Seller Blog
Advice, help and support for ASOS Marketplace sellers.
How to get new wholesale accounts and get your small brand or independent label stocked in more stores
Finding the right contact at the store you want to stock into and getting time with them to present your collection is often a time consuming and tricky part of growing your business. It is the main reason that tradeshows are such an important part of the brand calendar and have enjoyed continued success over the years, as for three or so days they are able to generate a captive audience. But what do you do if you are a small brand with limited budgets that simply cannot afford to present your collection in this way? Or perhaps you have more than two collections a year and are struggling to promote these outside of the tradeshows?
Sam Bleasby, the former Event Director of Pure London and I (Louisa Valvano, former Global Marketing Director of WGSN) were all too aware of the problems facing sellers every day as they battle budgets, margins, credit control issues, and the growing demand to provide more in season stock. This is one of the main reasons why we set up yourbrandspace.com, a virtual showroom that lets you showcase your collections and connect with buyers 365 days a year, and work in partnership with ASOS Marketplace – another great way to showcase your product.
Find new ways to present your collections
Having a website is not always enough to land wholesale accounts. Buyers are always being approached by labels and are inundated with information and requests to stock new brands. If you are waiting for them to organically ‘find’ you this is not going to happen as frequently or quickly as you would like it too. The best way to raise your brand profile quickly is to find a large source of buyers who are using a service, whether it is a show or an online service and therefore benefit from other peoples traffic. yourbrandspace.com for example is the first B2B virtual showroom where brands can put their collections up online for 365 days a year to connect with retailers. There are over 1300 retailers using the service, all of whom are looking for new brands and labels to stock. Similarly, using ASOS Marketplace, or other online selling platforms is another easy way to add another ‘window’ into your brand. It’s worthwhile adding information relevant to buyers into any ‘about us’ sections.
Making the most of how you present yourselves
How you present your label is crucial to your success, whether you are at a tradeshow or showcasing using an online service or shop. Any of you who have done shows before know that most buyers already have pre-planned appointments with existing brands that they stock so standing out from the other brands and capturing their attention as they pass can be tricky. This can be the same with online services, so you need to make sure you have good product images, you regularly update your collections and that you make a good first impression. The Marketplace photo guidelines will automatically make you think about images in a more creative way, but it’s definitely worth also putting flat images of your product on white backgrounds for your thumbnails too. This is a good indication for buyers browsing the site that you have extra stock and shows clearly that you are not a vintage seller, or a seller that only deals with one-offs.
Making the most of how you present yourselves
How you present your label is crucial to your success, whether you are at a tradeshow or showcasing using an online service or shop. Any of you who have done shows before know that most buyers already have pre-planned appointments with existing brands that they stock so standing out from the other brands and capturing their attention as they pass can be tricky. This can be the same with online services, so you need to make sure you have good product images, you regularly update your collections and that you make a good first impression. The Marketplace photo guidelines will automatically make you think about images in a more creative way, but it’s definitely worth also putting flat images of your product on white backgrounds for your thumbnails too. This is a good indication for buyers browsing the site that you have extra stock and shows clearly that you are not a vintage seller, or a seller that only deals with one-offs.
Being proactive is key to success
Whether you choose the traditional tradeshow route or some of the new online routes, one thing is for sure, the key to success is how proactive you are. Brands who get the best results from any form of wholesale marketing are often the ones who put the most in. Invite your stockists and prospects to your booth/online collection, collect as much information from the buyers as possible, track how they heard about your brand and follow up quickly. Every brand that comes on to our site is given their own unique url (as you would also have on ASOS Marketplace) to showcase their collection and the most proactive brands send these out as part of their order deliveries and in promo bags that they give out. Extending the customer loyalty lifecycle is crucial so the more often you can remind a buyer about your brand the better. Of course, once you’ve sent out a URL, you need to remember that anyone can access your collection at any time, so it is worth remembering to always make sure there is stock on your collection pages or in your boutique.
Choosing a partner who fills a skills gap
The success of any business in large part revolves around surrounding yourself with the right people and this is true of your suppliers too. When looking at how to grow your profile at shows or with an online/virtual showroom like yourbrandspace.com or a ASOS Marketplace boutique, it is crucial to partner with an organisation that can bring you something you cannot deliver alone. In many case for brands this is expanding into new markets (over 30% of our retailers are international and ASOS Marketplace gets traffic from all over the world), or it could be branding and PR to fill a marketing skills gap, or perhaps it is a lack of technological skills. Take time to really assess which areas you need help with and look for online services that can help you fulfill those exact needs.
Finally, the important thing to remember with any of this activity is that you are entering into a relationship with your buyers in the same way as you enter into a relationship with customers. It is not simply a one-off transaction, but hopefully a long-standing partnership, so it is important to ensure you can deliver on your commitments. How you present yourself on and offline has to be consistent and you have to be able to deliver on the number of orders you take, so if necessary start small and you can always build up! Make sure your online reputation is impeccable – if you sell online as well as use a virtual trade show; make sure your feedback rating reflects your excellent customer service. Regularly Google your brand and see what comes up. However you choose to showcase your brand, make sure you are easy to find. The more ‘online’ doors you have – the better!
For more information about yourbrandspace.com please register today at www.yourbrandspace.com or email sbleasby@yourbrandspace.com or call 0044 7538 704973.
