Wholesale Fashion

A lot of boutiques have lovely stock and still struggle to sell it. Walk in and you'll see why: twenty tops, three pairs of trousers, and nothing to wear over any of it. The individual pieces are fine. The mix is wrong. Your product mix is the balance of categories, price points and styles across your whole range. Get it right and customers leave with outfits rather than single items. Get it wrong and even good pieces sit on the rail. Start with your customer, not the category list Every mix decision comes back to one question: who shops with you, and what do they need to get dressed? A store serving women in their 40s and 50s who want polished daywear needs a very different mix from an online shop selling going-out pieces to 22-year-olds. Before you plan categories, write down: •       the age range and lifestyle of your core customer •       what she's buying for (work, weekends, holidays, events) •       what she typically spends on a single item •       which categories she already buys from you most often If you have sales data, use it. If you're new, look at your closest local and online competitors and note what they carry deep. Give every category a job Not every category plays the same role. Experienced buyers think of their range in four groups: •       Core pieces. Reliable, repeatable sellers like good jersey tops, wide-leg trousers and simple knits. They pay the bills. •       Trend pieces. Seasonal colours, prints and shapes. They bring people back and make the shop feel current. •       Outfit completers. Jackets, layers and accessories that turn one purchase into two. •       Hero pieces. A few eye-catching items for your window, your homepage and your social media. They sell less, but they sell everything else. If one of those groups is missing, the shop feels incomplete even if customers can't say why. A starting category split for womenswear There's no universal formula, but this is a sensible starting point for a casual-to-smart women's boutique, measured as a share of units in stock: Category Share of stock Notes Tops and blouses 25% to 30% Your highest-volume category and the easiest add-on Dresses 15% to 20% Higher value per sale; season sensitive Trousers, skirts and jeans 12% to 18% Often under-stocked; they anchor outfits Knitwear 8% to 20% Low in summer, peaks from September to January Jackets and outerwear 5% to 15% Big seasonal swing; high cash value per unit Co-ords and sets 5% to 10% Strong for online and occasion buyers Accessories 5% to 10% Scarves, bags, belts; lifts average order value   Adjust by season. In AW your knitwear and outerwear shares should rise while dresses and lightweight tops shrink, and the reverse in SS. Match tops to bottoms This is one of the easiest ways to lift sales. For every two or three tops you stock, make sure there's a bottom that works with them. Many independent retailers overbuy tops because they're cheap and easy to sell, then wonder why customers don't buy complete outfits. When you buy, plan in outfits. If you're adding a printed blouse, know which trousers or skirt in your range it'll be styled with. Build a price ladder Your mix should include different price points within each category. A simple three-step structure works well: •       Entry price. Basics and simple tops that let a new customer try you without much risk. •       Core price. Where most of your sales should sit. This is your customer's comfortable spend. •       Statement price. Coats, occasion dresses and premium fabrics. Fewer units, but they raise perceptions of the whole store. Roughly 20% entry, 60% core and 20% statement is a good starting balance. If nearly everything sits at one price, customers have nowhere to trade up or down. Breadth versus depth Breadth is how many different styles you carry. Depth is how many units of each. Smaller boutiques usually do best with more breadth and less depth. Customers like the feeling that pieces are limited, and you reduce the risk of being stuck with too much of one thing. Save depth for proven core lines where you know demand is steady. How to tell if your mix is out of balance Once a month, compare each category's share of stock with its share of sales: Category Share of stock Share of sales What it tells you Tops 32% 24% Overstocked, cut back next order Trousers 10% 17% Under-stocked, customers want more Dresses 18% 19% About right   Anywhere stock share is well above sales share, you're holding too much. Anywhere sales share is well above stock share, you're leaving money on the table. Shift your next order towards the categories doing more than their share. The fastest way to grow sales without spending more on stock is to move budget from categories that are overstocked into the ones selling out. Core or trend? Most successful womenswear retailers keep around 60% to 70% of their range in core product and 30% to 40% in trend. Core keeps money coming in. Trend keeps customers interested. Lean too far towards trend and your markdowns will climb; lean too far towards core and your store starts to feel stale.

Slow-moving stock is the most expensive thing in a clothing shop. It doesn't just sit there. It takes up rail space that could hold something that sells, it ties up cash you need for reorders, and every week it hangs there it's worth a little less. The good news is that most slow stock is predictable. It usually comes from a handful of buying habits, and once you know what they are you can avoid most of it before it arrives. Why clothing stock stops selling When a line stalls, the cause is almost always one of these: •       Wrong customer. The piece is nice, but it's not for the people who shop with you. This is the most common reason and the easiest to fix at the buying stage. •       Wrong price point. It's right for your customer but priced above what they'll pay for that type of item. •       Wrong timing. Heavy knits delivered in late November, linen in late August. Good stock, wrong week. •       Wrong depth or size split. The style sold, but you bought too many, or bought the wrong sizes, and what's left is the tail. •       Poor display or photography. Especially online. A piece that's badly shot won't sell, regardless of how good it is in person. Notice that only one of these is really about the product itself. Most slow stock is a buying or merchandising problem. How to spot slow sellers early The sooner you catch a slow line, the cheaper it is to fix. Don't wait for the end of the season to find out. The simplest measure is sell-through rate: •       Sell-through % = units sold / units received x 100 Check it at two weeks and four weeks for every new style. As a rough guide for fashion lines: Time since delivery Healthy Watch it Act now 2 weeks 25%+ 10% to 25% under 10% 4 weeks 45%+ 25% to 45% under 25% 8 weeks 70%+ 50% to 70% under 50%   Core basics sell more steadily, so judge them over a longer window. Trend pieces should move fast; if they don't, they rarely recover. Also watch weeks of cover: stock on hand divided by average weekly sales. Anything over 12 weeks on a fashion line is a warning sign. Stop it at the buying stage Almost every slow line was bought for the wrong reason. Before you add a style to an order, ask yourself honestly: •       Can I name the customer who will buy this? •       Does it sit at a price my customers already pay for this category? •       What will it be worn with, and do I stock that? •       Would I still buy it if I couldn't see it on a model? If you can't answer the first one, don't buy it. "It's gorgeous" isn't a customer. Then keep the quantities small on anything new. Buying 6 of an untested style limits your downside to 6 pieces. Buying 24 because the unit price was a bit better is how dead stock is made. Balance trend pieces with core stock Trend-led clothing is exciting and it brings people in. It's also the riskiest thing you can buy, because its window is short and it's hard to predict. Core pieces (good basics, reliable shapes in your customers' favourite colours) sell steadily all year and rarely need discounting. A healthy womenswear range is usually built around 60% to 70% core and 30% to 40% trend. If more than half your buy is trend-led, expect more of it to end up in the sale. What to do with slow-moving clothing Once you've spotted a slow line, act in this order. Each step costs you a little more margin than the one before, so start at the top. 1. Move it. Change where it hangs. Put it at the front, on a mannequin or next to your bestsellers. Online, move it up the collection page and reshoot it if the photos are weak. 2. Style it. Show it as part of a complete outfit. A lot of pieces don't sell because customers can't picture wearing them. 3. Bundle it. Pair it with a strong seller, for example "any top with these trousers for £X". This shifts stock without the visible damage of a markdown. 4. Mark it down properly. If you're going to discount, do it once and do it meaningfully. A 10% reduction rarely moves anything. 25% to 30% usually does, and 50% clears the tail. 5. Clear it out. Anything that still hasn't sold after a full markdown should go. Sell it to a clearance buyer, run a sample sale or donate it. Its only job now is to free up space and cash. A dress that sits on the rail for six months at full price is not a dress that's "still worth £40". Its real value is whatever someone will pay for it today. Should retailers discount slow-moving stock? Yes, but on your terms. Retailers who discount early and firmly lose less money overall than those who wait and hope. The cash you release goes straight back into stock that sells, and that stock earns full margin. The mistake is discounting everything, all the time. Customers learn to wait. Keep markdowns to specific lines at specific times and your full-price sales stay healthy. Use your data every week Fifteen minutes a week with your sales report will prevent most dead stock. Look at: •       your top 10 sellers, and whether you have enough to reorder •       anything with a sell-through under 25% after four weeks •       sizes that are selling out early, and sizes that aren't selling at all Do this every week and you'll buy better every month.