close this sale. Even this day, yes, but don't agree to all your terms. It could be okay for the first time.
Remember, you need to close the sale.