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How to Field Wholesale Orders

Now I want to move a little bit into some of the process the sales process so I wanted to talk about how to field orders and some things you might want to get ready before you wholesale and kind of some things to think about to help you determine if you're ready before you start approaching stores. So I've said this a few times, but I want you to make it it's easy for buyers to buy as possible you will sell more if you make it easy for them and you will look like a pro like you've been doing this longer than you have. So, you know, most boutique stores and this came up during the questions, I think from the online audience most boutique stores are happy to work with smaller independent lines in fact, they love it they love hearing your story. They love sharing that story with their customers on dh you know, this has a real small town feel right, and so they like that, but they want to know you've got your ducks in a row. They want to know that you can fill orders on time and that you c...

an handle the volume when they send them, so anyhow, you want to make it a simple is possible for them, so online ordering systems came up earlier and so I wanted to share some ways well well, jim sentiment some ordering systems where people placing orders how are these wholesale accounts sending their orders into aa lot of people are doing online wholesale portals now so that they can place orders online phone, email or common fax is actually still something that people dio guess but you know if you do offer fax I wanted to offer a little tidbit here there's a lot of online services like my fax the fax where you can have a fax number but when the orders come in via fax they'll just be send your email you don't actually have to have a fax machine many think it was about ten dollars a month or something for my facts so you know it's nice to offer not everybody does but there are some retailers that air you know still utilizing those fax machines so yeah questions about the last lesson so I can't take it get them in now before we move ahead. Um jesse sq asked if I shouldn't list m s r p in the wholesale catalog, how should I include a policy stating their retailers can't undercut my retail prices? It's interesting because that's the second time that this question has come up about retailers undercutting though maker but in my history of doing this I've never had that experience I've always had it where it was more that the maker was undercutting the retailer so ok, most people don't put m s r p but they could put their guidelines of it's anticipated that deal keystone the product you know in the terms and conditions but you know you're wholesale price is going to be listed in your catalog and then they're going to mark it up to whatever they mark it up tio but they don't want to lose money either, so I don't have a clear creamy you have an answer for that I was just going to say in terms of having a policy around that I think sometimes for luxury goods it can become an issue you can simply say that it has to be one hundred percent markup but also gives some flexibility in terms of if you are going to change your prices the m s r p becomes a relevant you could just kind of talk about that with the terms and conditions they're really hard to sort of in state and make sure people are following those policies so keep in mind there's sort of just guidelines but so I wouldn't focus too much on those but that's how I would work around that yeah that's great advice thank you there's one more question when viewer I was wondering what margin should people shoot for that varies across every industry and based on what type of products you're selling, whether it's a luxury good or lower and good and that's something I I'm not comfortable answering based on not knowing what that person's product is or what you know what industry there in, but I think that's where doing your top down and bottom margin, you're going to find out what your margin is doing that and you'll see based on with the market value is where you fall, you'll see whether you have a thin margin or not. Obviously, the goal is to get the biggest margin possible, but there's no, I can't offer a rule of thumb you want to aim for this margin, it just it varies too widely. Unfortunately, sorry, ok, so we're talking about how to feel those orders and how they're going to come in so there's all these different ways basically take the order, however come it is my biggest piece of advice for you, but create systems so that you've got some ways to make your life easier as well as their life easier. So some online systems that are pretty popular, you know, etc wholesale has their online platform. Shopify has a wholesale platform in square space also has something he's said to be the pop most popular three right now, this is something that is always changing there's always a new technology, is coming out. In and different plug ins for wordpress and things like that so investigate the different features and find out what the different costs are for each of them teo and determine what's the best fit for you sometimes it also depends on what your inventory systems are a lot of people you stitch labs and that only integrate with certain systems so you know, you really want to look at the bigger bigger puzzle there to determine which online platforms for you but this is an area that more and more people are moving towards, you know it's just the nature of how people are shopping now online that's not to say the other things we'll talk about are important they are but keep it as simple as possible for these buyers and again be flexible take orders if they send them um ok, next up I wanted to show you in your bonus materials there's a sample order form there's so there's lots of ways you can set up your order form and sometimes people won't even use one they'll just send excuse and then email or they'll use their own pio but if you're looking for an example about what an order form looks like and what kind of information you'd like to capture there is one in your bonus materials this is just kind of all purpose one you can use to fill in the blank so take a look at the bonus materials there so the next item in terms of your systems I want to talk about that you really need to flush out before you start wholesaling or as you're starting it setting your terms and conditions and something creative said earlier is something I want to reiterate here you can settle the terms and conditions you want you can map out these rules but enforcing them or you know, ensuring that people are following them is very difficult to do but I'm not an attorney here but it is important to have things in, you know, a stricter format in writing and then you know you could be flexible is you need to be or make exceptions is you need to be but if you set some guidelines some standards you'll be better off in the long run here so you know the biggest red flag when you're new to selling wholesale, in my opinion is terms and conditions there's some basic things that every wholesaler needs to have in place within their written policies and this really includes, you know, your minimums, your turnaround times, your payment methods you know, all of which we're going to go over right now so tweet this out if you're interested detail the wholesale terms and conditions they set clear expectations ins on dh so what I mean by this again is that you're kind of setting the parameters and you're letting people know that these air kind of my rules from buying for me and this is how I work and you know keeping in mind that you set those terms you your business you set those rules so again it's always better to have stricter policies and writing and you can be flexible where you need to be so let's look at some definition oh yeah tiffany have a question and this ties into the order processing and the order forms so I have my terms and conditions on the bottom of my order form and there's a line above it where you know the buyers signs and acknowledges all of that but when I get orders and however they come picture of a posted what items have been derail everything when I get those orders of course I want to make it easy for them and I do but how do I then then they skip the order form all together so I don't have their signature how do I even make sure they've seen that part you know do I after I accept the order do I send in like ah email what just a template to reiterate the bullet points of these terms and conditions and to get an e signature it just seems like another step that can get in the way but also when the order form gets skipped which happens very often how do I make sure that they read the terms and condition and understand, and I have, like a signature. I don't gather signatures on my terms and conditions that's just my preference, I feel like it's an extra step that just kind of holds up the process, but what you could do if that was really important to you is maybe you had sent him something for an e signature, you know, through the service where it's just a term of the conditions, but that's, not something I'd really worry about. The other recommendation is, I tell you to put them on your packing slip or something so that it was clearly sent to them with their order that you know, if there was any questions, especially if it was something about returns, exchanges or can't you know things like that? You could put that on your packing slip. That's not customer airy that's not what most folks dio thie terms and conditions are sometimes included on the order for him, but they're often times included on your website and on your catalog, so and it's kind of it. From my standpoint, it's assumed that people are going toe, you know, agree to those terms and conditions, and they place in order. Okay, is those air you're publicly posted shared terms and sociologist out there we don't have to take the extra step to be like here it is again e oh no I wouldn't spend the extra time to get a signature I feel like that is um oh it's an extra hurdle it's causing them more time taking them more time to do so I wouldn't I wouldn't require a signature for that, but I would if there ever was a dispute about what was happening, you could easily say, oh, these, you know, our wholesale terms and conditions are posted on our web site or you know, they're in our catalogue here's a link to that, you know, if somebody sent you in order that was below your minimum orders and, you know, that's a great time to go back something oh, maybe you haven't seen our terms and conditions here's our catalog and hears everything listed in there, you know, you need order more, but um, but on that note, tio what we've talked about a paper camps you is like, you need to be flexible with that if they're five dollars under your minimum, let it slide, but if they're you know, half year minimum, then go back to him about that so that's just I would recommend redirecting them instead of creating a new process