I am looking for some information on wholesale pricing and retail markups. How much do retail stores generally mark clothing up?

I am trying to figure out how to price the clothes that my comapny produces. These include things such as polo shirts, button down shirts, hats, belts, canvas bags, beach towels, and more.

Please let me know if you have any information.

It's to your discretion really. You need to know your market in order to interpret what people are willing to pay, including what your competitors are also charging for items that are similar.

A general rule is that you charged at least double of what you paid for the item, then a little extra to cover shipping costs.

EX: If you paid $20.00 for the item, I would charge $44.99.

Now, if you get your stuff at really good prices (sometimes suppliers discount items as a season closes about 30%) then you are paying $14.00 for an item that was originally $20.00 wholesale and you charge the same amount of $44.99. Then you've made a 200% profit.

If you obtain your items overseas, sky could be the limit. It depends.

If you have something that you have purchased that you know is going to be a hot item, go to the max of what you think people would pay. It still needs to be reasonable for the item. If it's not moving, drop the price.

If you need further information, I would be willing to help for a reasonable fee. I provide consulting services for retail owners and people who need help just getting started. You can contact me directly at: marlowtammy@hotmail.com

I have worked in retail for 15 years and have opened stores for major companies and I opened my first store last year.

Hopefully that will help you in the short term.

Good luck

Tammy

I am actually intersted in what to charge retailers. I have a clothing line that I am looking to sell to retailers. I have an idea of what the clothes should cost in the retail stores, but I don't know what I can charge the stores.

Sorry about that, I mis-interpreted your question, my apologies.

If you know what the retail value is, the maximum you can ask from your buyers is 50% of the retail cost. So it completely depends on your costs for the items. If you know an item retails at $32.99, your wholesale cost should be anywhere from $10-$16.50 depending on what your market is and who you are wholesaling to.

I would suggest you offer a deal for larger purchases, this would be completely to your own discretion. EX: Buy 20 pcs of item X and receive an additional 10 pcs of item X for 20% off. Some buyers will jump at this if they think they can move the product well.

Another thought is selling in a "pre-pack" which means that your buyer has to buy a certain number of each item. EX: if you are wholesaling women's tops, a lot of companies (but not all) require a certain size breakdown, 1-XS, 2-S, 2-M, 1-L (for example), they need to buy this pack to get the shirt. You have a guarantee sell for 6 pcs. The downfall to this is that some buyers, like myself, find this restricting. I move more smalls then any other size so I have a tendancy to shy away from pre-packs, but a lot of buyers will be used to it and won't care either way.

I hope this helps. If you need further assistance, please let me know.

Good luck

Tammy Godefroy

Tammy nailed it on the head. I work in Juniors fashion and we sell everything in prepacks of six. You need to double you're costs (at the minimum). Good luck.

"You need to double
you're costs (at the minimum)."

Don't forget to include your overhead in the pricing,
besides labor & cost of materials.