What do you call...(clothing retail)

[Rebel*0*]

a company that distributes a product (i.e. clothing) on behalf of a brand?

I'm looking to take on as many retailers for my product as possible in a short time, I'm thinking that the easiest way to do this is through a agency/distributor that deals with other clothing brands meeting my target customer. Is there even such a thing?

[mattley23]

They are actually called 'agents or distributors' so you were right. Alot of agents or disctibutors will actually represent a number of brands.

Take our industry, skateboard & snowboard clothing, you usually find a disctributor will represent 5 or 6 leading brands in the UK.

[Rebel*0*]

matt....you wouldn't happen to know any would you?

[mattley23]

What style of clothing are you looking for mate?

Designer, skate, snowboard, urban, hip hop???

[Rebel*0*]

i'm looking to sell through an agent as aposed to buying. the style is possible hip-hop/urban

[mattley23]

Thats going to be tough then, distributors who represent brands will be able to sell you clothing, thats all.

They act as the brands sales team and will meet with potential retailers with an aim to sell you the brand for you to sell in a shop or a website.

It may be worth you writing down exactly what you plan to do and emaling it to me and i'll see what contacts I can put your way.

[Rebel*0*]

yes I realise this but i'm looking for one these agents to sell MY brand in the way they'd sell others to retailers

[mattley23]

Ahh see what you mean, sorry misunderstood you there for a while.

The disctributors I know deal with large brands like Zoo York, Duffs, Etnies, Lord etc and they tend not to go for small brands.

This is one reason why we havent signed with a distributor as yet. Having said that there are small time agents you can employ or there are 'sales agents' you can contact who work in a call centre type place and sell for you. Thery are easy to find just google sales agents and your get literally thousands.

[Rebel*0*]

got there in the end.

cheers Matt

[Belinda]

Hi,

You may want to have a look at http://www.agentbase.co.uk/ they cover all types of products and you may be able to hook up with an agent who sells related products to your target market.

From memory you can view ads for free so you can see what other companies are looking for in an agent and possibly what they pay.

HTH
Belinda
www.pinkenvy.co.uk

[BBWdressseller]

Originally posted by Rebel*0*
a company that distributes a product (i.e. clothing) on behalf of a brand?

I'm looking to take on as many retailers for my product as possible in a short time, I'm thinking that the easiest way to do this is through a agency/distributor that deals with other clothing brands meeting my target customer. Is there even such a thing?

I'd suggest that getting as many as possible in a short time might backfire on you. Its okay when your very small, but people want an element of exclusivity and once the damn has broken you can't stop it. Most brands want to protect who gets to sell their products, worth looking up some marketing gurus for a bit of help here.

Who do you want to sell your clothes to?
Who would be your ideal retailer?

I'm not trying to put you off, as I'm sure you need the sales yesterday and not tomorrow, but for a long lasting brand it doesn't pay to let everyone have access to your clothes. Although I wouldn't mind having Tommy Hilfigers or Burberrys money in my pocket.


Could be worth checking out Drapers magazine (tends to be independant shops, has distributors and classifieds as well), The National Exhibition Centre for when the spring fair and Moda is on, if only to check out the competition (The price of a stand would make your stand on end).

[Rebel*0*]

Cheers BBW.

You seem to know what your talking about, gather you've had some experience in the trade...?

[BBWdressseller]

More the experience of the trade not being prepared to sell to me (or other internet based businesses) than within it I'd say, but I guess some of my marketing and business strategy studying is still within my head somewhere.

Case studies galore of once super successful businesses expanding too much, too quickly and then the buying public getting fickle and then they stopped buying.

Examples:

Next - remember when there were about 4 Next shops on every High St. Luckily they were able to salvage the situation to be the superstar of the high st they are now.

Burtons - they owned shed loads of the high st formats - TopMan Top Shop, D. Perkins, Debenhams, Burtons, Principals. Made a mess of them and ended up selling most of them for a song to Mr (I'm a Billionaire) Green.


I seen a pretty good article on Marketing Sherpa on affliates that might be of interest, it is only free for a few more days though:
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/sampl...contentID=2891