Five Minute Friday: Wholesale Buying Isn’t Shopping, It’s Investing

Boutique Chat

Ashley Alderson

Business, Marketing, Retail, Boutiquetips, Fashionindustry, Fashionbusiness, Entrepreneurship, Businessstrategy

5 • 853 Ratings

🗓️ 4 April 2025

⏱️ 10 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In today’s episode, Sara Burks, Director of Education at The Boutique Hub, breaks down one of the most important concepts every boutique owner must understand: Wholesale buying isn’t shopping — it’s investing. Buying inventory is about making smart, intentional decisions to meet your customers’ needs and create profit, not just picking what you personally like. Sara walks through six essential tips to help you buy wholesale with confidence and strategy.

Key Takeaways:

Wholesale Buying = Investing:
It's not about filling your cart with cute things — it’s about solving your customers’ problems and maximizing your return on investment.
Tip 1: Know Your Customer
You’re not buying for yourself — you're investing for them. Conduct customer interviews to find out their true needs, fit preferences, colors they love, and the problems they need solved.
Tip 2: Understand Your Buying Options
Explore both online marketplaces (like Hubventory, Faire, FashionGo, LA Showroom) and in-person markets (Chicago, Dallas, Atlanta, LA, Las Vegas, New York). In-person shopping sparks creativity and allows you to touch, feel, and truly experience products.
Tip 3: Learn Vendor Sizing
Vendor sizing can vary dramatically. Knowing how different vendors size their items ensures a better experience for your customers and fewer returns.
Tip 4: Understand Prepacks
Most wholesalers sell items in prepacks (e.g., 2 smalls, 2 mediums, 2 larges). Choose vendors whose prepack options align with the sizes your customers actually need.
Tip 5: Be Aware of Minimums
Every vendor has minimum order requirements — in dollars or quantity. Be smart: don’t bust your budget for a single sweater you love if it doesn’t make sense for your store overall.
Tip 6: Price With Profit in Mind
Always decide what your customer would pay before you look at the wholesale price. Avoid limiting your potential profit by focusing too soon on wholesale costs.

Biggest Tip:
Don’t trap yourself in a pricing bubble. Think like an investor first: What will your customer happily pay, and does the wholesale cost give you the profit margin you need?

Shop Wholesale on Hubventory

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Business can be a lonely game, but it doesn't have to be.
0:09.2	Welcome to Boutique Chat, where we explore community over competition and how to scale your
0:13.2	company with the balance and the happiness that we all seek.
0:16.7	We'll hear from product-based businesses of all types, retailers, e-commerce and wholesale brands,
0:21.7	along with industry experts shaping the future of our industry.
0:25.2	I'm your host, Ashley Alderson from the Boutique Hub, and I can't wait to chat.
0:36.3	Hey guys, it's Sarah Berks, back with the Boutique Hub. And today I want to talk to you about
0:40.2	buying wholesale. This is one of the biggest topics that we talk about here at the hub. And one of the
0:45.2	most commonly asked questions, how do I get started? How do I buy wholesale? What are some of the
0:50.3	best practices? Well, guys, it's more about investing, investing in something that you
0:55.7	are going to turn around and sell for profit. And there's a few things that are really important
0:59.5	for you to keep an eye on and focus on when you are doing the investing. Are you going to get
1:03.9	it right 100% of the time? No. No one does. Look at any store, any retail store that you've ever been
1:10.4	in. They have a sales section.
1:12.0	That's inevitable. But the key to buying wholesale is utilizing the resources and skills and the knowledge
1:18.4	that you have to make the very best decisions for your customers. So let's jump into it.
1:23.0	Six tips for buying wholesale. Tip number one, know your customers. If you don't know who you're buying for,
1:29.8	who you're investing for, how are you going to know what products to bring them? So we highly
1:34.1	encourage you here at the Hub to do customer interviews. Find out what their needs, their wants,
1:38.3	their desires really are, what sizes they need, what fit feel function they need, what colors
1:43.9	they love, all of those kind of
1:45.9	things. Just because you like it or love it or you think it's cute does not mean it's what your
	...

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