Best place to sell my products?

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W

Will

  • #1
    Hey all,
    I've been reading around here and i've found some invaluable advice, so thanks for that. Now i have a bit more of a specific question for some of you out there. Basically, i'm selling a product (Mens and Womens printed t-shirts, since you asked) and i'm doing average/poorly selling individually, but what i really want to do is to sell wholesale, as it provides me with a quicker turnover of stock and allows for more of the shirts (which i believe will be self-promoting when they get out there in the public eye) out into the market. I realise that this means less profit, but at the moment i'm going for volume based sales rather than profit based sales.

    So, now i'm trying to find the best place to sell wholesale stock. So far, i've done the following;
    • Advertised on www(dot)thewholesaleforums(dot)co(dot)uk - Very little success indeed.
    • E-mailed directly about 30-40 purchasing departments for online stores. Some success, Some interest
    • Sent pricelists and photographs and samples where requested to local mens and womens clothing retailers.
    Now, all this has had limited success. I'm not sure what i'm doing wrong because from what i've seen, i'm pricing my products extremely competitively, and they are very, very good quality clothes, with labels, branded storage bags and free lapel badges with each shirt. Also, the shirts are popular with those who i've managed to get them infront of, so they seem like the right product and the right price. For reference, they are aimed at student/young intellectual types (University students are the perfect audience)

    As those who have read my introduction know, I am fairly young and therefore I do not have a massive budget to play with in trying to sell these shirts, however there is money available where I think it will lead to sales. So what i am asking you is;
    1. Where/Who do you suggest I can sell these to wholesale?
    2. What am I doing wrong at the moment?
    3. Any other advice, please :)
    I await your replys, and if anyone is interested or wants to see the pricelist I send to interested parties, or the website to analyse it further drop me a PM and I'd be thrilled to give you the information
    Yours
    Will Read
     
    stephendoyle

    stephendoyle

    Free Member
    Mar 7, 2007
    683
    40
    Manchester
  • #3
    i think the last post hit the nail on the head.

    you are competing with a massive market place such as Ebay.

    you are working on the basis where volume is high and keep the prices down which is fine.

    i would push your usp more and make sure that all the prospects that you are speaking to are the right person (decision maker).

    personally i would take the hit and cold call either by telephone to find out who the decision maker is and then pop in to see them or just pop in to see them.

    take samples and show them the quality.

    also take your order pad!

    regards
    steve doyle
     
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    D

    Dany Boy

  • #5
    Try marketing to the schools and universities and clubs, its a known fact that they have existing suppliers try to break through, try talking to them...

    COz I remember doing this for one of my client in Warwickshire who was in the same situation that you are in and we gathered a database of corporates, schools, colleges and clubs and used cold calling as a tool and tried to see what interests them and what is that they want and then sent info to them and followed up and it worked out it took 6 months but today the 6 months investment has fetched him regular business and leads that he can follow up as well. If you think its worth investing let me know and will discuss the plan in detail.
     
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    SillyJokes

    SillyJokes

    Free Member
    Jul 26, 2004
    4,585
    596
  • #6
    Printed t-shirts - is it just that there are so many people doing this you are really up against it?

    The only way we could judge your likely success is to see a couple of shirts as this must be all down to whether the designs work or not.

    I'm thinking uni students have no money and what they do have they spend on uni related shirts.

    We used to ship shirts for someone else. They had a good logo and got the shirt on TV on Nell McAndrew but we only ever sold 1000 or so in total. It wasn't big money.
     
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    W

    Will

  • #7
    Hey all,
    Thanks for all the advice.
    I've inherited this brand. It used to sell 'Bored Of the Beckhams' t-shirts which got in the press, on television, in magazines and on websites. They sold 40,000 of them. I've inherited the designs, rights etc. I let every customer know how well the brand has done in the past, and try to use that as some reassurance that these are going to do equally as well.
    Cheers
    Will
     
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    R

    Roark

  • #8
    Try the London Edge Show : Feb and Sept each year and now a show in NYC.

    Buyers from all over the globe attend this exhibition.

    Been down the t-shirt urbanwear route- taught me some valuable and tough lessons.

    Your are competing with Animal, Billabong, Mambo and thousands of others etc etc. So your USP's will either help you start sailing, or burn cash.
     
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    M

    MarqueMyWords

    Free Member
    Nov 26, 2007
    119
    17
    Slough
  • #9
    All,
    Just PM'd Will with a few ideas.

    The JScampus group: 'www (dot) jscampus (dot) co (dot) uk / shop' who have shops on 22 UK Campuses.

    Direct contact with the NUS and Student Guilds.

    Campus 'Street Teams' employing Students from each Uni to sell at their respective Guild/ to their mates etc.

    Anybody got any reservations about these ideas that they could let Will know about.

    P.s Sillyjokes, I think you'd be surprised at how much disposable income us students have, custom t-shirts are a big thing at Uni.
     
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