If you’re looking to begin a clothing business, you’ll need to answer many questions. Where is your company located? What’s your structure, brand, and vibe? Most importantly, you’ll have to consider where to source your clothing. Choosing a wholesale women’s clothing vendor in the UK is critical to the health and success of your business and should be one of the first steps you take that will help you determine the direction of the rest of your business.
When selecting the best wholesale women’s clothing vendors in the UK, it will come down to many factors. These include quality, styles, location, and of course, cost. However, you can start your business on the right foot by carefully weighing up your options and choosing the perfect wholesale women’s clothing vendor in the UK for your needs.
Learn About 3 Roles in The Clothing Industry
Manufacturer
Manufacturers create the product. They can do this from their own personal designs made in-house or from designs licensed to them by designers. They then sell these products to the next step in the distribution process for a price high enough so costs are covered and they make a little profit.
Distributors
Distributors buy the clothing from the manufacturer. The distributors, in this case, are wholesale women’s clothing vendors in the UK. They resell these products at a slightly higher price to cover their costs and profit margin.
Retailers
In this case, you’re the retailer who buys from the wholesale women’s clothing vendor in the UK. So you act as the in-between from the distributor to the customers who want to buy this clothing.
Things to Consider When Choosing a Wholesale Women’s Clothing Vendor In The UK
Location
Location is an essential consideration for a few reasons. Most importantly is cost. If your wholesaler is far from you, the shipping costs can add up. You’ll also have to budget for taxes and duty costs if your wholesaler isn’t located inside the UK or if your base is outside the UK. These can add up quickly, costing you thousands and having to deal with import and export processes. This erodes your bottom line and your time. If you’re located within the UK, choosing a wholesale women’s clothing vendor in the UK is your best choice for keeping these costs down.
Location is also an important consideration because of the sustainability implications of different locations. The biggest of these is shipping. Having clothing shipped a long distance by large trucks that guzzle petrol is sure to make a larger carbon footprint. This is crucial if sustainability and green practices are essential to your brand.
If your brand will also be considerate of responsible business practices, it’s imperative to choose a location known for its adherence to these laws. Of course, it will always come down to each individual business, but it’s vital to do your due diligence with respect to what counties dictate what laws when searching for wholesale women’s clothing vendors in the UK.
Quality
This can sometimes be a touch-and-go subject. For some sellers, selling fast fashion items means not being as concerned with quality because the piece only has to last as long as the trend. So if you’re looking for wholesale women’s clothing vendors in the UK so that you can sell fast fashion, quality may not be as important to you. However, selling poor-quality pieces may not be a good way to build your brand and spread word of mouth about your business. So you might find a middle spot where the quality isn’t the best money can buy (which will also be more expensive), but it’s not an awful product people will give poor reviews to online.
Cost
Your goal in doing business is to make a profit. The cost will dictate how much you’ll need to charge to make a profit once you’ve considered all the other costs of doing business. For example, buying from a wholesale women’s clothing vendor in the UK with higher prices might mean a higher quality product, but it also might mean having to charge higher fees to make any money back, risking losing customers.
On the other hand, buying wholesale clothing that’s too inexpensive might earn you a reputation as being cheap or poor quality, hurting both prices and customer base.
When it comes to cost, you’ll find yourself doing a balancing act. It’s essential to consider your brand and how price factors into it; are you a luxury brand that commands high prices, are you a down-to-earth place for the people, or are you something in between? Considering how the cost will factor into your reputation and brand image will help you choose a corresponding wholesale women’s clothing vendor in the UK.
Growth Opportunities
While this isn’t the most vital thing to think about, you should always consider your next step and how you want to grow and transition your business. For example, suppose you’re starting in one specific clothing area but hope to branch out to other adjacent areas of the clothing business soon.
In that case, it’s crucial to choose a wholesale women’s clothing vendor in the UK that can supply those adjacent needs or one that is planning to grow in a similar direction. It’s always easier to expand an already-nurtured and established business relationship than to search out and take a risk on a new one.
Styles
The style will be a vital consideration that will influence what wholesale women’s clothing vendor in the UK you choose. This is also largely dictated by your customer base and brand image. Selecting a vendor that carries and creates clothing that fits the styles and needs of the women you’re marketing toward is imperative.
Also, look closely at what your UK wholesale women’s clothing vendor specialises in. For example, suppose they have a 90% fast fashion catalogue, and you’re looking to sell activewear. In that case, you may want to double-check the quality or reconsider using that vendor because they may not be equipped to cope with the needs of your customers appropriately.
List of Wholesale Women’s Clothing Vendors In The UK
Catwalk Wholesale: Going-Out Apparel and Fashion
Catwalk Wholesale specialises in high fashion for the customer base looking for clothing they can wear out to town and look their best in. Their stock includes women’s tops, bottoms, skirts, and dresses. With private labelling options available, Catwalk Wholesale offers your customers a luxurious and high-brow product. They have a higher price point than other wholesale women’s clothing vendors in the UK, but they also provide discounted items as low as £1.
Catwalk Wholesale does item ordering in individual units, whereas you’re often forced to buy in packs of 3. If you’re ordering within the UK or the US, your order should arrive in one business day, and internationally you can expect shipping to take two to four business days.
J5 Fashion: Trendy and Sample-Enabled
J5 offers trendy items at the forefront of popular fashion, changing consistently to give you the best fashion-forward options. In addition, they offer samples, which is a great way to be sure that you want to order a bulkier load of clothes. This UK wholesale women’s clothing vendor provides local and international shipping and private labelling. It’s used by hugely successful brands like Nasty Gal, ASOS, and PrettyLittleThing, showing that they have popular and high-quality products.
Babez London: New Styles Everyday
This UK vendor in the UK is focused on offering a massive variety of fashion-first products. Babez London showcases the very forefront of fashion with at least one new item dropping every day. While they don’t have a minimum order amount, they require you to buy in packs of 3 to 12 units per pack rather than individual units. They offer international shipping.
Q-Clothing: Expansive Catalog
Q Clothing specialises in a vast range of clothing with an equally huge range of sizes. Items are usually sold in affordable packs, with pricing that will make choosing costs easier for you. This is a wholesale women’s clothing vendor in the UK that it’s easier to buy samples of clothing from to try out before taking the plunge on more inventory.
Missi Clothing: Size Variation
Missi clothing is another wholesale women’s clothing vendor in the UK that offers new styles daily. However, they also provide a wide range of sizing, ranging from small to plus sizes. Their vast choices include dresses, jackets, knitwear, leggings, and more. Although they have no minimum order requirement, they sell their items in packs.
Mia Fashions: Celebrity-Inspired Fast Fashion
If you’re looking for a wholesale women’s clothing vendor in the UK specialising in fast fashion and affordable clothing, Mia Fashions has showcased its selling power by working closely with big brands like Nasty Gal, Boohoo, and Missguided. They supply on-trend fast fashion inspired by celebrity looks and sure to sell. Within the UK, orders over £400 ship for free, and local orders can come within one business day. They also ship internationally.
City Goddess: Designer Runway Looks
If your customers are looking for looks right off the runway, full of the celebrity power of a runway designer, this is the wholesale women’s clothing vendor in the UK for you. You can order products in packs or lots of 5 to 7 units each, but you can’t customise or choose sizes. They have a minimum order requirement of £150. However, if you want to order a single unit at a time, they offer a B2C platform, GODDIVA, where you can order individual units.
Parisian: Variety in Bulk
Parisian is one of the rare wholesale women’s clothing vendors in the UK that offers expedited shipping internationally on their packs. In addition, they don’t have a minimum order requirement, simply selling in packs. So you could get a bag with an extensive range of clothing with a wide variety of apparel.
Choosing the Right Wholesale Women’s Clothing Vendor
When choosing from the list of the best wholesale women’s clothing vendors in the UK, it’s crucial to consider your costs, style, customer base, and brand image. Then, skim through wholesalers to see what they offer, ensuring it fits your business’s needs before moving forward with anyone.