In this episode of the Thrive in Fashion Buying podcast, Elisabeth explains why buyers and designers can often disagree when they build a range, and what a buyer can do about it. She starts with how each role is measured and shows why the commercial brief has to reach the design team before the creative work begins. She also covers how to say no to a design without losing the idea or the designer's goodwill, with four options to try first and an example costed at a retail price well above the category's best sellers.
If you are a buyer in the first few years of the role, or you own a category and your reviews with the design team keep turning into arguments about individual styles, this episode gives you a practical way to change that.
What you'll learn
- Why a designer in a private label business is judged on newness and handwriting, and a buyer on sell-through, margin, open to buy, option count and price architecture.
- Why sharing sales data at concept review, or later at first sample review, makes every number sound negative to the designer.
- What to put in a short written commercial brief, and why you should walk the designer through it in person.
- Four things to try before you say no to a design: cost it with the supplier, move it to a later intake or a capsule, edit the number of versions, or test it in a small number of stores and online.
- How to explain a decision in terms of price point and what your customer expects to pay, instead of saying you do not like something.
- Why a good designer can see a change in trend before it appears in your sales data, and how to use that.
If you want to build these skills step by step, from writing a commercial brief and building the range plan through sampling and fit to bulk approval and sales analysis, take a look at the Online Course in Thrive in Fashion Buying.
https://designdirectiveme.com/online-fashion-buying-course
