Opening & Operating a Retail Store / Boutique (Brick & Mortar or On-Line)

[luisa]

this thread is so informative.
when does one usually do the buying for fall winter?

 

[kimberwyn]

^Fall market is coming up in LA next month!

 

[F0F0]

From a strategic point of view, and specially if you are going small, is preferable to serve your (G)LOCAL market, play NICHE and/or focus all your efforts in CUSTOMER SERVICE! Lot's of independents around the world are struggling now and this will certainly continue to happen with the globalisation, conglomerates, and huge mergers and acquisitions (think LVMH)! ¬¬

Set your FINANCIAL GOALS first and then a choose a MARKET WITH ENOUGH POTENTIAL to achieve those! Think about a market that:
* Has/will have LOTS OF CONSUMERS WITH MONEY AND WILLINGNESS to buy
* Will require you a MINIMUM INVESTMENT (i.e. going online)
* Is EMERGING
* Is COMPETITIVE ATTRACTIVE (few or no predatory competitors at all)
* Offers a MINIMUM RISK (like having a site and working from home, or in a physical location where you'll have lots of repeat costumers -instead of creating new ones)
* Will quickly give you a lots of knowledge and experience that you can later LEVERAGE and SCALE
* Will give you happy PROFITS!

Well, that sounded like founding heaven on earth but if you happen to find a market that complies with all these LET ME KNOW!!!! hahahaha

 

[BetteT]

FOFO ... thank you so much for sharing in all of these threads!!

This is exactly what makes tFS sucn a great resource.

 

[zolaisabella]

Hi boys and girls,

So glad to have found this thread and got some really useful information. However I still have some things that I'm not too clear about that hopefully someone can help with:

- If I start an online fashion business and I want to buy from certain trade shows such as Coterie, which I believe showcases many contemporary labels, is it accurate for me to say that their minimums will definitely be "low"? What exactly is a definition of low?

- If I'm traveling to NYC to buy and have to get all my stock shipped overseas, where I'm based - what fees will this attract on the American side? Is there a resource that I can check for this?

Would appreciate some advice, if any TIA!

 

[F0F0]

Hi boys and girls,

So glad to have found this thread and got some really useful information. However I still have some things that I'm not too clear about that hopefully someone can help with:

- If I start an online fashion business and I want to buy from certain trade shows such as Coterie, which I believe showcases many contemporary labels, is it accurate for me to say that their minimums will definitely be "low"? What exactly is a definition of low?

- If I'm traveling to NYC to buy and have to get all my stock shipped overseas, where I'm based - what fees will this attract on the American side? Is there a resource that I can check for this?

Would appreciate some advice, if any TIA!

Hi, zolaisabella and welcome to the forum!

Regarding your first question I'd say it is difficult to tell because each designer/label will have its own definition of low based, among other things, on their sales and marketing goals, mark ups and manufacture processes, and also it will depend on the categories they're into (accessories, apparel, footwear), the type of trade show they are participating (for emerging labels, established brands, mix of both; also consider the type of buyer the show is targeting), their commercial terms, their negotiating power, their seriousness for doing business, their type and size of their target buyers (they can even have different price structures for different channels!)...Of course, it will also depend on your targeted consumer and your product offer and if you are a new or established e-tailer!

Sounds complex, right? Well, it is!

So think from designer/brand perspective to get yourself an idea on what to expect. If I were a designer with a small contemporary womenswear label and this is my first trade exhibition, and I've been here for two days without any relevant whole-sale made and today is the last on show, and miraculously a foreign accent, tFS buyer shows up in my stall and introduce her or himself as a brand new e-tailer I'd try to sale him/her, in a desperate measure, at least the minimum volume of sales that will let me run a production without paying the premium prices at manufacturing level (both for sourcing and production), so I can afford to pay back exhibition costs! In this situation seller's negotiation power is very low compared to buyer's. So, unbeknowned to buyer, in this hypothetical situation he/she can set its own minimums to buy (specially if it has good credit history)! Is it possible? Oh, yeah! . This situation happens a lot with emerging designers/labels and this in part explains why they don't survive more than 2-3 seasons.

But even established e-tailers are having difficult times, in this case by fierce competition -both online and offline- coming from emerging web players as the multichannel apparel stores (i.e. H&M), fashion aggregators and media sites (i.e. Polyvore), and marketplaces (i.e. eBay). Independent fashion e-tailers should focus on serving attractive consumer segments (or niches) and differentiate their offers in order to survive growing competition and constant change. So before going to any trade show buyer's should first ask themselves who are their consumers so to develop a customer-centric digital marketing strategy and be ahead of the curve when dealing with sellers. Failure to plan is planning to fail. B)

And as for the second question, I'm glad you asked it because it is critical for buyers to understand the costs involved in exporting/importing before buying anything because of the huge impact this can have on their businesses! . So costs will depend on agreed Incoterms, AND if designer/brand knows or does exporting. Get familiar with Incoterms and try to avoid any of the following: exWorks, CIF and FOB In your case seller should be responsible for dealing with everything involved in moving the goods from the manufacturing plant to your door. Therefore duties, taxes and delivery fees should be included in the wholesale price.

 

[zolaisabella]

Hi, zolaisabella and welcome to the forum!

Regarding your first question I'd say it is difficult to tell because each designer/label will have its own definition of low based, among other things, on their sales and marketing goals, mark ups and manufacture processes, and also it will depend on the categories they're into (accessories, apparel, footwear), the type of trade show they are participating (for emerging labels, established brands, mix of both; also consider the type of buyer the show is targeting), their commercial terms, their negotiating power, their seriousness for doing business, their type and size of their target buyers (they can even have different price structures for different channels!)...Of course, it will also depend on your targeted consumer and your product offer and if you are a new or established e-tailer!

Sounds complex, right? Well, it is!

So think from designer/brand perspective to get yourself an idea on what to expect. If I were a designer with a small contemporary womenswear label and this is my first trade exhibition, and I've been here for two days without any relevant whole-sale made and today is the last on show, and miraculously a foreign accent, tFS buyer shows up in my stall and introduce her or himself as a brand new e-tailer I'd try to sale him/her, in a desperate measure, at least the minimum volume of sales that will let me run a production without paying the premium prices at manufacturing level (both for sourcing and production), so I can afford to pay back exhibition costs! In this situation seller's negotiation power is very low compared to buyer's. So, unbeknowned to buyer, in this hypothetical situation he/she can set its own minimums to buy (specially if it has good credit history)! Is it possible? Oh, yeah! . This situation happens a lot with emerging designers/labels and this in part explains why they don't survive more than 2-3 seasons.

But even established e-tailers are having difficult times, in this case by fierce competition -both online and offline- coming from emerging web players as the multichannel apparel stores (i.e. H&M), fashion aggregators and media sites (i.e. Polyvore), and marketplaces (i.e. eBay). Independent fashion e-tailers should focus on serving attractive consumer segments (or niches) and differentiate their offers in order to survive growing competition and constant change. So before going to any trade show buyer's should first ask themselves who are their consumers so to develop a customer-centric digital marketing strategy and be ahead of the curve when dealing with sellers. Failure to plan is planning to fail. B)

And as for the second question, I'm glad you asked it because it is critical for buyers to understand the costs involved in exporting/importing before buying anything because of the huge impact this can have on their businesses! . So costs will depend on agreed Incoterms, AND if designer/brand knows or does exporting. Get familiar with Incoterms and try to avoid any of the following: exWorks, CIF and FOB In your case seller should be responsible for dealing with everything involved in moving the goods from the manufacturing plant to your door. Therefore duties, taxes and delivery fees should be included in the wholesale price.

F0F0 - Thanks so much for all that info. You've been very helpful. I'm definitely doing a lot of thinking and research on the subject and I'll be looking at Incoterms as a resource. Regarding order minimums though, will it be possible for me to email potential brands and ask them for it directly? What's the best approach for this?

I'm going to try and figure out if I can do a focus group and subsequently surveys to understand my target market better. Still a long way to go. Thanks again for the input xx

 

[F0F0]

F0F0 - Thanks so much for all that info. You've been very helpful. I'm definitely doing a lot of thinking and research on the subject and I'll be looking at Incoterms as a resource. Regarding order minimums though, will it be possible for me to email potential brands and ask them for it directly? What's the best approach for this?

I'm going to try and figure out if I can do a focus group and subsequently surveys to understand my target market better. Still a long way to go. Thanks again for the input xx

F0F0 - Thanks so much for all that info. You've been very helpful. I'm definitely doing a lot of thinking and research on the subject and I'll be looking at Incoterms as a resource. Regarding order minimums though, will it be possible for me to email potential brands and ask them for it directly? What's the best approach for this?

I'm going to try and figure out if I can do a focus group and subsequently surveys to understand my target market better. Still a long way to go. Thanks again for the input xx

You are welcome!

Please consider the following comments as someone who's assuming you have some of what it takes to start and run a business. That is you understand the responsibilities of ownership, the impact the business will have on your life, and your weaknesses and strengths. I also hope this comments could offer some guidance to other fashion entrepreneurs considering starting a business venture.

Is a good idea to start calling brands and asked them about their minimums and their LDP or DDP wholesale prices, but just for the sake of building your financial numbers (from sorting out your retail final price to sales & cash flow projections)) for business validation (one way to evaluate your chances of success)! B)

Consider two things:

1) Large buyers spend up to 80% of their spending budgets before trade fairs. Brands are aware of this and expect to be contacted throughout the year.
2) Since you are a starting overseas e-tailer no serious brand will give you credit (both in a literal and financial way) and some of them will be reluctant to quote you LDP prices, and even some of them could ask you to buy above the minimum! So consider your negotiation power as a buyer near to ZERO. This is a weakness you need to compensate somehow (but don't think paying your invoice-order full in cash will give you buyer-power because you won't be receiving your merchandise instantly (unless brand has stock ready to be picked up).



And before doing any focus group --or any other consumer qualitative research-- I'd strongly suggest you to start doing some analysis so you can built a strong digital strategies for getting, selling-to and retaining e-consumers:

1) Understand your immediate environment, that's your online marketplace (competitors, search intermediaries, intermediaries, partners, consumers), and the wider environment (specially internet technology and legalities such as selling over the internet, consumer privacy and data protection).

2) Choose a market you can better serve based on your capabilities and resources.

3) Analyse how attractive are those markets (see one of my posts within this thread to give you an idea on how to check this) of different sectors (i.e. womenswear, footwear, accessories, etc.) or sub-sectors (i.e. party, cocktail, dresses, etc.) and select the one that will help you achieve your financial and personal goals.

4) Segment your selected market for target marketing (by the way, which country are you based?). That is:

• a) Segment and prioritise potential consumer groups identifying segments that could buy from you, narrow to one or two with a strong ability and need to buy. An attractive segment, for instance, could be career women, ABCs, 25-34 years old, those that regularly buy clothes online (i.e. more than once per month) and are internet savvy (i.e. more than 6 years of experience), and are very enthusiastic about fashion.
  
• b) Define them (create personas or key-characteristic profiles or segment them based on business value) so you can evaluate and sized them, and target selected.
  
• c) Understand their consumer behaviours and attitudes.

5) Now that you found and "understand" your consumer target it's time to go deep into them and go after CONSUMER INSIGHTS! Here is all about empathic exploration, and critical observation of your subject (targeted consumer). And this is where focus groups (qualitative research) and surveys (quantitative research) come in, but while those old techniques are still valid, over the Internet you have more efficient and effective techniques for getting consumer insight.

6) Develop a compelling online value proposition for your e-tail brand.



Business planning is a long way to go indeed (and I'm not talking about the internet marketing planning). To develop a good plan one you'll need at least 6 months...and even that won't guarantee you'll have success! In a worst-case scenario, at the end of your business planning journey, the internet online marketplace could have changed in a way that invalidated your original idea! But still business planning is the most cost-effective way to weather your chances of success whilst avoiding pitfalls, and will give you direction to all of your business activities. It can even give you credentials for purposes of obtaining supplier financing or investment by future partners! Sure, there are successful business owners that didn't wrote a business plan, but they made it despite the lack of a formal plan, not because of it.



tl;dr Think first, then act.

 

[zolaisabella]

Again, F0F0 - you've been fab. All your advice is going to keep me on the right track. I'm doing my final year in uni (I study Communications, did Marketing previously) and am spending time developing my plan in the meantime. I'm currently based in Australia, for school but will base my business in Asia (where I'm from).

Thanks again! If this takes off, I'll be sure to pop back here to dish out advice

 

[Lela London]

Seriously, F0F0, I'm nominating you for a Nobel Peace Prize haha. I need to re-read everything you've written...but wow, so do many of the awful e-tailing places that try to copy the greats. Your advice has given a fresh insight, for sure.

 

[Boutiqueananas]

Fashion Buying for boutique in North America- HELP

Hi all,

I am opening a Boutique in Alberta, Canada but have zero experience in buying for the store.

I am currrently still in University, and have not been exposed to this side of the fashion idustry yet.

Do any of you know the best process or place to go in North America to do this?

Any advice is much appreciated!

Thanks!

 

[Boutiqueananas]

Also, we have been thinking of having our own store fashion label, either right off the bat, or after a few years - do any of you have experience in this?

Which if thesewould yo consider the best starting point for a new boutique to be?

Thanks again!

 

[BetteT]

Merged into existing thread. Most of the time, there is probably a thread about your topic, so please do a search before starting a new thread. Thanks!!

Welcome to the Fashion Spot! I think you will find some very useful information already posted in this thread.

 

[F0F0]

Again, F0F0 - you've been fab. All your advice is going to keep me on the right track. I'm doing my final year in uni (I study Communications, did Marketing previously) and am spending time developing my plan in the meantime. I'm currently based in Australia, for school but will base my business in Asia (where I'm from).

Thanks again! If this takes off, I'll be sure to pop back here to dish out advice

Thank you! But you should also consider other opinions.

Why shouldn't take off?

 

[F0F0]

Seriously, F0F0, I'm nominating you for a Nobel Peace Prize haha. I need to re-read everything you've written...but wow, so do many of the awful e-tailing places that try to copy the greats. Your advice has given a fresh insight, for sure.

hahah..Thanks for the nomination! But I think you submitted me to the wrong award! I don't think I'll ever even make it to the Ig Nobel Prize.

I'm surprised you came up with this thing about the copycats because the whole point of what I was telling zolaisabella about target marketing is to come up with a differentiated offer, a consumer proposition (not only including the product or service but also the whole consumer experience) different from those of the competitors but still relevant for the target market. So, yes, there are loads of e-tailers copying the greats (or innovators, or pioneers). And this is quite common in retail and e-tail (and in life in general ). Most of them are risk-averse opportunists looking for an apparently easy profit while missing the whole point of marketing and perhaps other attractive business opportunities. There are of course other entrepreneurs that care about their consumers and want to offer something different from competitors but don't know what to do, how to do it or where to start. For them, specially those involved in selling fashion (designers or retailers) looking to develop a new product or service, "The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing" (a quick-read book by the granddaddy of brand positioning Al Ries, and Jack Trout) should be a good starting point for brainstorming ideas, strategies and concepts.

 

[F0F0]

Hi all,

I am opening a Boutique in Alberta, Canada but have zero experience in buying for the store.

I am currrently still in University, and have not been exposed to this side of the fashion idustry yet.

Do any of you know the best process or place to go in North America to do this?

Any advice is much appreciated!

Thanks!

Welcome to the forum, boutiqueananas!

I'm glad you came here asking for advice! You just avoided one of the most common mistakes entrepreneurs make when starting a business: be reluctant to ask others for advice!

Since you haven't opened the boutique yet and you are still at the Uni and have zero experience in buying perhaps it will be a good idea to work as an employee in a similar (but successful, and well run) boutique to the one you want to open to gain some training. Talking or consulting with other boutique owners, not with the idea of getting their trade secrets but for learning from their insights (you can find them here or in your local business associations), may also help you. Otherwise I'm guessing you'll hire someone to compensate your lack of experience in starting and running a fashion boutique, or you'll enroll yourself in a business course to gain business and trade skills and knowledge.

Also confirm there's enough demand for the products you want to offer in your market and do more business planning (your success is not guaranteed just because you've found a market opportunity) before opening.

 

[zolaisabella]

Thank you! But you should also consider other opinions.

Why shouldn't take off?

Yeah definitely. I do know a couple of people who are pretty established within the industry in Asia so I'm getting advice from as many people as I can My main concern now is the feasibility of my business idea so I've made plans to sit down with some friends in finance and law to see how I can work things out. I just don't want to get ahead of myself. Still one semester of uni left to go! xx

 

[Luiza]

I opened my boutique about a year and a half ago...it has been going pretty good I am glad I made it through the 1st year..that is the hardest...I could help anyone interested in finding wholesalers...and what is really involved. I am in New Jersey but travel to NYC alot for the showrooms and trade shows. You have to really be involved with the designers, I am constantly looking for new products...The hardest part is having new stock always available for the customers. My website will show some of the stuff I sell. I started small out of my home just to get people to know my name and what I sell..to build a cusotmer mailing list... Once you go to a few trade shows you will know what to buy, the minimums, and the terms such as immediates,cancel dates, delivery. The other thing to think about is your general business info, if you go online set up your business name to get a tax id number, this is something some designers ask for too.

its great,can I ask you who hosts the strore for you?

 

[kimberwyn]

^I think the post you quoted is several years old so I wanted to chime in. I've used two different shopping cart hosts for my store and I have trialed two others. I love volusion, I loathe yahoo stores, shopify seems decent for beginners, corecommerce has horrible support. I've also heard 3dcart is good. Its a good idea to compare and do trials of every shopping cart host, and talk with their support to see which is a good fit for you.

 

[luisa]

I am currently planning the shop and still are certain things not 100% clear to me:
1. concerning the contemporary market for women how do usually pay your order as a newcomer? do you pay 100% in advance?

2. what are the minimum orders from brands like joie, equipment etc?

3. how much is one obliged to stick to the suggested retail prices? what if one wants to start sales, do coupon codes etc?

4. what happens with the clothes that you didn't sale in the season and also not in sale? do

5. how much do you usually order in advance and how much "space" do you let yourself to act/order spontaneously?

I would really appreciate if somebody could help me with (some of) my questions!