Getting Into UK Independent Shops: What Buyers Actually Ask
By The Velocity Wear Team
UK independent retail is one of the more accessible routes to volume for a young clothing brand — the buyers are often the owners, decisions are quick, and a good shop will genuinely champion a small brand. It is also a room where enthusiasm is not the currency. A buyer is allocating a limited budget and finite rail space, and everything they ask is really a version of "what is the risk here".
The margin has to work at their end
UK independents typically work to a markup that roughly doubles the wholesale price before VAT, sometimes more depending on the sector. So a garment retailing at £60 including VAT implies a wholesale price meaningfully below half of that once VAT is stripped out.
Work that back to your cost of goods before you approach anybody. A brand with a strong direct margin can easily have no wholesale margin at all, and finding that out during a meeting is a bad look. This is where the volume tiers genuinely earn their keep — a committed wholesale order is real demand, and it is a legitimate reason to move up a pricing tier in a way a hopeful forecast is not.
Questions you will be asked
- 1What is the wholesale price, the RRP, and the minimum order — per style and overall.
- 2When can you deliver, and can you hit a specific date. Late delivery is worse to a shop than no delivery, because the space was reserved.
- 3Can I reorder mid-season if it sells. This is the question that most often decides it, and most small brands answer it badly.
- 4What is the fabric, the weight and the wash. Their staff get asked on the shop floor.
- 5Are you selling direct at a lower price than my shelf price. Undercutting your own stockists is the fastest way to lose them.
- 6What are the payment terms, and are you asking for money up front.
The reorder answer is your best asset
Most small brands do a drop, sell out, and cannot make more until next season. To a retailer that is a headache — a bestseller they cannot restock is money they can see and cannot take.
If your supply chain supports replenishment, say so plainly and specifically. Production of an approved design runs 10 to 15 working days before freight, which makes a mid-season restock a real commitment rather than an aspiration. Very few small brands can say that, and buyers notice when one does.
Sale or return: think carefully
You will be offered it. Sale or return means the shop takes stock without paying and returns what does not sell. It gets your product on a rail with no buying risk to them, which is exactly why it is offered.
The costs are real: your cash is tied up in stock you do not control, the goods come back handled and sometimes unsellable, and a shop with no money committed has no incentive to sell it. It can be a reasonable way to open a first door with a shop you really want. It is a poor default.
Do not undercut the shelf
If a retailer sells your hoodie at £70 and your own site runs a 20% code the same week, you have made their stock unsellable and told them what you think of the relationship. Agree a pricing position and hold it, including during sale periods, and tell them in advance when you plan a promotion.
This is the single most common reason a small brand loses a stockist, and it is entirely self-inflicted.
Approach the right shops
Go where your product already fits. A shop's existing brand mix tells you their price point, their customer and their aesthetic, and pitching a £90 heavyweight hoodie to a shop whose top price is £45 wastes both parties' time.
And go in person where you can, with the actual garment. Apparel is a hand-feel product, and a physical sample on a counter does work that no PDF will.
