2007
My First Time Selling In A Clothing Store
Posted by: Fashion06 in Starting your own line |
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I received an email from one of our readers and he inspired me to write this post. Basically I want to tell you about the first store order I ever received and when, where, who and how much. Once you read this if you are a store owner, clothing line owner or whatever share with us the first time you received a store order or the first garment you ever sold (store owners) if enough people participate it could be very interesting.
So I’m counting on you guys! 
Well I received my first order from a store without leaving my house and never met the buyer or seen him in person to this day…thanks Ray. I had to make the best of a bad situation with no money for trade shows or transportation at the time….just pure hustle and school Internet.
My first store order was with Essex5 a store based out of Chicago, Illinois. I basically had a list of stores I compiled and went down the list state to state calling them and saying ” My name is Fredrickus Williford I’m calling from Scout Union Apparel and was wanting to know if I could speak with the store buyer”. Once they were on the phone I would pitch ” Hi I’m Fredrickus Williford representing Scout Union Apparel and I was wondering if it was ok for me to send you some information about this new clothing line to your email” (Something of that matter…long time ago) Most of the time they would say yes. I learned from a lot of hung up calls that I should never let them know I was trying to sell them something…just informing them. I would send them over some information about our company, line sheet, wholesale order list and a small bio. I would wait a few days and follow up with a call. Most of the time just asking them what is their honest opinion about the clothing line.
To tell the truth you know I thought it would work, but honestly more than a weeks time. I knew I called over a hundred stores in two-three days. So one day I received an email back from who happen to be Essex 5 and they said they wanted to order a dozen of each style in each color! So I was excited as hell….as any one would be on their first store order. At the time I had no shirts made…I sent them over graphics that looked like real t-shirts. So I had to figure out a delivery time and how much it was going to cost me to produce them. I needed all this information in less than a day and this is were part of the huge learning curve came in. Needless to say I came up with the order ON TIME :). The order end up totalling around $720 and my manufacturer financed my purchase orders (Make sure you build good relationships with them…they could end up funding your line). If you want to read more about how I processed the order take a look at My first order ever which I processed with no money up front!
Ok so now it’s your turn. You don’t have to go as in depth, but make sure and list the who, what, why, and where of the sale. Everyone will appreciate it and if you have a website you will get a little exposure in the process from here and on the top commentators.
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Fred
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April 30th, 2007 at 7:13 am
If its not a secret, who was your manufacturer and did you actually produce your line with custom tags at that time or did you just have to screen print ‘em and get em out because it was such short notice?
April 30th, 2007 at 11:36 am
i HAD CUSTOM WOVEN TAGS…THAT i HAD ALREADY ORDERED FROM THE FIRST CLOTHING LINE i HAD STARTED I JUST RELAUNCHED IT…SO MY LABELS WERE ALREADY AVAILABLE…I USED RAW TALENT INC…SO WHAT ABOUT YOUR FIRST SELL???
April 30th, 2007 at 12:22 pm
Ok, my first sell, I was driving around downtown with my son and business partner looking for something to eat and brainstorming on a plan of attack for getting our t-shirts into stores. As we headed deeper into the downtown area I thought of a friend whom works in a well known urban shop in downtown ATL. So, I called him up and he said he was working today and if I had some t-shirts with me (I never leave home without them). As I worked in the store the owner took one glance at the t-shirt I had on and said “nice t-shirt”, before I could say thanks my friend from behind the counter and told him this is the guy I was telling you about. So we when thru the designs I had with me and some of the ones I had on print-out. That Saturday afternoon, the store owner ordered 300 t-shirts! You only image how we felt (speechless), this being the first store we ever went into selling our product. Now here’s the reality check…when we met Monday morning to confirm the order it went down to 150 t-shirts, however we did get a check on delivery. Now another here’s another check, the t-shirts didn’t sell as well as expected. When we went back to the 4 stores the t-shirts were placed, we found out they were displayed poorly (on a rack in a dark corner) and none of the employees ever heard of the t-shirts. As we spoke to a seller out of New York the store owner is known to buy too many pieces then mark them down which brings down the value of the line. We learned from this experience that you need to be hands on when you put your products in stores, you can’t leave it up to the store owner. Take charge…show them how your line shold be displayed and get to know and educate the staff.
R Max http://www.rmaxclothing.com http://www.myspace.com/rmaxclothing
April 30th, 2007 at 12:50 pm
Good one Russell and welcome to the blog…I think this is your first comment!Some of the points you talked about how they weren’t selling were touched on in this article:
http://www.dobizo.com/starting-your-own-line/why-are-my-clothes-not-selling/
April 30th, 2007 at 5:46 pm
This is a good update. I’m looking forward to hearing more people’s stories on this topic. I haven’t really tried to do it yet.
May 2nd, 2007 at 7:28 am
Fred and Russel, when presenting to these buyers, did you utilize lookbooks or actual garments to make the sale. How about for other sales? Lookbooks or actual pieces?
May 2nd, 2007 at 11:57 am
Great story, thanks for sharing.
May 11th, 2007 at 6:02 am
Very inspiring stories, both the article and Lyndon’s comment. You gotta make your own luck in this business..
December 10th, 2007 at 8:36 am
FASHION06 IS IT POSSIBLE IF YOU CAN TALK MORE ON HOW TO FIND A MANUFACTUOR, IS IT BETTER TO HAVE A MANUFACTOR IN THE U.S OR OVERSEAS? HOW DO YOU EVEN BEGIN SEARCHING FOR A MANUFACTUER?
December 18th, 2007 at 12:01 pm
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