Happppppppppyyyyyyyyy Newww Year!!
I hope you have a great one! I wanted to quickly write to you on what to look out for in an online fabrics supplier.
Let's face it - In our line of business, your fabric supplier is your gold, especially if you are an online fabrics business. There are certain characteristics your online fabric suppliers should have. If they don't have these characteristics, you need to cut them off ASAP - It will save you a lot of stress and money!
1) Available - Your online fabric suppliers should be available to you. Suppliers who take days to respond to your messages or even weeks (HA!) is a NO NO. Either the fabric supplier, or their assistant, should respond to you within 24 hours.
2) Effective Communication - You should be able to understand your fabric suppliers. THEY SHOULD BE ABLE TO UNDERSTAND YOU TOO! I know, personally, this is vital to my business. Due to various orders that I receive, I don't want bad communication to cause the fabric supplier to send fabrics meant for Lekki to Abuja!!! LOL. I remember in my early days of business, I had one supplier who used to always mix orders up. I cut her off ASAP! Honestly a lot of Balogun suppliers are notorious for this...I come in peace!
3) Have access to fabric pictures and post CONSISTENTLY - In our line of work, many do not have a physical store. Therefore, pictures are so important to us. We need a LOT of them, frequently. So if you have a fabric supplier who is only sending you pictures once a month OR is telling you they don't have pictures, it's honestly no point in dealing with the person.
4) Simple Delivery Processes - At the end of the day, fabrics must be delivered. Forget all this our fancy English. If fabrics are not being delivered to your customers, the business can go down QUICKLY. Therefore, you should work with suppliers who have simple delivery processes to you or your customers. Nothing complicated. If you work with fabric suppliers outside of Nigeria, make sure they can deliver to Nigeria or wherever you are located.
5) Loyalty - You need loyal fabric suppliers as an online fabrics business. You don't want a supplier that will be using branded bag or putting their business cards in your orders ooooo! I remember last year, one fabric supplier I used to work with was including her number in my orders! HA. Thank God for the client who told me. Imagine those who had not!
I hope you learnt something!
Lots of Love,
Addie