The Ins and Outs of Purchasing From Wholesale Vendors.
It’s finally here!!
It’s time to buy your inventory!!
Purchasing inventory is a lot of fun, but surprisingly, it can be quite challenging. Any established boutique owner can tell you that buying inventory can be the best part of your day, or the biggest thorn in your side. A lot of this depends on the vendors you work with and the quality of the products you buy.
By the end of this blog, you will be confident about buying inventory for your boutique. I will make sure you know exactly what to expect and even what to look out for.
In this blog, we will discuss:
Where to find wholesale vendors.
How to tell if a vendor is a quality one.
What you can expect when applying to wholesale vendors.
How to build your starting inventory.
Wholesale Vendors
A wholesale vendor supplies retailers with products bought in bulk and at a reduced price. These products are then marked up to market price and sold by the retailers. Simply put, these are the companies you buy your inventory from.
There are numerous places to find vendors, but online and at tradeshows are by far the best. I will say though, finding good vendors online is not as easy as it sounds. When I started my boutique, the world was on a pandemic shut down, so tradeshows were not even an option. I took to Google and started searching for women’s clothing wholesale vendors. Let me tell you, the results were just terrible. It was pages and pages of super cheap, low quality, overseas product.
Obviously, there are good vendors out there, because there are hundreds of boutiques with beautiful inventories all over the place. But where the heck were they buying their product from?!?!
Instead of just searching for vendors, I started researching where to find QUALITY vendors. And that led me to……….nothing……..
The most frustrating thing to me when trying to start my boutique was that no one seemed to be willing to share information. Everything was so vague and left you with all the same questions you had from before. It was really defeating.
You know where I found my first couple vendors???? In my closet!! I know how ridiculous that sounds, but it gave me just enough vendors to work with to be able to launch with a good amount of inventory.
I had been purchasing from a couple of online boutiques for a while, and I kept all the tags to my favorite pieces. So, I started searching these brands to see if they had wholesale websites. While this worked for me, I know this is not realistic for everyone.
I will say, my vendor arsenal has grown A LOT since then, and I have access to more resources now that I am an established business.
I have been saying this the whole time, but my goal is to make this as easy as possible for you. I want to share my experiences and help where I can, because I don’t think withholding information makes me a better business owner and it sure doesn’t make my boutique any more profitable. You have amazing potential, and if you are reading this, then you sure have the drive you need to do this.
I want to help reduce the number of obstacles in your way. Therefore, I have created Vendor Lists with HUNDREDS of QUALITY wholesale vendors on them. I have done all the research for you, so now all you need to do is go through the lists and find which vendors fit your vision and style. I have included clickable links on the lists to ensure you are going to the correct webpage for each of the vendors.
CLICK HERE to access HUNDREDS of wholesale vendors!!
*Note: As you go through the list, create your own list of vendors that you have applied to and another of vendors that you may not qualify for yet, but would like to work with in the future. As you get accepted by the vendors, highlight them in your list, so you know which ones you have active accounts with.
Another great way to find wholesale vendors is by going to tradeshows, and THANK GOD we can do that again!!!
Tradeshows are great because you can see the products in person. You also get to meet some of the faces behind the brand. Here you can ask all those questions you have and get them answered on the spot. No emails back and forth!!
MAGIC is probably the most popular tradeshow you can attend. They are held in numerous cities across the country, so finding one close to you should be easy. There is limited spacing, so you must register to attend, and you can only bring one guest with you. There is a spring/summer event to attend, as well as a fall/winter event.
Even if you don’t purchase anything, you are still able to build relationships with potential future vendors. I promise you; it won’t be a wasted trip!
*I have included a link in the resource section where you can view what MAGIC is all about!!!
QUALITY OR NOT
It is very important to work with reputable vendors to ensure that you are getting quality products for your inventory. But how do you know if a vendor is good or not?
A reputable wholesale vendor will require you to apply for an account in order to purchase through them. You won’t be able to apply to these vendors until you have gotten your EIN and seller’s permit. Almost all vendors will require one, if not both things.
It is very unlikely that you will be able to find these companies doing a web search. They are very specific and do not show up in most results. Instead, most links will take you to companies that require no business verification, and the products they sell are of very low quality.
Some companies have a retail site and a wholesale site. The Vendor Lists that I have created have a couple of these on them. The brands on these lists are verified, however, not all the retail/wholesale sites out there are TRUE wholesale companies. So, proceed with caution!!
When I was looking for vendors, I found out one of my favorite retail sites offered products at wholesale price!! Little did I know, I was about to make one of the biggest mistakes ever…
First, I should have been smart enough to see that the wholesale prices I was being given were not real wholesale prices. Also, I still had to buy each piece separately.
With this particular vendor, my wholesale price was 50% off the retail price. I had never worked with a vendor that priced based on a percentage and not a package price. But I really wanted the product, so I went for it any way. I spent close to $400 on 12 items. In hindsight, that was WAY to much!!! And the best part……I didn’t receive any product!!!!!!! I started by reaching out to their customer service, which ignored me for over a week. It wasn’t until I sent a second follow up email that I got any kind of response. They let me know that they were terribly sorry for the inconvenience, and that they would send them out immediately. Keep in mind, I sent the first email about a month after placing my order.
I was irritated, but a t least I was getting my order. Finally, it came in the mail. Well, it kind of did. I got 2 of the 3 styles that I ordered, and the ones that I did get, looked nothing like the pictures online. So, I reached BACK out to customer service to request a return label and a refund on the style I did not receive. I got an email with my return slip the next day, but nothing was said about the refund.
I sent back the product and waited for my refund. And you guessed it! It never came. It got to the point that the company stopped responding to my emails and I actually had to file fraud claims with my bank to get the money back. What a headache!!!
I tell you this story to hopefully help you see what can happen when working with a non-reputable vendor. That whole mess took over two months to sort out. I had a decent chunk of my money wrapped up in inventory I would never see. Now I was stuck waiting until I could get it back to purchase from somewhere else.
Not all vendors are perfect, so please keep that in mind. However, there are some that are just down right scams!! Don’t fall for it like I did!!! If anything doesn’t feel right, especially in the communication, get yourself out of that situation ASAP!
Vendors work with tons of business, so you may not get a response right away. Use your best judgement as to when the appropriate time would be to reach out for an update. I have even had vendors not even send a response back, they just fix the issue at hand.
Some vendors are a pure joy to work with and others are a bit more challenging. This is another reason why having multiple vendors would be beneficial. If you don’t care for the customer service of one, it won’t be detrimental to your business if you no longer work with them.
WHAT TO EXPECT
Once you have landed on a wholesaler’s website, there is going to be very little that you have access to. Unfortunately, you only have what is on the homepage, and sometime what is in the look book to base a decision on. You may find that you think a vendor matches your style, but once you get access to it, it does not. That’s okay!! Vendor accounts are free, so it is just part of the research process. You are not out anything, except a little bit of your time.
If you are not taken to the account signup page right away, you may have to scroll down to the bottom of the page and find where it says “wholesale” or “wholesale account”. Each of the vendors are going to have their own requirements you must meet to open an account.
I would say that for most wholesale vendors; your business information, EIN and seller’s permit should be enough to get an account. If they ask for a Tax/VAT number, this is NOT your EIN. This is going to be your seller’s permit number. Also, if your state does not have an actual “business license” hard copy for you to upload, usually your EIN letter and seller’s permit will suffice. Arizona is one of those states that does not have an actual business license, and I have had no issues applying to vendors with just my EIN and seller’s permit.
You will find that there are some vendors out there who will only work with established businesses. They may require you to have proof of previous wholesale purchases, an up and running website or social accounts with a following. Don’t just skip over these vendors though! If you see some that you would really like to work with, then keep a list, and come back to them once you have built up your business a bit.
There may also be instances in which you meet all the requirements, but don’t get your account approved by the vendor. EXPECT THIS! Make sure you are applying to as many vendors as you can that fit into the scope of your boutique. I believe I found roughly 10 vendors, was eligible to apply to 8 and only got accepted to 6 of them.
But remember, I was pulling from tags in my closet…
Imagine the number of vendors you could work with if you had 200+ to choose from!!!
CLICK HERE to gain access to the ULTIMATE list of verified wholesale vendors and make purchasing your inventory a breeze!!
STARTING INVENTORY
Even though you will want to, you cannot buy everything!!
I know!! It’s hard!!
However, there are two things that can help keep you focused while shopping: having a PLAN and your BUDGET.
We need to go way back to step one, when I told you that you needed to create building blocks for your boutique. One of those things I wanted you to start thinking about was the type of products you wanted to stock in your boutique. Well, now it’s time to start shopping for some of them.
Unless you have an unlimited budget, there’s just no way you are going to be able to buy everything you intended on having. But, you will have a good place to start.
If your vision is to have a boutique strictly based on selling a single type of product, such as denim or shoes, then planning will be much easier. But, if you want to sell a bit of everything, it is going to take a little more preparation.
I highly encourage you to make wishlists when you are shopping for products. Then go back and see how many things you can pair together. This is going to be SO IMPORTANT because this can mean the difference between a single-item and a multi-item sale. If you have a catalogue of things that are all beautiful individually, but don’t really pair with anything, your chances of selling more than one item diminishes. But, if everything you have can be paired with one or more things, customers are more likely to purchase the “whole outfit”.
Let me give you an example.
Boutique with Multiple Items:
A boutique opens with a couple different band tees. When creating the listings for the site, they could have been pictured with just a simple pair of denim and thats it. But, how much was that really going to help sell the other items in the boutique? Instead, take pictures of the shirts with other available pieces (bottoms) to create “whole looks”. Maybe thats tucking them into a skirt, or wearing it oversized with a pair of biker shorts. Make those pictures available on the listings for both the skirt and the shorts. That way people see the two together and say “hey, I want both of those. I really like how those go together.” Another great place to display “whole outfits” is on social media. Turn that oversized band tee into a dress with a cute pair of boots and add some accessories. Inspire people to get creative with the pieces they are buying. Even if you don’t sell every accessory or piece of clothing in those pictures, people will still buy your product and try to recreate the look with what they have in their own closet.
Boutiques with a Single Type of Product:
A hat company is going to sell just that, hats. So without buying multiple hats, how do you get a customer to buy multiple items??? With accessories of course!! Hats come in all different styles. Some come with beautiful bands, and others come with simple ribbon bands or no band at all. Many people will add their own accessories to their hats to dress them up. If you search any hat company, they are likely to have a section were you can purchase ribbon, leather or even chain bands for you hat. Another hot accessory in the hat world are head scarves. These can be worn around the hat, under the hat or alone without a hat altogether. An easy way to get these products in front of the customers, is by adding some pictures with the added accessories to the hats listing. Also, blow them up on social media and show what a difference adding a simple band can make to a hat.
This is why planning is so important. And this doesn’t just go for launching. This needs to be in the back of your mind whenever you are purchasing inventory. It will also help immensely for social media posts.
There are so many people out there that, admittedly, don’t know how to dress themselves. In the retail world, these were customers that we called “mannequin shoppers”. They literally bought the entire outfit off of the mannequin because they didn’t know how to pair things together otherwise. If you can show the versatility of your products, then you are helping those that maybe wouldn’t have though to pair certain things together.
It's true that you want to have a variety of products to start with, but don’t let it get to out of hand. Remember, you don’t know your customers at this point. You don’t know what products are really going to sell, what sizes go the fastest, etc. Until you know exactly what your customers are drawn to and what sizes you may need to stock up on, keep it to one size run of a couple of different things. *For those selling clothing or shoes.
I am going to be very transparent with you. I did not have a large startup budget. Due to the pandemic, I wasn’t working at the time, so we were a single income household. We had just closed on our first home and got the keys 3 weeks before the pandemic shut everything down. We were homeowners now, and for those of you that own homes, you know exactly how much financial responsibility that is. And now we had to do it on one income…. I knew I needed to make this change not only for myself and my career but for my family too. I was going to make it happen no matter what.
Luckily, we had money in our savings that I could pull from, but I still couldn’t use too much of it because now we were relying on that to help pay the bills.
I spent more than I would like to admit making dumb mistakes. I tried buying from illegitimate vendors and purchased a bunch of stuff that I thought I needed in order to have a successful launch, but really didn’t. I go more into this in my blog NEEDS VS. WANTS, ONLINE BOUTIQUE STARTUP MUST HAVES, but for now we are just going to focus on inventory.
I had a budget of around $1500 for strictly inventory. I quickly found out that depending on what I purchased, I could make this go a long way, or not get very much at all. Some vendors are more expensive than others, and some product is just more expensive. When I was looking for hats for my boutique, I was able to purchase some high end name brands, but man was I going to pay for them. Or, I could find others that didn’t have the big name attached to them and get them for WAY less. The crazy thing is, there was very little difference in the quality of the product. One just had a name attached to it, while the other didn’t. For those of you looking to buy clothing, I will tell you that purchasing denim and shoes are much more expensive than tops, dresses, accessories and other bottoms. If you truly have your heart set on selling some of these things, it may be wise to work up to those instead of having them eat away at your entire inventory budget. If you plan on only selling, say denim, then you may have to look at launching with only a handful of styles until you get the funds to expand.
As you start to look at products and what their prices are, you will be able to see what is worth spending your money on now, and what might have to wait till your business is paying for itself.
Even if you don’t have a budget going into buying inventory, it is still important to come up with one once you feel more familiar with prices. There are still plenty of things at this point that you are going to need to purchase outside of inventory. You don’t want to spend too much buying product for your boutique, and then leave yourself short for other things.
This is supposed to be fun, and I don’t want you stressing out over this!!
My goal was to simply inform you the best I could about all the ins and outs of buying inventory.
If you have taken anything away from this, please just remember to stick to your budget and your plan. This will keep you organized and feel much more confident about the purchases you make. Don’t forget that I have created those lists as resources to help you find vendors too. I promise they will make your life so much easier!
I cannot wait to hear all your success stories!!
And of course, I want to know about all these amazing new boutiques to shop at!!
HAVE FUN SHOPPING! But not too much fun ;)
XO - Kristina G.
Resources:
MAGIC LINK - https://www.magicfashionevents.com/en/home.html