Deciding whether to sell wholesale and/or direct to consumer is a common question in the fashion industry. Many factors come into play on making this decision, including the fashion brand’s business model, negotiation with buyers and manufacturers, and sales data.
If you’re a fashion company that sells to wholesalers and direct to consumers, you have to consider the buyers’ opinions. At market, when buyers give their feedback and write orders, you’ll often find you have to negotiate with them to take a chance on new styles that give a proper representation of the collection.
After orders are placed, you’ll then go to your manufacturer and present your orders for fulfillment. Some manufacturers will require a larger quantity of units. Drawing from your fashion education, you then have to analyze your collection and say, “Well, if I only have orders for 500, am I going to put in the other order for 500? Is it really that crucial to our assortment or our collection this season?”
Sometimes it’s worth placing the order. Other times it isn’t. If you have a wholesale and a direct to consumer (DTC) model, it’s a combination of opinions that determines what actually goes into the market, into stores or online for that season. If you’re a completely DTC company, you’re tapping into online fashion education, trend forecasting, and looking at sales data to see what performed well and what didn’t in past seasons.
On the flip side, you want to make sure you’re not over-saturating the market and there’s still demand to ensure you won’t have excess supply. It depends on the business model you’re in and the business model you would like to have. This will determine how you successfully plan for the assortment you’re going to release each season.
