It is said, to be successful in selling, you must be passionate about what you sell. This is easy if you love designer handbags and fashion. Fashion is a huge industry. Wholesale designer handbags and fashion is also quickly becoming a very large and profitable industry.
But as good as it sounds, there are many things to know before you jump in and become a designer handbag wholesaler.
The most important issue you must understand is the manufacturing and distribution channels of the top designers. The production of designer handbags is almost a top-secret event. With the heavy competition between the designers to offer the latest and hottest trends for the up coming season, handbag manufacturers keep quite about their production runs, the quantity they will produce and orders must be placed two or three seasons in advance just to get any product. What does this mean to you, the wholesaler? It means that you cannot call up GUCCI or Hermes and ask for a couple hundred bags and expect to not get laughed at (in Italian of French of course). It also means that the top designer handbag manufacturers only supply their product to large retailers, small boutiques and maybe a website with an exclusive contract.
So where do all the handbags that you see for sale online come from? Well, that is the key to getting into the wholesale designer handbag business. Most of the bags come from intentional or unintentional overstock by the small to medium size boutiques oversees. They will sell off their surplus of last season’s handbags to distributors who will then sell them to wholesalers. It is your goal to find these distributors.
To find reputable, honest dealers who distribute authentic merchandise is tricky. There are a couple of things to consider.
**Most dealers that sell designers from Italy, France and England are not found in the US. It only makes sense. They need to have a close relationship with the boutiques, and very rarely the manufacturers themselves, that supply them with their overstock. So become familiar with what country the handbags you want to sell were originally produced.
**Learn the language. You will need to learn a little Italian or French. Just enough to understand colors, styles and shapes of the handbags when you are given an inventory list. It would also be good to know enough to at least say hello and what your intentions are when initially contacting the dealer. Learning the language is also extremely helpful when conducting searches on the internet. Don’t limit your search to pages here in the US, search google and yahoo in Italian and French as well.
**Contact as many dealers as possible. This will help to validate which ones are honest and have an interest in a business relationship. Once you have received the inventory/price list from several dealers, cross reverence them. Are the prices similar? Are the quantities on hand reasonable? This is important to gage if the dealer is selling authentic merchandise. If he has 600 of a particular bag, chances are they are not real. It is not reasonable, given the means in which he most likely purchases his stock and the production methods of the manufacturing, that he would have so many of one style.
**Understand all terms of sale prior to placing an order. It is not uncommon that the dealer will want a deposit on your order. You will usually commit 30% up front and pay the remainder when the items have shipped. Many dealers will only accept bank transfers. This is where becoming a designer handbag wholesaler takes a great deal of faith. A bank transfer offers no protection from the dealer taking your money and never shipping product. If he was dishonest and took the funds, but shipped nothing, you could have very little recourse. Unlike a money order or credit card purchase, there is no 3rd party protection. At the least, make sure you have the dealers phone number, complete business address and email address.
Of course, like with all start-up business, there are many, many more things to consider. But to make your search for the right distributor easier, we highly recommend going to ModaImports.com. Unlike the many lists and directories that claim to offer true sources for authentic designer handbags, ModaImports.com has used, or contacted, all of the sources on their Supplier Database.
If you have a passion for fashion and are looking to start your own lucrative business, wholesale authentic designer handbags is a great business opportunity.
Shopping in Beverly Hills last week I strolled Wilshire Boulevard popping in and out of fancy stores sizing up all the new designer handbags. There are a number of new looks for Fall 2005, and prices have a new look, too. Did you know designer handbags have become the staple in most wardrobes? It doesn’t take a genius to buy a pair of jeans and a T-shirt, but to purchase the correct designer handbag to pull it all together has become quite an art.
In conversations with many handbag salespeople, it was obvious the upcoming season will offer a variety of wild colors, exotic leathers, and metallic finished leathers. They will appear in shoulder styles, clutches, slings and large totes. Most designer bags remain consistent in size and function. The variations from season to season come to color, hardware, texture and price.
Prices are a difficult topic for handbag lovers to discuss, it became the purpose of the Beverly Hills shopping trip. Which designers will rise to the top? Which handbags will have the highest price tags? These thoughts offered astonishing observations wondering through the high-end boutiques and department stores.
Doing a bit of mental gymnastics with a few designer handbag price tags, it became obvious a calculator was needed! Prices are competing with Los Angeles mortgage payments! One designer bag, constructed of scratch resistant, pebble grain calf leather, had a hefty $3500.00 price tag. Durability to last a life time is a major characteristic of a quality handbag, but let’s get real here, women change handbags as often as they change their nail polish. Paying hefty prices for a designer handbag a few times each month is fashionable, but not healthy or wise.
Not mentioning any names, a lengthy conversation with a handbag specialist in a very well-known department store shed light on the day’s mission. We strolled the designer handbag department with calculator in hand. Punching in numbers of our favorite high-end designer, we came up with a hefty five-figure total for 10 handbags. Then, with jaws dropped open, the average price was uncovered! As expected, little was left to shock and surprise. Based on a sampling of the designer handbag prices, the price for a brand new, high-end designer handbag this season averages an all-time high of $2000.00 USD.
Oh my! What a price we pay to pull it all together with that pair of denim jeans and T-shirt! We have become the hunters in search of the best designer handbag we can find. And, when we know it will coordinate with a pair of jeans and a T-shirt, then we know we’ve selected the best bag. We want to look good, and we want to feel good, too. It would be nice to know we can purchase a bag from a new designer and still make a mortgage payment this same month.
Here’s a solution. For those of us who know style and don’t want to compromise quality, find a designer handbag expert to coach and guide your investments. Lacking modesty, I’ll volunteer recommendations on a variety of designer handbags available at a fraction of what you’d expect to pay in a retail store.
You can actually purchase several handbags for the average cost of one designer handbag if you shop wisely. If you are a true designer handbag addict, and you purchase a new handbag whenever you get the urge, then you need a reliable source. Shop carefully at sites specializing in designer handbags, and you’ll find your favorite designers at as much as 50% less than the average cost on Rodeo Drive!
Speaking of colors, last fall it was all about sage greens. This year the color of the season seems to be brown. Brown is everywhere – suede jackets, pin-stripes pants, skirts and scarves. Add to that splashes of other fall colors like the ones mentioned above, mellow purple, fuschia, orange, etc. and you have the perfect Fall 2005 look. Here is a quick preview of this year’s fall fashions for those looking to update their wardrobes.
The Look: Old-world inspired. Think elegant sepia photographs from the 1940s and 50s. Casual yet sophisticated.
The Trends:
- Tweed skirts, pants (full length and cropped) and culottes in brown plaid or pinstripes. Also making quite a debut are knit jersey gauchos. Very comfy but cool casual.
- Shirts and blouses in floral prints in mellow fall colors. Nothing too overstated.
- Solid color sweaters (no diamond argyle prints like last year). And thanks to Martha Stewart who donned one on her homecoming trip from prison, ponchos! Stick to solid colors, experimenting with designs can get tricky.
- Knee high boots (everyone can carry these off).
- Animal print scarves, faux fur collars (so cool, I just love these)
- Large hobo handbags (must have, anyway). Also, texture is really in - suede, metal, houndstooth prints, anything out of the ordinary.
- Silk kurtis or Indian style tunics in large floral prints in blocks of fall colors.
- Embellished belts – with tassels, ribbons, sequins, etc.
- Fedora hats (if you like that extra touch of elegance). Some celebrities are also donning big floppy suede hats as well.
- Hairdos – neat, coiffed, styled, tied back, you get the picture.
They are flashy, hot and very in for the season. Metallic, sequence and don’t forget the faux fur handbags. Just take a look at a crowd and you will see quite a collection of each of these three. They are not hard to spot and definitely make heads turn. Which head turning style do you like to carry this season?
Let’s start with the flashiest of them all, sequence. They are everywhere and everyone is carrying them. They do seem to be a bigger hit with the younger scene. They come in an array of colors as well as sequence styles. Carry them with any outfit and they’ll dress it up no matter what the look. Do be careful, the looks you get may only be on your handbag and not on you. If you want your great outfit to stand out, I don’t recommend carrying one of these handbags.
Metallic is all the rage also. Just wait for the holiday parties and you will see an explosion of these. They come in many different colors but bronze definitely tops the list. There will be the gold rush in December for all those fancy outfits. Gold is being paired with black and also brown. That black little dress is going to look fabulous with the metallic evening bag and the big beaded necklaces.
Now don’t forget the faux fur bags. Some stand out very much but not as much as the sequence and metallics. There are plenty of faux fur trimmed jackets, tops and boots out there. The faux fur handbag will set off the ensemble. Some are a bit on the wild side and others are just really neat looking. As long as they don’t make a roar, these are the tamest out there of all three.
Sequence, metallic and faux fur, get them while they are hot!
