Self Employed Clothing Sales Agent - what's the costs?

[ashbyclarke]

What would be the normal commission given to an international sales agent for the clothing industry?

Self employed agents only.... how would it work??

Any Agents currently in this role I'd be very interested to hear from you.

 

[fbd.uk]

Hey, ashbyclarke!

Usually an agent charges an agreed commission (around 10%-15% of total sales or invoice FOB) to the designer but consider also the way of doing business in your target area. Of course they can charge more or less commissions because at the end of the day everything is negotiable when talking business in a free market economy!

For higher commissions designers will expect from the agents more effort when pushing their products to stockists. This will also impact designer's wholesale price and therefore your own interest (I'm assuming you are a designer): so you need to find a balance. Commonly a sales agent gets paid in full after the designer has been paid by its stockist (perhaps 7 days after). The agent could also be responsible of getting the invoices paid. He would intermediate the liasons of the commercial agreement between the stockist and designers. He or she gets only paid if transaction succeeds.

The country you want to export, is it an english speaking one? If no, then I'd suggest you to get yourself a distributor since is quite common when selling in overseas markets to have language problems. The distributor would be your one and only client and he or she'd place you one big order, taking responsibility for managing the relationships with the stores, including delivery and payment. He/she purchases the product from you and then sells it on, most often, marking up your supply price (although some cases they may negotiate a percentage of sales, ranging from 2 to 12%, depending on your potential sales turnover), to cover additional costs of distribution and invoicing, invoice chase.