Getting Your Fashion Collection to Market Short Course
Course description
Course overview
How do you promote and sell your fashion collection into major retail stores as well as independent boutiques and websites worldwide? Led by an industry expert, this course will untangle the many routes you can take to deliver your clothing line to your customers, increase your sales and develop your brand.
You will learn how to approach and sell into the key retail stores that suit your brand profile and price points, such as Selfridges, Liberty, Topshop, Asos, Revolve or Dover St Market. How do you get to these key buyers? When you get there, how should you present your collection and what are the communication tools that you would need to support your collection at retail?
In the past 15 years, the way makers reach their consumers has changed radically and vice versa. Core elements such as making a product and selling it remain constant. However, the traditional selling models of wholesale/retail and suppliers reaching customers via retail specialists (online or in stores) have become more blurred. If you dream of having a successful fashion business one day, come along and get some useful and practical tips from someone who has done it.
Who this course is for
- Fashion designers new to the market who have an existing collection or product that they wish to bring to market
- Those with a knowledge of the fashion business looking to complete the launch of their brand
- Those wishing to adapt their new brand to changing market demands, whilst understanding and retaining their brand identity
- Those keen to understand the advantages and disadvantages of direct sales online via their own website, setting up their own store, working with retail partners and independent stores
Key information
Topics covered
- Identifying your customer and your brand’s position in the market
- Range plan: Identifying the best plan for your collection
- ‘Elevator pitch’: How to describe your brand to customers/ investors/ journalists/ buyers
- How to get valuable sales feedback and use it to grow your business
- Online vs Wholesale vs retail: how to get the right mix for your brand
- Setting up your own store: advantages and disadvantages
- Approaching buyers, agents and distributors: pros and cons, and how much they take from your margin
- Concessions: large stores often offer concessions rather than buying in the brand. We look at how this works
- Seasonal cycles and working outside the traditional buying seasons/ models to meet consumer demand and build your business
- How to adapt to changing market demands while retaining your brand identity
- Cutting through the fluff: managing social media, press and PR to your advantage
Key terminology and approaches that any designer/brand owner should be aware of:
- Cash flow: Having financial plans in place to deal successfully with the demands of production and delivery
- Critical path: Timelines for successful production, delivery and selling
- Pricing: Mathematical and ‘emotional’. What this means and how to do it
- Margins: Profit is sanity, turnover is vanity
- Sales targets and sell throughs: What these are and why they matter
- Trade discounts, consignment, sell-through agreements
- Linesheets: the information needed to sell and invoice accurately
Learning outcomes
Develop a good understanding of how to take your product to market and reach enough customers to grow and sustain your business.
During the course, you will complete at least one of the following exercises:
- Write a six month plan for your brand to bring it to market OR take your business to the next stage: Critical path OR cashflow OR both.
- Elevator pitch’ summarising the essence of your brand: Who (customer), What (product), Why (values)
- Create/ refine your range plan: ready to present in a buying/ business meeting
- Write your social media strategy for the next six months
Materials
- Notepad and pen
- Any available samples (digital or otherwise)
- Laptop or tablet
Pre-course activities:
Read this article: The State of Fashion 2025: Challenges at every turn
Tutor
Joanna Bell
With 20 years of successful fashion sales and brand management for Michael Kors, Lulu Guinness and Temperley amongst others, Joanna Bell recognises the importance of offering solid commercial insight at the beginning of a brand's journey.She set up the Bell Style consultancy in 2017 to give younger brands the strategic sales service that larger brands can afford.
www.bellstyleconsultancy.com
She now wants to bring this knowledge to a wider audience.
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