How to get products into shops

danoriordan1402

Hey all, my partner designs, makes and sells baby clothes mainly online. She does a reasonable amount of business but would like to try to approach smallish retail outlets to try to get some on the rails. What would be the best way to approach this and what would the shop normally look for as their part of the deal?

Southsider1

First you need to decide which shops to approach. (if your looking for premium prices you need to look at shops in affluent areas such as, say, Blackrock, Dalkey, Malahide etc in Dublin. Then make an appointment to see the manager or buyer. Bring along some samples. They will probably look for a months credit. Have you spoken to Enterprise Ireland? If you intend expanding you/your partner would probably need to look to the Far East/China for a cost effective manufacturer. Make sure the designs are copyright.

newman10

danoriordan1402 wrote: »

Hey all, my partner designs, makes and sells baby clothes mainly online. She does a reasonable amount of business but would like to try to approach smallish retail outlets to try to get some on the rails. What would be the best way to approach this and what would the shop normally look for as their part of the deal?

If she wants a reaction to her range maybe she should show at Futura Fair. The cost of the stand is quite expensive but she may be able to negotiate a deal or get help from a County Enterprise board.

See what the reaction is but I do not know if the Fair will be well attended.

What prices are the clothing and what is the outlook for Baby/childrens with the demise of Adams

Southsider1

newman10 wrote: »

what is the outlook for Baby/childrens with the demise of Adams

Should be great with one less BIG fish in the pond and wimmin still having babies!

danoriordan1402

thanks all for the helpful replies so far - the majority of the range is designed for the 6months up to the 18month old, and the dress's etc go for around 15Euro.

Southsider1

what's your website?

danoriordan1402

website is getting smartened up finally, heres an example of the type of products.
http://cgi.ebay.ie/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=110488963549&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT

antoinolachtnai

Clothes usually have a pretty big markup. This is especially the case if you aren't bringing a 'brand' to the party.

I think it will be really hard to operate at the 15 euro price point. If it is a smallish shop with low enough volume, I don't think the shop can really justify selling the item if it doesn't get at least a tenner gross profit from the sale, and probably more. If you are manufacturing in Ireland, I doubt if you are in a position to sell them for 3 or 4 euros, which is what you would have to do to give the shop 10 euros markup (I really don't know what the VAT situation is for children's clothes).

I would say that for retail you would have to be more high-end, higher quality, higher price point. But you'd need to talk to boutique owners.

There are a good few small, specialized children's clothes shops, but I would really wonder whether they really make any money. Few people are going to blow out on something that's only going to fit for a few months. The key is probably low cost and high volume. Good design and reasonable quality is the extra thing that your partner probably adds to the mix which accounts for her success to date.

I'm not saying that it's not a good market to be in, but it is a very specific market and if you start playing at the high-end, it is a small enough market.

I think it is a good idea to do a lot more research on this, talking to a lot of owners to figure out if it's worthwhile. Even if you don't go ahead, the research will pay dividends for what is sold online.

Beechman

newman10 wrote: »

If she wants a reaction to her range maybe she should show at Futura Fair. The cost of the stand is quite expensive but she may be able to negotiate a deal or get help from a County Enterprise board.

See what the reaction is but I do not know if the Fair will be well attended.

What prices are the clothing and what is the outlook for Baby/childrens with the demise of Adams

I would also recommend a trade fair like Futura to get yourself started.However I would not book it straight away, do your homework first and see what the cost is etc... If you have your samples,liturture,business cards all ready I would walk into the organisers office on the set up day and make a deal , you will get a bargin, I know its leaving it late but no organiser wants empty space and you could save a good bit of money

newman10

Beechman wrote: »

I would also recommend a trade fair like Futura to get yourself started.However I would not book it straight away, do your homework first and see what the cost is etc... If you have your samples,liturture,business cards all ready I would walk into the organisers office on the set up day and make a deal , you will get a bargin, I know its leaving it late but no organiser wants empty space and you could save a good bit of money

Just checked the website and they have only 2 listed Babywear suppliers.

Call and haggle.

probe

And if you propose to sell to Tesco and you are Irish, best bring €500,000 in your back pocket!

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/frontpage/2010/0215/1224264468799.html

Bandara

probe wrote: »

And if you propose to sell to Tesco and you are Irish, best bring €500,000 in your back pocket!

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/frontpage/2010/0215/1224264468799.html

This is standard practice in the retail industry, Superquinn have been do it for 30 years

antoinolachtnai

The issue is that when you ask a supermarket to stock your stuff, you are basically asking for a big favour. You are asking them to kick someone else's product out of the shelf space so that your product can take that space instead. They are depending on you to generate more sales from that shelf than the last guy. It's not surprising that they demand a premium. 500g sounds like a lot, and it is, but to access 120 shops, it's understandable that people would pay it.

probe

It is not acceptable in my books - it is a barrier to new indigenous business getting distribution for their product.

There is no reciprocity in Britain - if I wanted to set-up a chain of 300 supermarkets in that country I would be blocked at every potential location by that country's "planning permission" laws.

If you have a shop in certain parts of Italy, the Mafia might approach you looking for money so that they can make sure that you don't suffer any criminal damage etc. A protection racket.

This is a mirror image scenario. They have the shop, and the supplier pays "protection money" for shelf-space.

Ireland is the most polluted country in terms of crappy foreign chain store penetration rates. No other country in the EU would tolerate this. And beyond the EU is well managed countries like Switzerland, foreign retailers are few and far between - and only the high quality operators who have something to deliver in terms of value added get past the door and can open premises. Virtually everything is Swiss in a Swiss shopping mall or street. Virtually everything is tacky British of late in an Irish shopping mall or street.

I'm all for free trade etc - but it is only a country of incompetent morons would put up with the foreign grip on the retail space in Ireland. Linked no doubt to the property developer mess the country is now faced with.

While Superquinn may/probably has asked for hello money, in Fergal Quinn's time at the helm there were lots of new entrepreneurs whose products got space in Superquinn stores - and I have no doubt that they didn't have €500,000 to put in Fergal's pocket. He would not have demanded it either.

Time the Irish public boycotted Tesco and their kind for depriving them of choice and inflating the cost of their shopping basket to pay for this hello money.

The logical and most efficient way for a retailer to operate is to display merchandise based on its gross margin contribution per metre of shelf space allocated.

If the government/gov consumer agencies (of which there are many) were on the ball they would collect data on demands for these payments, and publish the data (without disclosing the suppliers names) to name and shame the retailers. Use a high profile advertising campaign on TV etc.

Give the consumer the information on the dirt so they can decide where to spend their money.

Bandara

Fergal Quinn was the retailer responsible for bringing this practice into Ireland.

antoinolachtnai

The logical and most efficient way for a retailer to operate is to display merchandise based on its gross margin contribution per metre of shelf space allocated.

If you did this, then the new vendors would be put in the position of having to guarantee a certain contribution per square meter or maybe even paying the contribution up front (which is key money all over again).

newman10

I feel that the OP's question has not been answered. He wants to sell Baby Clothes to Shops/Boutiques and does not have the ability to put them into Supermarkets.

OP your other option is to approach an Agent who is selling similar products and may also take your products when he/she is showing stock to the Shops

paddylonglegs

OP, the clothes look great going by the ebay ad. THe actual picture itself I think could do with a bit more professionalism however. In the case of approaching potential buyers, do you plan to have pictures of the clothes being modeled by babies? There are plenty over in the photography section that would love a project like this I'm sure. That would give the buyer an idea of how serious you are and also reflects the quality of the clothes. The same goes for your branding. A well designed identity shouts how professional you are when approaching a buyer and can work well as part of a presentation. Best of luck with it.

danoriordan1402

Thanks for all the info. I agree with the note on the picture quality, hence the website is getting tarted up with a more professional look and hope to be up again soon. The items she put on ebay were samples so we just wanted rid of them.
Great idea on the baby modeling - we have a 1 year old girl who has been the unwilling model on many an occasion.