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This is another Dobizo question and answers session from the Dobizo Answers page. You can post any question about getting started in the fashion industry and I will try to answer the question with an article within 24-48 hours or asap.

Terry says:

“Thank you so much for this site! It has been so helpful? I have a question: When you go to a trade show, how do you do purchase orders? I heard that people sell in bundle, etc but I?m not sure what the industry standard is?”

First off there is a little information about purchase orders in this article below:

The Store Order Process and Dealing with Buyers

If I understand Terry correctly I think he is asking how do clothing companies sell at trade shows as far as quantities and filling out purchase order forms so I will answer it according to those specifications.

From my experiences most clothing companies sell in either pre-packs or work their orders based upon garment minimums or open stock. In this article I will explain each of the forms of selling at a trade show.

Let’s start off with pre-packs which is more common with larger clothing companies which have sold at a few trade shows so they know how to gauge which sizes sell the best and that is what they offer for sale in each style/garment pre-pack. If they offer denim jeans the size packs might consist of 1-32, 2-36, 3-36,3-38,2-40,1-42 that?s a minimum of 12 basically or for shirts 1-L, 2-XL, 2-XXL, 1-XXL now that?s a minimum of 6 pieces. You can see the Daily Definition for pre-pack sizes to get a better understanding.

Garment minimums when ordering is the most common method used at trade shows. Basically you set a minimum number of pieces a buyer must order per style or per style/color.

For example if you have a top in one style and two colors your minimum might be 1 dozen per style and they can mix match the colors or 1 dozen per style/color or 1 dozen per style and they can order no lower than six of each color per style in that case if they wanted to order 24 t-shirts in four different colors they would order two dozen of a particular style or one dozen of two different styles and choose two different colors for each of the two styles…I know it sounds confusing just read over it again .

Open stock would seem to be more common at budget or mass merchandise trade shows where they’re moving bulk or have less of each style available in specific sizes/colors….think TJ Maxx or Burlington Coat Factory buyers. Open stock basically means there are no minimums and a retailer can order whatever is available or in stock at the moment.

As far as filling out purchase order forms they are pretty straight forward. You fill out according to what terms you have agreed upon and have the buyer sign it. The purchase order forms I have used include a side for the retailers name and company info and the right side is for where everything will be shipped to in case they stock items in a warehouse or are just not on location where the store is located.

The body of the form includes the quantity of the style they ordered and a description where you can describe the item or just simply include a style number. To the lower right you fill in the price for each garment and tally up the total at the bottom right hand corner. On the lower bottom there is a darkened area where the buyer must approve to the terms by signing his/her name.

Here is an uploaded example of the form:

I’ve seen some clothing companies that place the order right into the computer as it is being processed at trade shows so that they can communicate with the factory and have orders ready to ship out on time and to also update the inventory count. Most new companies don’t operate in the same manner because they’re not equipped with this type of costly technology through a product inventory management system.

What type of purchase order forms does your company use? Also how do you go about selling your product at trade shows? Minimums, pre-packs, or open stock.

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