Dealing with the larger resellers, newbie help please...
Discussion
Its now come to the stage that the company is moving on from the single shop/webstore resellers and have had a lot of interest from larger resellers.
Anything from 5/6 shops, head of buying for RHS and 10-20 garden centres all under a controlling company.
As Im new to the larger resellers, is there anything that I should be wary of.
With credit terms... I dont have any, all current resellers pay upfront otherwise they do not get the stock, we pay upfront for the stock to move from our supplier to the UK, therefore I ask for payment upfront from our resellers. This is ok when its a single shop as its not a massive loss if they start being a PITA, I just refuse to supply...
I cant/dont want to get into any type of payment terms of they have the stock and have 30/45/90 days to pay, as our company is small and its not something I want to cover or would be willing to cover with a bank loan for that period of time, otherwise thats my profit all wiped out.
Anything else the kind folk of PH can offer in the way of advice?
Anything from 5/6 shops, head of buying for RHS and 10-20 garden centres all under a controlling company.
As Im new to the larger resellers, is there anything that I should be wary of.
With credit terms... I dont have any, all current resellers pay upfront otherwise they do not get the stock, we pay upfront for the stock to move from our supplier to the UK, therefore I ask for payment upfront from our resellers. This is ok when its a single shop as its not a massive loss if they start being a PITA, I just refuse to supply...
I cant/dont want to get into any type of payment terms of they have the stock and have 30/45/90 days to pay, as our company is small and its not something I want to cover or would be willing to cover with a bank loan for that period of time, otherwise thats my profit all wiped out.
Anything else the kind folk of PH can offer in the way of advice?
the only way forward is to offer credit.
Large companies in our experience B&Q, Tesco, Halfords, Amazon, B&M, Argos, Aldi and Asda/Wallmart all want 190 days +
there the hardest to deal with so up your price to cover any issues.
Make sure you have given them a price that you can move lower on at there request as they will always want a better price over time…
we charger our larger customers wholesale prices. this is 20-30% more than our stand alone shop customers pay just because of the hassle involved.
You have many options open to try and finance it, factoring is one a lot of people use.
However this all depends on volume and how much margin you make.
the easiest and best is to insure your sales and cover the credit with your own money.
As soon as you have gone through your first period the money continually rolls in anyways so your really only tight for 30-190+ days whatever you offer.
our personally point of view is that our larger customers have allowed us to grow, however one slip up and its extremely costly and a can be a real nightmare.
hope that kinda helps
Never had a dealing with a garden centre so they may be slightly different but i imagine a big chain isn't far different to B&Q.
Large companies in our experience B&Q, Tesco, Halfords, Amazon, B&M, Argos, Aldi and Asda/Wallmart all want 190 days +
there the hardest to deal with so up your price to cover any issues.
Make sure you have given them a price that you can move lower on at there request as they will always want a better price over time…
we charger our larger customers wholesale prices. this is 20-30% more than our stand alone shop customers pay just because of the hassle involved.
You have many options open to try and finance it, factoring is one a lot of people use.
However this all depends on volume and how much margin you make.
the easiest and best is to insure your sales and cover the credit with your own money.
As soon as you have gone through your first period the money continually rolls in anyways so your really only tight for 30-190+ days whatever you offer.
our personally point of view is that our larger customers have allowed us to grow, however one slip up and its extremely costly and a can be a real nightmare.
hope that kinda helps
Never had a dealing with a garden centre so they may be slightly different but i imagine a big chain isn't far different to B&Q.
chowiekid said:
the only way forward is to offer credit.
Large companies in our experience B&Q, Tesco, Halfords, Amazon, B&M, Argos, Aldi and Asda/Wallmart all want 190 days +
there the hardest to deal with so up your price to cover any issues.
Make sure you have given them a price that you can move lower on at there request as they will always want a better price over time…
we charger our larger customers wholesale prices. this is 20-30% more than our stand alone shop customers pay just because of the hassle involved.
You have many options open to try and finance it, factoring is one a lot of people use.
However this all depends on volume and how much margin you make.
the easiest and best is to insure your sales and cover the credit with your own money.
As soon as you have gone through your first period the money continually rolls in anyways so your really only tight for 30-190+ days whatever you offer.
our personally point of view is that our larger customers have allowed us to grow, however one slip up and its extremely costly and a can be a real nightmare.
hope that kinda helps
Never had a dealing with a garden centre so they may be slightly different but i imagine a big chain isn't far different to B&Q.
How do they take the 20-30% price increase? I thought that they would not be happy at all.Large companies in our experience B&Q, Tesco, Halfords, Amazon, B&M, Argos, Aldi and Asda/Wallmart all want 190 days +
there the hardest to deal with so up your price to cover any issues.
Make sure you have given them a price that you can move lower on at there request as they will always want a better price over time…
we charger our larger customers wholesale prices. this is 20-30% more than our stand alone shop customers pay just because of the hassle involved.
You have many options open to try and finance it, factoring is one a lot of people use.
However this all depends on volume and how much margin you make.
the easiest and best is to insure your sales and cover the credit with your own money.
As soon as you have gone through your first period the money continually rolls in anyways so your really only tight for 30-190+ days whatever you offer.
our personally point of view is that our larger customers have allowed us to grow, however one slip up and its extremely costly and a can be a real nightmare.
hope that kinda helps
Never had a dealing with a garden centre so they may be slightly different but i imagine a big chain isn't far different to B&Q.
We have 2 different seller pricing at the moment, Reseller (stock to them I dont touch) and Dropshipper (using my own stock).
I have already removed one drop shipper after constant demands for Reseller prices as they wanted more profit, but refused to take any of the risk and wanted me to ship, warehouse, insure, etc.
They frankly did not get it at all and even amended one of my own invoices I sent them, then they sent back saying they had paid the lower price then demanding the stock ASAP.
So I have finally got the smaller folks to behave on my terms, but to have enough cash to cover a very large purchase could be high 5 figures to low 6 figures.
Considering we are one of the taboo industries the banks wont touch us, so that is off the cards, for us to get that money we need another 6-12 months trading as we are...
Im reluctant to allow a person/company involved to 'loan' the money as a VC then to demand a % of the company, we have done all the work and dont want someone to get a piece of it for lending cash for 30/60 days, if that makes sense.
The product range we sell are exclusive, as in they will NEVER be sold in B&Q/HomeBase, etc. Supplier has been bitten before by a large company that almost made him go under and would not supply us the stock if he knew.
We have built the brand up to be something unique and have been sticking with boutique shops, interior design companies, certain garden centres, specialist shops, so I would feel a traitor moving onto some place like that, plus I know they would try and kill the trade over night and only offer me £1 profit per item, etc.
jammy_basturd said:
I'm wondering what could be both taboo AND potentially be sold in B&Q?!
Wasnt going to mention the range, but its furniture and specifically wooden range that can be used indoors and outdoors.Taboo as no finance company or bank will touch you when it comes to loans thanks to the sofa companies going bust owing lots of money. Also very very few merchant account companies will touch you either.
This despite the fact we are in profit and running a very healthy bank account so never will need an overdraft, etc.
Funding circle is a matching service website, matching people/companies that want to lend money, with companies that want to borrow money. Born out of the recession years when banks left SMEs holding their dicks, they're not so worried about what you do or how you do it (to a point), but just make sure that your company is well run and is very likely to repay that money. In return they usually offer rates that are better than the banks (because they only need to offer their lenders rates that are better than savings accounts).
From their quick quote page, based on an A+ credit rating, for £105,000 over 6 months, you'd pay back £109,557 (includes £2,100 Funding Circle fee).
From their quick quote page, based on an A+ credit rating, for £105,000 over 6 months, you'd pay back £109,557 (includes £2,100 Funding Circle fee).
jammy_basturd said:
Funding circle is a matching service website, matching people/companies that want to lend money, with companies that want to borrow money. Born out of the recession years when banks left SMEs holding their dicks, they're not so worried about what you do or how you do it (to a point), but just make sure that your company is well run and is very likely to repay that money. In return they usually offer rates that are better than the banks (because they only need to offer their lenders rates that are better than savings accounts).
From their quick quote page, based on an A+ credit rating, for £105,000 over 6 months, you'd pay back £109,557 (includes £2,100 Funding Circle fee).
interesting to know that...From their quick quote page, based on an A+ credit rating, for £105,000 over 6 months, you'd pay back £109,557 (includes £2,100 Funding Circle fee).
Would need to look and see if there are any more catches.
£4,557 is a bit cheap for 6 months, or should I say £2,457 is very cheap.
Would make for an interesting review to see how they rate my company and needing cahs when a big player invokes 180 day ruling on the payment
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