By Jonnie Matthew, founder of Solillas
If you are launching a fashion brand and plan to sell it though high street retailers, you’ll need to follow these seven steps:
- Be new and unique
High street shops are saturated with great products, with new brands popping up all the time. To cut through this competitive environment, your product needs to be high quality, fairly unique.
- Develop your story
A strong story will support your brand. For example, how did you arrive at the design? What are your manufacturing principles? Where are the items made and using what materials?
For us the story was essential. Solillas sells shoes based on the traditional Spanish design, using high quality leather produced in Menorca. That was our unique twist and story. It really helped retailers understand our product.
- Find a clear position in the market
Look for sub-markets that you can align with. Our footwear, for example, shared similarities with other traditional-inspired footwear like Birkenstocks. By looking into this specific market, we could position ourselves alongside a brand that was already established for selling something quite unique, and retailers could immediately understand the key points of difference.
- Always follow relevant regulations
The EU has some of the strictest regulations in the world and the UK is expected to follow similar frameworks post-Brexit.
Consider the manufacturing process, source of the materials, the design, location of your head office and distribution centres; taxes, import duty, and VAT; what to do with the information held on customers; and how to keep any payments secure, website security, cookie information, and so on.
Slipping up on just one of these compliance issues will send retailers running.
- Choose retailers which align with your brand
Draw up a priority list of retailers and go out and gather contact details. Retailers will often publish lists of buyers or you can search on LinkedIn. Find out what they need from you to move on to the next step. It will usually involve a sample and some marketing materials, followed by a face-to-face meeting. But every retailer is different.
- Choose a deal you can work with
If a retailer puts high demands into the deal that you will struggle to service; you’ll constantly find yourself on the back foot and the relationship won’t last long.
Choose a deal you think you can over-service; you’ll keep your retailer happily reordering for years. Never take a deal you’ll have trouble servicing – it’s not worth it in the long-run.
- Keep Marketing
Demonstrating that you are working to spread the word, tell the story of your product, and create your own sales is likely to improve your retailer relationship.
For many fashion brands, high street retailers are the perfect way to go – especially if your product is quite unique. If consumers need to be able to see the product and try it on to understand it then in-store placement allows for the hands-on interaction that really helps sales.
