minimum order size

[Ridgeway]

Do any other small independent retailers find the minimum order quantities required from suppliers in order to get goods carriage paid often just too high?

Also we have had a delivery from one company that only contained 50% of the original order (carriage paid) and they now tell me that when the 'back order' comes in a couple of weeks time i will have to pay extra carriage on that as its not part of the original delivery.

I have now cancelled the rest of the order and told them where they can send it!

 

[Cylon]

Usually we get carriage paid on orders over £250 with most but we have to weigh up if we are getting a better deal than with other suppliers who charge for carriage.

Occasionally we will get an order for a rare small item we have to order in and end up overstocking a bit to get the free delivery even though it isn't really free just worked into our suppliers margin.

Luckily a lot of our suppliers will send items direct to customers so we only end up paying what we would have paid anyway and in some cases its cheaper to do it that way and better for cashflow.

We once had a manufacturer charge us £10 for sending us an item worth £1.50 after we had given explicit instructions to hold it till the next large order, course we got the £10 credited but it was a bit of a shocker at the time, great for the customer though who got it sooner than expected.

One of our suppliers has halved postage cost's for small orders if we go to them first so its often worth trying to negotiate a better deal if possible.

 

[Sobie]

Most of my sundries/ chemical suppliers won't deliver at all for orders under £500, not even if you offer to pay the postage.

Which means some of our suppliers only get one or two orders a year and once we are out of their stock that's all we can get. I spend at least one day planning orders for every supplier, it will take me upto 2 months to plan the years stock.

Its impossible to get it 100% right, Last year we ordered £500 of watering equipment that could still be used in a hosepipe ban such as soaker hoses, drip kits etc then it rained all summer and we've still got 90% of the stock on our shelves. (at least we still have a chance to sell them, not like the £1000's & £1000's worth of plants we had to bin

Plants are ordered in in minimum tray quantities, 24/ 20/ 18/ 15/ 10 or 6 of each variety are the most common, Then we have to order a danish trolley from each supplier, which can be anything from £300 to £1000 a trolley. We will receive about 10 trolley loads of plants a week in spring so its not a problem to order any special plant requests in springtime.

We do take orders from people because on the whole people all want gardening products at the same time, so we can normally consolidate our orders to get the products quickly.

Our pallets of compost are ordered in minimums of 12 pallets at a time, although we get charged for using their forklift so we normally order 24 pallets (full arctic lorry load) at a time to spread the price.

Its all about getting the right products, in the right volumes onto our shelves at the right time. If you don't plan, plan and plan again you miss out because the season is exceptionally short, and people have plenty of choice where to shop.

If I ever start another business it will not be a seasonal one or one that has living products

 

[fairdealworld]

Do any other small independent retailers find the minimum order quantities required from suppliers in order to get goods carriage paid often just too high?

Also we have had a delivery from one company that only contained 50% of the original order (carriage paid) and they now tell me that when the 'back order' comes in a couple of weeks time i will have to pay extra carriage on that as its not part of the original delivery.

I have now cancelled the rest of the order and told them where they can send it!

Minimum order sizes definitely inhibit ordering from some of our suppliers and potential suppliers. My comment covers both minimum order size and minimum order size for free delivery as these are not always the same. I can definitely see that from the suppliers point of view it may not be worth supplying below a certain quantity and I've no real argument with that even if I sometimes regret it. However you were more than right to tell that particular company where they could send their order That it outrageous and something I have never encountered with my own suppliers. In the past I made deliveries by van to a lot of customers, some of them at quite a distance, there was definitely a minimum order value for delivery but the customer was never penalised if their order fell below minimum value because I didn't have something which they might reasonably expect me to have given that it was on my price list.

 

[DavidWH]

I have sourced materials from local suppliers, which means I can collect.

However I have found the same products cheaper, with free delivery on orders over £50, when other suppliers are £100+ for free delivery.

It's always worth shopping around

 

[Lunazzurra]

It's now not unusual to find giftware suppliers offering carriage paid orders with a £150 minimum and we take advantage of that where we can.

In fact, two of our suppliers who, just a couple of years ago, used to have minimum orders of £350 - £400 pounds are now offering minimum orders of just £100 with one of them even sending out single item back-orders with no C&P charge at all. (Mind you, on these occasions the invoice is invariably dated within the last couple days of the month meaning they'd rather have some money coming in even if they have to swallow the carriage charge).

We have a card supplier who normally asks for a minimum of 16 packs of 6 cards, but the last time I placed an order, I just needed a top-up order and they were more than happy to supply just 9 packs with no C&P.

Conversely, I could name some other companies who just will not budge on their carriage paid minimums and as a result I refuse to deal with them. These companies usually have extremely high minimums in the first place (I'm talking of anything between £700 - £2000 for Salco Group for instance) and I think they are being totally unrealistic in today's market and where their direct like-for-like competitors are offering significantly better terms.

But what I would say, it is also worth asking if they will be flexible to begin with. A case in point is that we deferred from placing an order for a fashion jewellery supplier for two years based on their £250 min first order. Then last year we asked if they would consider a smaller carriage paid order of £150 just to see how we got on. They agreed and now regularly place orders of £400 or more at time because their products are so popular. Now we're kicking ourselves saying why didn't we do that two years previously.

 

[Ridgeway]

Thanks for the replies and advice. Am going to the Spring Fair at the NEC Sunday and will be pushing those suppliers i use with high requirements to reconsider. In the current climate i think its a good idea. Whilst not expecting suppliers to make a loss on delivery i do think that some of the bigger companies need be more flexible as there are many many others with similar products who i suspect are keen to get orders from us with improved terms. So that is my mission for the weekend.

 

[ScottishSte]

Good luck, with delivery charges going up due to petrol costs I only see the delivery charges becoming a bigger problem. A lot of suppliers don't want small customers as it puts off their bigger customers. For instance some suppliers don't want small shops to stock their goods because there is a larger shop in that market who orders more.

 

[Deleted member 158328]

You've got to look at it from the suppliers point of view. They are not going to make a lot of money at wholesale prices if customers order a small amount and they do not charge for shipping.

For bigger orders it's a lot easier to absorb the shipping costs with a negligible effect on the bottom line.

 

[triumphUK]

There are a lot of stores offer drop ship service ,which enable you order small quantity. Just Google it.

 

[Page]

Thanks for the replies and advice. Am going to the Spring Fair at the NEC Sunday and will be pushing those suppliers i use with high requirements to reconsider. In the current climate i think its a good idea. Whilst not expecting suppliers to make a loss on delivery i do think that some of the bigger companies need be more flexible as there are many many others with similar products who i suspect are keen to get orders from us with improved terms. So that is my mission for the weekend.

To get new customers at trade fairs it is quite often free delivery on "any" size order

But after that it is often not worth processing an order and then paying for the carriage - unless it is over a certain amount - the supplier needs to ensure it is worth their while you know

If it helps go to the extreme - imagine wanting 1p of product - okay now can see that it is not worth handling - so the question then is when does this kick in as being worthwhile

Hopefully the supplier has got this right for their business with their objectives etc - and that my friend is the figure you see 1

 

[Tradesplit]

Triple dip recession? The worst state of economy in living history?

This question for the most part is never going to be a 'one size fits all' answer, but depending on your amount of leverage with your suppliers (what they lose,if you drop out) I have found that, unless we are talking really specialised goods/services, a quite word in the right ear can open up doors!!

If you don't ask, you don't get.

Good hunting!!

 

[Ridgeway]

Thanks for all the advice guys.
Had a successful visit to the Spring Fair and as suggested a word in the right place resulted in some slightly better terms from existing accounts. Was also pleased to learn from a number of potential new suppliers that they have recently reduced their minimum order requirements due to the current climate and not just for orders placed at the fair. All in all suppliers seemed to be looking to be much more accommodating than i have experienced previously which is not too surprising!

 

[gr9ce]

Minimum order/delivery charges prevented us from ordering from one supplier last year. This was a lifesaver as it turns out the weather and hosepipe bans etc hit our sector hard.

We are still looking at some items we bought almost 3 years ago as the minimum outer was 36. Hopefully this year the remainder might go.

When you reach the situation that buying a few items on special in a supermarket works out cheaper than from a supplier plus delivery something is wrong in retail.

Unfortunately you cannot band together with others to place a minimum order as everyone is out for themselves and selling at the most competitive rate.

Buying smaller quanties via a cash and carry is not cost effective either.

Agreed suppliers have to cover their costs but as shown on these forums it is not too easy for suppliers/wholesalers to become retailers too.

 

[gr9ce]

Just received a new catalogue and to offer a choice of a certain item we have to buy 3 x 36 and other items 24's etc. This might not sound much but 3 years later we are still looking at a previous 36 stock item RRP £3.75!. We are small and seasonal and these items are a sideline which in season the supermarkets stock cheap so we can't win. There are other items required too but they are ordered with a heavy heart in the knowledge internet sellers don't have the same B&M overheads for pricing.

We are however expected to have them by the customers that do happen upon us weather permitting.

Looks like we have to accept these levels and get rid of the excess on amazonbay for little or no gain competing with those happy at 1p profit.

 

[Sobie]

Just received a new catalogue and to offer a choice of a certain item we have to buy 3 x 36 and other items 24's etc. This might not sound much but 3 years later we are still looking at a previous 36 stock item RRP £3.75!. We are small and seasonal and these items are a sideline which in season the supermarkets stock cheap so we can't win. There are other items required too but they are ordered with a heavy heart in the knowledge internet sellers don't have the same B&M overheads for pricing.

We are however expected to have them by the customers that do happen upon us weather permitting.

Looks like we have to accept these levels and get rid of the excess on amazonbay for little or no gain competing with those happy at 1p profit.

Minimum order/delivery charges prevented us from ordering from one supplier last year. This was a lifesaver as it turns out the weather and hosepipe bans etc hit our sector hard.

We are still looking at some items we bought almost 3 years ago as the minimum outer was 36. Hopefully this year the remainder might go.

When you reach the situation that buying a few items on special in a supermarket works out cheaper than from a supplier plus delivery something is wrong in retail.

Unfortunately you cannot band together with others to place a minimum order as everyone is out for themselves and selling at the most competitive rate.

Buying smaller quanties via a cash and carry is not cost effective either.

Agreed suppliers have to cover their costs but as shown on these forums it is not too easy for suppliers/wholesalers to become retailers too.

I know what you mean. We now look really closely at all items, if the case quantity is too high we don't order. 11 years of experience in seasonal trade has taught me the hard way that you just cannot afford to sit on slow selling items. It's easier to say "No - doesn't sell well enough to warrent my valuable shelf space" "no-one buys that anymore they buy XYZ instead" "having trouble getting hold of them" etc and I am being tougher this year, I have to be if I still want to be trading this time next year.

We purchased lots of legal watering kits in March last year, spent £200 and they are all sit sat on the shelf. I'll be pushing them harder this year if we get a better summer.

I've been much harder on my suppliers ordering pre-season this year. If they want my trade they are going to have to bend a little. So far all bar two suppliers so far have gone along with it, those 2 either won't be getting an order from me this year, or I'll just be getting the items I can't get elsewhere.

This year more than ever is going to be a case of tighter budgets, watching every penny, and getting in first on "impluse & trendy items" unfortunately supermarkets like Aldi/ Lidl are destroying part of the garden trade by stocking items that people only buy once in a season.

Added to the awful weather we've had in the last few weeks its just not inspiring me to stock large!

 

[mankman2012]

this is because in Dec courier will call up thier customers and tell them they will have rate increase in Jan. Most companies wont even have the time to look for new suppliers, in Dec to secure cheaper postage rates. When it comes to Jan every other courier has put up their price. I am sure the wholesalers are happy to sell you and dont want to put up the carriage cost but they make so little from each item that they really dont have margins to obsorb that carriage rate increase. If you can fina a better carriage supplier, you can suggest to them that you will bring in your own couriers. At least then you can shop around for the cheapest courier to suit each shipment.