This May marks the start of the SS22 NH wholesale planning season - Are you ready to pitch your fashion brand to global wholesale platforms?
Do you feel ready to take your brand to the next level by engaging in global fashion wholesale? Then let me help by telling you that it is all about timing.
Global fashion wholesale takes time and preparation to ensure that you hit the ground running with your first showing.
In preparation, you need to consider your brands:
- Wholesale strategy
- Wholesale collection plan
- Collection designs
- Photoshoot time and content
- Wholesale pitch prep
If you want to take some of the work away and outsource it, you can always hire a wholesale consultant to help. But if not, if you want the DIY approach then this blog post will give you the breakdown of everything you need to do to ensure you create the perfect pitch ready for the SS22 NH planning season.
Let’s start with a timeline breakdown, as this process is all about timing, therefore you need to know what to do and when.
NH SS22 wholesale timeline
Pitching starts in May running through to the end of June when the NH SS22 buying season commences.
This is your time to reach out and connect with global wholesale accounts, pitching your brand to the buying team securing an SS22 collection showing.
NH SS22 showings start in July and roughly follow these timings however this is dependent on your product lead time.
- July-August – you would show your SS22 drop 1 – spring collection
- Sept-October – you would show your SS22 drop 2 – summer collection
- Nov – you might show SS22 drop 3 – capsule high summer collection
Now you have an idea of the future timelines, what do you need to do to get your fashion brand pitch ready?
You need to strategically plan for wholesale
This is one of the most important steps you should have already taken to ensure that your brand is ready to wholesale.
Wondering what I mean by this?
Then I recommend that you pause and read this blog post first – How to know if your fashion brand is ready to approach 3rd party eCommerce?
Collection planning starts with
- What products are in the archive that you can pull out that you know will dazzle and delight new accounts?
- What new designs are in work that will be ready in time?
- What styles will suit each specific platform you’re planning on targeting? And ask yourself why.
- How many options are you going to show per drop for SS22?
- What will be your pricing strategy for your new territory overseas? And does this cover your operational costs?
- What do you need to do and when to hit your deadline? (project management)
Answering the above questions will start to build your option framework, which is fundamental to know before you start designing your collection and most definitely before you start pitching it to global wholesale accounts.
Once you have a wholesale collection framework, you need to create your mood board ready for design.
"Wholesale brand pitching for NH starts in May running through to the end of June when the NH SS22 buying season commences."
Unzipped
Step out of your comfort zone and get ready to design!
Think customer – no not yours – theirs!
This is such an important point that a lot of brands fall down at so don’t be one of them. Take the time to research who their target audience is by checking out their social feeds and seeing what your competitors are doing on their site.
This will help you to order your look book to ensure that the first few pages capture their attention, making them think what a perfect match you’d be for their customer therefore instantly seeing the $$$ return they take will make when they buy into your on-point wholesale range!
Alongside thinking their customer of course it goes without saying remain true to yourself by stamping your brand DNA across everything you do!
Sell your story via a photo
By this point, you will know everything about your wholesale collection because you’ve researched, planned and designed it. So now it’s time to shoot it.
Creating professional images for your lookbook is paramount to your pitching success.
Why? Because in 2021 we no longer have the privilege of face to face viewings where the buyers can see and touch your product first hand. They now heavily rely on strong imagery that brings each design to life and tells its story.
Therefore your model choice and overall vibe of the shoot are extremely important decisions that you will need to make to ensure that you captivate the buyers and sell your collections vision.
Wholesale pitch prep time
Everything so far has led up to this point.
Let’s imagine it’s May 1st and you’re very nearly ready to pitch to global wholesale accounts … but what’s missing? What is the final step you need to complete?
You need to create a pitch deck, or as we call it a brand book.
What is a brand book? (And no it’s not a look book!)
A brand book is designed to tell your brand’s story simple. It will provide the wholesale buyer with all the information that they need to know about your brand to decide whether or not if you are right for their wholesale accounts.
A secondary benefit of having a brand book is that the buyer can share it with their senior team when signing off your account, therefore not relying on what they may have remembered along with showing your IG account and website images.
A brand book should cover:
- Your brand story and/or vision.
- Your tagline
- Your values
- Your sustainability story and future mission
- Any amazing press coverage you have had
- Your social media statistics
- What your customers say about your product
- Your best-sellers
- Your most suited and eye-catching product for that platform
- What countries you ship to currently
- How they can get in touch
All of this content should be condensed into a brand book that is no longer than 20 pages and that has been professionally created. (I highly encourage you to invest in a graphic designer for this job)
That’s it, that’s everything you need to do to get ready for the SS22 NH planning season that starts in May.
I’d love to help your fashion brand succeed in global wholesale. If you wish to learn more about our wholesale service click the link or schedule a discovery call now!
