Anybody sell their wares wholesale to resellers? Need advice!

[lisas3575]

We're starting to get a few inquiries about carrying our maternity shirts at retail shops! :) Exciting stuff, only we have no clue how that works. Right now we're selling direct to consumers via our website. We know the cost per shirt, and what we're charging retail-- is wholesale typically midway between the two?

Any tips on how we should offer the line? Right now the shirts are made to order (one offs), but we'd screenprint to offer to resellers. Trouble is, we have over 60 designs, and each design requires a minimum of 36 shirts for screenprinting. We don't have the capital to get them all done and have on hand. What should we do? :o We'd also consider consignment, but I'm not sure how that works, either.

Thanks for any experience you can pass along!

[DanaSD]

Have you checked to see if you have a local SCORE office? This is a great resource for small businesses and they offer FREE counseling and can help you with this kind of thing. There's also the small business association which offers additional resources.

I'm also dealing with setting wholesale prices. I'm not planning on discounting much for wholesale because it still takes me a lot of effort to make each of my products. For your products its a little different. Also remember its not just the cost of the shirt but your overhead that you need to cover (website, shipping, marketing, insurance, etc). At a small business class I took, they said don't do consignment if you can avoid it.

good luck and thats exciting

[lisas3575]

Thank you, Dana! I'd totally forgotten about SCORE and Opportunity Knocks. I didn't realize that they offer advice online, too (there's no chapter in my city). I've sent a request for advice. Thank you! :)

Glad to hear that your business is moving forward, too!

[BlueMoose]

Cute shirts Lisa! Shop owners generally expect to pay half of retail. For a lot of people who make handmades that just isn't do-able. If you are able to offer your shirts at wholesale and still make an acceptable profit, maybe you could start by offering the 10 most popular designs to shops to start with.

Good luck and congratulations!
Chrisi :)

[jmarie]

Shop owners generally expect to pay half of retail.

Exactly and since you are selling them for 29.99 on the web, they would like to buy them for around 14.99 from you....and then, they, most likely, would expect a break if they purchased a huge amount of them.

Congratulations on taking a clever idea and running with it!

I envy you!
Joyce

[Peweh]

That's so EXCITING!! I'm glad your biz is really taking off.

If you have a few shops interested in resale, I'd recommend picking your top 3-4 shirts and having them screened and then sell each shop a dozen or so of each design. Like others said, typically resellers look to spend no more than half of resale value for their inventory. But depending on their market, they may be able to get more than you can on the website per shirt. I think your idea of looking at cost per shirt vs. 29.95 and meeting halfway for wholesale cost would be a good starting point, but you may have to go a little lower to get the retail stores to invest in the inventory. As your wholesale base increases you can look at reducing this cost for bulk orders, repeat buyers, etc... think of it this way, it's a LOT less work on your part to click and order a dozen shirts for a sure sale than it is to print-to-order for your one time website sales, process the transaction, and ship.

I would also make sure the re-sold shirts had a tag displaying your website. A nice form of free advertising!!