How to win repeat garment orders after the first season

A shop in Guwahati took your first lot of woollen cardigans in October, sold most of it by January and has not rung since. You wait for the reorder, and in the next cold season a rival's cardigans are on that rack. The shopkeeper did not leave you in anger. Nobody gave the shop a reason to remember you between February and September. The second order is won in stages across the first season, and this post follows one made-up case through each stage so you can see what changes at every step.

The case, told in stages

This is an invented case, used only to show the order of events. A small unit in Siliguri knits cardigans and half-sleeve sweaters. Its first buyer outside the town is a family-run clothing shop in Guwahati. The stages below are what the owner did, with what went wrong the first time and what changed. The change was not free: printing the shop's style names meant a day of extra work for the packing clerk each lot, and the new baby-size cardigan the shop asked for in the maroon could be made only in a minimum run of 60 pieces, so the second order came to 100 pieces, not the 150 hoped for. The unit, the shop and the figures are invented.

Stage one: the carton is opened

The shopkeeper opens the carton at the back of the shop with a customer waiting. Can the pieces go on the rack at once? The first time, the Siliguri unit sent a packing list that listed styles by its own factory codes. The shopkeeper did not know which code was the maroon cable-knit, so every bag got opened.

Now the unit prints the shop's names for the styles on the list, and ticks each line before the carton is shut. It also sends one message the evening the parcel leaves: the sizes in the carton, and any measurement that runs off the sample the shop approved. If the medium in one style is a little tight across the chest, the shopkeeper hears it from the unit before finding it out alone.

Stage two: the lot is on the rack

About a fortnight into the cold weather, the unit rings with one question about one style: "How is the maroon cable-knit doing in large?" A buyer answers a specific question, and not "any news?".

Write down the reply on that buyer's card. Sizes that sold out, sizes that stayed, and one sentence of what customers asked for that the shop did not have. That last sentence is where the second order starts.

Stage three: the season turns

When nights stop being cold, the buyer is counting what is left. This is the time for the unit to ask two things: what is left, and when the shop plans to place next year's order. Many small shops buy woollens once, before the first cold week, so the planning date may be months away. Whatever the answer is goes on the card with a date to ring.

If a good deal remains unsold, do not argue. Ask which styles and sizes, and note them. A shop with unsold large sizes will not repeat a lot with the same size mix, and will remember that you listened.

Stage four: the planning window

Ring about a month before the date given. By now the unit has the shop's sizes, unsold styles and customers' requests. The call is short because the preparation was done earlier. The unit offers the styles that sold, in the sizes that sold, plus one or two new designs in the same yarn family.

State the date by which you need the answer so you can book yarn. Say it as a plain fact about your own buying: "I order yarn on the tenth, so I can hold the same dye lot for you until then."

A before-and-after of the card

The change in the case is easiest to see on the buyer's card. Here is the first lot's card, filled in as the owner used to do it:

Guwahati shop. Cardigans. Delivered Oct. Paid in time.

And the card after the owner changed the habit:

Shop / town / phone: Maya Fancy Store, Guwahati
First order: 120 pieces, 4 styles; sizes M, L, XL
Known fault (told first): style 2 medium tight at chest, 1 cm
Sold fast: maroon cable-knit L and XL. Stuck: grey in M
Customers asked for: a children's size in the maroon
Plans next order: end of August, before the first cold week
Ring on: mid-July

The first card tells you that something happened. The second tells you what to offer.

Which buyers not to chase

This routine suits shops that stock a range season after season. It is the wrong effort for someone who bought your cardigans for a school function or a one-off group order. If two planning windows pass with a call and a message unanswered, write that buyer down as a single order.

Be careful, too, with a buyer who paid the first invoice late. A repeat from that buyer is a larger overdue sum later. Ask for part-payment in advance on the second order, or let it pass.

Seasonal garments have another limit. If your yarn or cloth supplier changes the shade between lots, holding the same dye lot is a promise you cannot keep. Promise only what your supplier lets you promise.

What to put in the second offer

Keep it to what the card supports. Styles that sold, again, in the sizes that sold. One new design. The date you need the answer. Leave out news about a new machine or a larger unit; the buyer wants to know that the large will fit and the shade will match.

Do not lead with a discount. A buyer who liked the first lot is asking whether you are easy to deal with. If the buyer raises price, trade a lower rate for a larger quantity or an earlier commitment.

Make cards for last season's buyers

Make a card for each of last season's buyers in the shape above. Fill in only what you actually know. The gaps tell you which questions to ask on the next call. Buyers who have already gone quiet are a job for customer reactivation, and the wider picture of who buys from a garment unit is on the textile and garment manufacturing page. If the cards are more than you can run alone, tell us what you need.