Sell More Stuff: Wholesale 101-1

Part 1 of 3: Preparation.

So many of you wanted to learn more about wholesale.

Compared to e-commerce, wholesale seems much more of a black box for fashion CEOs, especially those of us just starting out.

So this Wholesale 101 series is meant to give you a primer for how to “do” wholesale, because it is an important element for many of us to get to the $1MM mark.

I’ll break it up into 3 newsletters. PREPARATION, SELLING & OPERATIONS.

Please note, this is far from comprehensive. We could talk about wholesale for weeks, maybe months…. If you’d like me to dive deeper, I’d be happy to do that in subsequent newsletters, just let me know in the comments!

Photo by Aviv Rachmadian on Unsplash

Let’s dive right into Part 1: PREPARATION.

There is a LOT to prep before you even start reaching out to stores to sell your brand. Here are 4 critical things to consider before you even write your first outreach email:

MINDSET, MARGIN, DELIVERIES & LINE ARCHITECTURE

1. Everyone wins mindset

First and foremost, approach all sales with this mindset. It’s not about how THEY can help YOU get to $1MM, it’s about how YOU can make THEM more money, make THEIR clients happier, make their store BETTER by carrying your product. Great salespeople know that it’s all about the win-win: especially if you want to continue to build a relationship with this retailer.

2. Margin

Can you even afford to do wholesale? Typically, you will need to give wholesale accounts a generous margin for them to make money on their side. Let me show you what we do at Alala: