# How to sell your brand to stores?



## PICKLE5 (Feb 24, 2011)

Alright, so I have a small brand that I will be starting in summer. I know the owner to a local shop somewhat and he told me I need to make a look book and they can decide if it fits their brand and what they will order.

My base cost per shirt is about $10 between labels, blanks, printing and hangtags. I was planning to sell them for $25 each to compete with other brands.

My original idea was to sell the shirts for $25 each and give the owner of the store a % of the cut. 

So how do I price things if I'm selling them to the store, there is no way I could sell them for $25 to them and I have no idea what they 
buy T-Shirts from other brands for.

I had planned on 3 girls and 3 guys designs between a total of 190 shirts to be printed in the 1-2-2-1 sizing option setup. But if they are choosing the sizing that gets scraped and maybe so do some of the designs?

I was hoping to have an online store to sell my brand, but I guess I can only sell based on what the local shop orders?

I don't know how to go about doing this, can somebody help?


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## RIIR (Jan 18, 2011)

PICKLE5 said:


> My original idea was to sell the shirts for $25 each and give the owner of the store a % of the cut.
> 
> So how do I price things if I'm selling them to the store, there is no way I could sell them for $25 to them and I have no idea what they
> buy T-Shirts from other brands for.


If you're retail price is $25, expect stores to pay 50% of your retail price, your wholesale price, which in your case would be $12.50. This would give you a profit of $2.50 per shirt.




PICKLE5 said:


> I had planned on 3 girls and 3 guys designs between a total of 190 shirts to be printed in the 1-2-2-1 sizing option setup. But if they are choosing the sizing that gets scraped and maybe so do some of the designs?
> 
> I was hoping to have an online store to sell my brand, but I guess I can only sell based on what the local shop orders?
> 
> I don't know how to go about doing this, can somebody help?


You don't even know if this shop is going to want to sell your shirts, so you may not want to base your ordering on this. I recommend ordering your shirts as stated above, build your online store, create your lookbook, focus on your branding, and start your clothing line. Then approach the store. If they buy, then great. Supply them with merchandise from your current inventory. 1-2-2-1 is pretty standard, so you're on point there and six designs is a good start. Don't put so much focus on a store that hasn't even seen your designs.


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## PICKLE5 (Feb 24, 2011)

RIIR said:


> If you're retail price is $25, expect stores to pay 50% of your retail price, your wholesale price, which in your case would be $12.50. This would give you a profit of $2.50 per shirt.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I need to be making more than 2.50 profit. So start the business by myself and then approach stores? How do I sell locally then?


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## kimura-mma (Jul 26, 2008)

As it stands right now, your costs are way too high to successfully be a supplier to a retail store. You need to get your volume up and your costs down. Then the numbers will start making more sense.

As Booby said, retailers will expect to (at least) double the wholesale price. So if you expect your shirts to retail for $25, then your wholesale price needs to be in the $10-12.50 range. So to meet those expectations and still make a decent margin for yourself, you need to get your costs down.

And keep in mind, your current costs are based on 190 shirts. If you take on some retail partners, you may be doing print runs of 500-1000. So make sure you are basing your wholesale price on the cost of producing that volume, not the 190 you are producing now.


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## Sport T (Nov 10, 2010)

Is the store going to buy the shirts or are you putting them in the store on consignment?


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## TopseyCret (Jun 4, 2010)

I would suggest selling your shirts by word of mouth. Why would somebody buy your shirt in a retail location rather then an established brand that they are familiar with? It all about creating a following.


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## PICKLE5 (Feb 24, 2011)

I'm new to this but I know the community would support it. Its just about getting it into the store, I will contact them about consignment but am not sure if it will work or not.


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## ThreadBusiness (Jun 2, 2011)

Hey Pickle5,
I would have to agree that you should shift your focus for your launch from selling retail to selling online. While selling in retail shops is a great way to get viability and push lots of stock-you have to think about the retainers perspective. 
think about it this way. you start a new line, go to the store w your designs and they like them, but they want to know how many you sell, and about your customer demographics (in other words, they want to know how well they will sell). chances are, you're not going to have that info off the bat. imagine on the other hand, you launch your brand online-spend a few months building up a following on the Internet, get reviewed by bloggers and start making sales in your online store. You then go to the store with a line that has solid branding, has picked up a following and is being spoken about. Hopefully you'll even be able to tell the store owner a little about your customer. 
Which brand would you stock if you were the retailer?


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## PICKLE5 (Feb 24, 2011)

ThreadBusiness said:


> Hey Pickle5,
> I would have to agree that you should shift your focus for your launch from selling retail to selling online. While selling in retail shops is a great way to get viability and push lots of stock-you have to think about the retainers perspective.
> think about it this way. you start a new line, go to the store w your designs and they like them, but they want to know how many you sell, and about your customer demographics (in other words, they want to know how well they will sell). chances are, you're not going to have that info off the bat. imagine on the other hand, you launch your brand online-spend a few months building up a following on the Internet, get reviewed by bloggers and start making sales in your online store. You then go to the store with a line that has solid branding, has picked up a following and is being spoken about. Hopefully you'll even be able to tell the store owner a little about your customer.
> Which brand would you stock if you were the retailer?


I agree, but how do I offer the locals this brand then?


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## PICKLE5 (Feb 24, 2011)

Bump, this is a huge decision!


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## kimura-mma (Jul 26, 2008)

What is it that you are still trying to decide?

If you want to sell to retailers, make an appointment and show them samples. Chances are you will find that your costs are too high to be sustainable as a supplier to retail stores.

If you want to sell directly to the consumer, then look into some local fairs and events that need vendors. You can also launch a website.


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## baddbaby (Oct 23, 2008)

You have to be a go getter!! How badly do you want this??? I was brand new had no clue what to do...new I had a killer product...so I just researched...researched...researched...Pick up the phone and make that call!! If the first says no....then let it roll of your back...and go on!!
Everyone wants to make it in this business...don't reinvent the wheel, just make the wheel better than all of your competitors...I wish you the best, DO NOT GIVE UP....do you think that all of the sucess brands out there started out with a bang..no I am sure they all started out here just like us!!

Best wishes to you!


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## MrVanbuskirk (Feb 12, 2013)

RIIR said:


> If you're retail price is $25, expect stores to pay 50% of your retail price, your wholesale price, which in your case would be $12.50. This would give you a profit of $2.50 per shirt.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


You could always take the Gorilla Marketing approach & hang/fold up your shirts in the store yourself. 

If someone really likes the shirt of course they'll want to buy it.. Once they get up to the counter to purchase the shirt, the employee sees that its not in the inventory & has no idea where it came from... So the customer walks out with a free shirt.. Then looks up the brand online and buys more clothes plus brags to his homies about how he got a free shirt... 

Then if this happens multiple times chances are the store would contact you because they could be making money while you're giving out freebies.. 

Yeah you lose money but you gain an excited customer who wants to turn all his homies onto the brand too.


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## MrVanbuskirk (Feb 12, 2013)

****.. I just realized this is from 2 years ago... hahaha. hopefully you're already in stores now.


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## kimura-mma (Jul 26, 2008)

Offline stores.


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## treefox2118 (Sep 23, 2010)

We help our customers get into retail shop using a consignment method. Basically, the stores are loaned shirts every few weeks. When it comes time to restock, they paid for the shirts sold and get new shirts on loan.

After a brand is established, the shop has an option to buy shirts up front at a better price than the loan payback pricing.

I'll write an article today about the profit performance.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using T-Shirt Forums


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## c3turner (Jun 3, 2013)

this is a good post id choose to sell online


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## kotan (Jan 28, 2012)

MrVanbuskirk said:


> You could always take the Gorilla Marketing approach & hang/fold up your shirts in the store yourself.
> 
> If someone really likes the shirt of course they'll want to buy it.. Once they get up to the counter to purchase the shirt, the employee sees that its not in the inventory & has no idea where it came from... So the customer walks out with a free shirt.. Then looks up the brand online and buys more clothes plus brags to his homies about how he got a free shirt...
> 
> ...


Ahahaha notable. I've also heard of graffiti artist, Shephard Fairey of Obey, doing the same thing only what he does is buy an actual item in the store, print on the inside of it, then hang it back the next day. So it's like an easter egg item where that one shirt has an Obey print inside it. But yeah, this kind of approach might be tricky but can definitely garner attention from the owner.

As for the making the deal with the stores, it seems you're not that sure how this would work, or what the demand of the store is. So simply make a 'lookbook' displaying all your designs, set a meeting, and ask terms. Normally it's going to be consignment wherein you print x number of shirts based on their preference, then they carry it for you and you get paid after a certain amount of time (usually a month or two). Profit here might be too little if you're just starting and only producing on a minimal scale so why would you pick this over getting all the profit by yourself?

Sometimes, selling the shirts yourself as it starts and grows can be very fulfilling and you learn a lot than just letting it be found in a store - you get to know your market and develop your product better for them.


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