This might not be necessary if you’re the product or make the product for your business. As an e-tailer, my wife, and I are going through wholesalers, which means we’ll be buying goods from others. Thus, we’ve decided to attend a couple buying shows throughout the year.

This past weekend we attended Trends in Edmonton as it was stocked with wholesalers shilling their clothing brands. My wife, and I thought we could pull off all our meetings in one day, and we did, but man were we exhausted. We poured over 1000’s of dresses, sweaters, tops, bottoms, and the list goes on. All in the name of finding a few items or brands that will end up lining the online shelves of our store.

The cool thing about being a buyer at these shows is it’s free to attend. You also get to see what the fashion trends are going to be 6-months out. Plus, you get to meet some quirky people (it’s fashion after all). When starting your online biz, you should see if there’s a trade show or buying show in your industry. If you can find one, try and attend it. It’s so difficult, and time consuming to reach out to wholesalers, get their literature, read through it, and figure out what you’re going to buy for your store. These shows put everyone, and everything (well, almost everything) in one place.

My wife going through a rack.

Seeing as it was our first show – we wanted to get the ‘lay of the land’ before purchasing anything. Some wholesalers will try to hard sell you, and that’s fine. That’s their job. If attending one of these show go in with a plan.

Planning for your buying show – 10 Tips

1) Reach out to the show before hand to get their literature, and list of wholesalers present at the show. This is a simple Google search away. For the most part it’s effortless to sign up, and the show will ship out their literature within a couple weeks to get you started.

2) Reach out to those wholesalers to book appointments. When your literature arrives, go through it, and start reaching out to wholesalers (if you haven’t already done so). It’s important to book appointments as this gives you one-on-one access to the wholesaler. They’ll also fill you in on what’s selling, and what to look forward to.

3) Attend appointments, and ask questions. If you set an appointment – show up. Pretty straight forward. After all, you’re building relationships with these wholesalers, and you don’t want to rock the boat by missing an appointment. While at the appointment, get to know the wholesalers. Why are they doing this? How did they get into it? What’s selling or has sold in the past? And fill them in on the idea for your store.

4) See product, take pictures, and notes (we used our iPad). All of the wholesalers will have samples of their goods. In my case, it gave me a good idea on the quality of fabric, the cut, and how it will look on the body. My wife, and I took a bunch of pictures, so we could see how the clothes looked on a screen. After all, we’re selling online, so how it looks on a screen is HUGE to us. For example – there was one dress that looked fine in person, but really popped on the screen. There were also numerous scenarios where it was the opposite.

5) Figure out what you’re going to buy (ask for show specials). You can buy right there at your appointment. You might have to limit what you purchase or come back at a later time depending on your budget. You can also change up your order or cancel it later on down the road depending on when stuff is supposed to be shipped to you.

6) Set a budget (if you’re going to be spending money). Don’t blow it all in one place. Generally, these are giant shows, with thousands of wholesalers. Take your time, and don’t get sucked in to buying too much, and blowing your budget. You should have a decent knowledge of how much each brand costs going in as you’ve already spoken with the wholesalers.

7) Figure availability and shipping dates. Some items are available now, and can be shipped the same week. See it, buy it, ship it. Other items are only available a few months out. Be sure to ask your wholesaler these questions if they don’t mention shipping dates.

8) Don’t overbook yourself. This was our error. We made too many appointments in one day. Moving forward – we’ll probably book two appointments in the morning, and two in the afternoon, and call it a day. Then do the same the next day, and the next. This also allows you to take in what happened that day instead of your head turning to moosh. Everything looks, and feels the same after a few appointments.

9) Have fun. You’re there, so you might as well make the most of it. Not too mention, you should leave sometime to explore the city you’re in. This will take your brain away from the show, and the craziness it sometimes brings on.

10) Bring a partner. This allows you to do more in the one-hour you get with the wholesalers. You can run through the racks, as questions, take pictures, and more. If you’re going solo – I can see how this can be extremely overwhelming. Bring a partner if you can, and split up your duties. This also helps you deal with some of the wholesalers who are trying to hard-sell you.

Love you,

Jordan ‘The Guy with the Bow Tie’ Rycroft