Ep 118: How to buy inventory that will sell like hot cakes

Learn the top buying strategies the best boutique retailers use at markets to purchase inventory with confidence and sell out every time.

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Transcript

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Hello, welcome to the LED show. We are live streaming tonight, the LED podcast. I am very, very excited to be here with you. Tonight. We're gonna talk about a lot of fun things that happened today. I went to Dallas Market Center. It is the apparel market, and there was so many juicy tidbits that I was thinking about during Dallas Market and I was like, I can't wait to get home. Get on the Live Stream podcast to my girlies out there. So this is very exciting for me. This is my second time streaming live, so I am so excited. Okay, and it looks like everything's working, which is literally a miracle. You guys, if you're not watching right now live, and you're listening to this on the podcast. I am in kind of like half glam still. So like the top half of me is still Dallas Market. We got the fake eyelashes. I got one eyelash that's literally hanging on by a thread right now. This one is like, Allie, it's time to take me off, but we're, we're doing the show like this tonight. Okay. We got the. Half eyelash on, we got sweatpants on the bottom half, but the top half is still holding it together and that's what you're seeing. So that's the important thing. But we're gonna talk about something really, really fun today on this episode. And this is something I was thinking about again all day today. As I was walking around cruising Dallas Market and really watching, I was doing a lot of observing today. I was really like paying attention to everything going on.'cause you guys know, I love to like get all the information and then get back on here and tell you the scoop. So what I wanna talk to you about today is going to be the three, probably the three main things that I see the best buyers and best retailers doing at Dallas Market. And this is me. By observing them, having conversations with them, knowing them personally, some of the biggest and best buyers for boutiques and retail chains and all the things. I very much so take notes of how they operate. So I can come back to the podcast and tell you guys. So you know how to level up your own business operations. So whether you are a boutique owner, a store owner, you have an online store, maybe you are a brand owner, maybe you show at Dallas Market. First of all, hey, I got to see a lot of you today. Y'all are so sweet. You're like, oh my God, ally, I love the podcast. I love listening to you. I love the TikTok. Thank you so much for coming up to me and telling me that I love, love, love meeting you guys. But wherever you are within the retail industry, I want you to know that this is going to pertain to you and your business because the things that I see the best buyers doing hands, hands down, are important to everybody in our industry. So I am going to dive into what these thi three different things are, and again, if you're taking notes or if you're watching, just think about these things. And think and like, almost like self-audit your business, as I'm describing what these buyers do to see, is this something you do too or is this something you need to start doing to have the most success with with your business? Okay. So again, three things that I see the top buyers in the retail industry doing. And by the way, again, this goes for brand owners, business owners, it doesn't matter. These three things are so important for you to have success. Number one, do you guys already know what number one's gonna be? Raise your hand if you're like, Allie, I already know where you're going with this. Your ideal customer has to be extremely clear. Listen, the biggest boutiques and buyers out there know exactly what their customers love. Okay. And this is not something that they're going in there and having a shopping spree, which is what I see a lot of people doing, like they get in there, there's so much excitement, the glitz and the glam, they're like, okay, I'll take all these things. Right. Just'cause it's like, it's a hustle and bustle it, it creates this, this vibe of like, I'm here to shop. And while that's true, and while most of you love to shop, that's why you're in the industry. You have to be very, very careful when you're at Dallas Market Center or any market. For that matter, to not get sidetracked from the most important task you have at hand, which is purchasing items that you know your customers are going to love. And here is the dealio. Okay. There, there is no fuzzy line. So it's not like, oh, um, you know, well this is cute, but I wish it wasn't like such a short skirt. Maybe if it was a little longer skirt, my customers would love it, or I'm gonna get it anyways. It might sell. Or, oh, I love this, but maybe if it was in a different color, but they don't have the color, I think would work, so I'm still gonna buy this. Anyways, what a lot of buyers do and why they get home and they get frustrated'cause they have this inventory that won't sell and won't move, is because they're in here shopping and they're buying things. A lot of maybes. Right. Maybes are the death of your sales because when we get back, we are also uncertain of if we can sell these maybes and whoever has the most certainty with what they're selling will always have the most sales. So if you even have an inkling, you're like, oh, I don't know, like the material's kind of weird, but the print was cute, or any of these things kind of come up in your mind. You're trying to sell that inventory four weeks or six weeks later when it shows up at your doorstep, you will still have that in your head. You'll still be thinking about like, oh, now I gotta sell this dress for, you know,$149. But I think the material's kind of weird, but like, I hope someone buys it, right? It's like. No, we don't wanna do that. So what what amazing retail buyers do is they go to the absolute yeses. They don't waste their budget on a lot of maybes or a lot of possibilities. They go for the yeses. And of course, the more you're in this game, the more you understand your customer, and the more you can clearly delineate between a yes and a no. For example, when I was buying, what was it in August Market? And, um, I was in there, you know, trying to get certain inventory to go with items that I had already. For me, there's a lot of things that are super cute and great, or that I would love, but when I'm thinking about my customers specifically, it was very easy for me to buy because it's a very easy, it's a yes. Or it's a absolutely not, there's no, I'm not spending money on maybes. Okay. Especially at this level now, is there time for you to have like some creative freedom and maybe have a little extra in the budget and there's something that's like really eye catching that you're like, eh, I just love it and let's see what happens. You can build in a little tiny budget for that. Okay. If you're going in with$5,000 as you're buying budget, right? Say you're starting out, you got$5,000 for your buying budget and 4,500 of it is on, I don't knows we have a problem.'cause what's gonna happen is those I don't knows, are gonna show up at your doorstep and you're not gonna know how to show them. You're not gonna know how to sell'em. You're not gonna have certainty that they're even right for your customer. So you getting super duper crystal clear on who your ideal customer is will make everything in your business so much better. All of your decisions will be smoother. Your customers will know what to expect from you, so they'll know if you're the right person for them. But if you veer off the track and you start showing up with a lot of maybes, you know what happens. People get confused on what you're all about. They're like, I don't, I don't really know if this girl's, for me, I don't know if this boutique's for me. Maybe we don't want maybes, maybes bring low sales, low engagement, low comments, low views, all that stuff, right? The way we really, really excel at attracting the right people and them selling them our stuff is when it's a clear connection between who you are as a brand and who they are as a person. And that little marriage is going to carry you above everything else. So when you're walking into a situation where you're spending money to try to sell stuff, do not get distracted. This is the number one rule. You gotta put the blinders on, right? You gotta put like your, I'm thinking of like the horse, the, the, the race horses. They got their blinders on, right? They don't wanna get distracted by what, what's going on outside of their peripheral vision. They, they gotta stay focused on the prize, and the prize for them is winning the race. And the prize for you is winning the sale. So if you're looking right and left, you don't have your eye on the prize. Which means sales will suffer, and the best stores know this. They are, they can manage to block out a lot of the noise that a lot of beginners cannot block out. Again, this is gonna be a skill that you develop. Do not expect to have this right away, but what I wanna tell you is what the best people are doing right? And they didn't become the best magically one day they came, became the best by experience and by understanding this. So you're getting a little bit of like a rocket ship ahead of the game because I'm telling you, this is what you need to do if you wanna be like them. You wanna be the best, you wanna have very strong sales. This the, this is how you do it. So you get to kinda skip all the confusion and the questions, and you just get to learn right here exactly what to do. So if you are not clear on who your ideal customer is, yet, everything else in your business suffers. That's just the reality. I hate to break it to you. I wish it wasn't that way. I wish we could have all the things under the sun, right? But especially when you're trying to move product online, you gotta be crystal clear. It's gotta be so obvious, like I need to go to your Instagram page and be like, oh, I know exactly who her customer is. And most of the time I don't, most of the time I'll have people DM me. They're like, oh, you know, I need some help, this and that. I go to their page and the first thing I think to myself is, let me see if it's clear on who they're even selling to. And 99% of the time, it's not clear. So this is like, you gotta work on this. So audit yourself right now as you're listening to this podcast, or as you're watching me live, think about. Am I clear on who my customer is? But then more importantly, am I making that clear in my content and in what people are seeing in my marketing? Or does my marketing feel stale? Right? And that's a whole nother conversation. We'll have another time, but you have got to get super locked in on what this looks like. Again, when you are buying, you need to have. That bridge be so seamless. So when someone finds you on the internet from a piece of content and they walk over that little bridge to your website and they knock on the door, and you open up the door, you better be serving up exactly what they're expecting. Then they will buy and they will buy on repeat and they will put their credit card in. The little thing that says, do you wanna save this credit card on file? They'll be like, yep, I do, because I'm gonna be coming back here and buying a lot more, more often because it makes sense. You're exactly for them. But if you are vanilla and bland, or you don't know who your ideal customer is and you buy a bunch of stuff, you're gonna get back to your inventory, your store. You are gonna get back to your warehouse, get back to your home office, whatever it is for you right now, you are gonna look at all this inventory and go, oh my God, what do I do with this? I have a whole bunch of maybe here. So rule number one, you wanna be great. You gotta say no to the maybes and only yes to the absolute yeses. Okay? Are we clear on that? How do we feel? Feel good. Okay. Let's move on to the, by the way, if you are dropping comments and you're watching this live, I know that I can somehow see my comments on here. I just don't know how yet, so we're learning that part, but I know there is a way that I'm, I'm should be, oh, let's see this chat. Lemme see. Lemme hold on. If we mess this up. I think I'm able to click on this chat here, but I don't really know yet, so we'll just keep, we'll keep looking there. Okay. Next thing we need to be to do, if we wanna become an awesome, incredible buyer, we need to focus on cohesive collections. Okay? That's the next thing. We gotta have really, really, really solid, cohesive collections, meaning we are not buying a lot of random stuff. We're buying very. Thought out, well thought out things for your business or your brand. Okay? We're not just out here buying all this, buying all of that, throwing it together and hoping that it sells, and what works so well when we buy cohesive collections, meaning you're buying items that can go together. That's what I mean by that, right? We're not buying like a top over here and then a bottom over here, and then a random accessory. We're thinking about. I need to buy items that go together. And this is not because I want you to be like organized. This is because I want you to have better sales, okay? This is not about like, you know, looking cool or any like anything else except getting more sales. So when you have cohesive collections, what it does is it allows you the chance to increase your average order value. What is the A OV? It's the best thing in the world. It's the average amount of money someone spends with you when they make a purchase from your website. So you're always trying to work to continually grow your A OV. Okay? The way that the best buyers do this is by buying things that go together.'cause why sell someone a pair of earrings when you could sell them the earrings, the headband, the shirt, and the necklace. You have just four Xed or 10 Xed. Your sale by having a cohesive collection. So what the best buyers know is they understand this. They know that when they have drops or even on their website, they can bundle items the way that you increase your AOVs by having items that actually can go together. And this is what I see a lot of people messing up on, is again, they're just buying random things here. They're like a couple things from this vendor, a couple things from that vendor, and they have no buying plan. Instead, when you're buying for your business, you need to think about. Like have like a notebook out or like use your phone, whatever, pen and paper. Okay guys, and just jot down things like what you're looking for for your next drop. Okay. Maybe it's. I wanna have two full outfits, uh, you know, a couple of dresses with some jackets that you could, that they could be paired with. What are the accessories that go with these items if you sell accessories? What about footwear? Like you wanna have complete things that you can drop. That way someone can go to your site and get the full thing. Again, when it comes to buying online, the best thing you can do is remove all the friction humanly possible from someone making a buying decision. So if, if you have a drop and you're like, Hey, here's a complete outfit, it's a full cohesive collection, someone is way more likely to buy the whole thing than if you make them try to pick out their own outfits and like rummage through 300 tops to find a top to go with the bottom that they like. And you know what that does? That creates friction and that creates a longer amount of time from them getting to the add to cart and checkout button. And when we increase that time, we increase the chances of them leaving our website. We gotta make things snappy and quick here. Okay? They find the cohesive collection, they get the top, the bottom, the shoes. But bing, you add it to the cart, they're outta there. People are busy, right? Things happen. They get distracted. They see like, you know, I don't know, a friend calls'em, right? The phone rings. Now they're not, they're not finishing their shopping. They're, they're off doing something else, right? So you gotta make sure when you actually do capture these people's attention, you're buying cohesive collections, and you could serve it to them very quickly and very easily, because again, people get distracted easily. It's our job to make sure we're making things easy and smooth. So cohesive collections is a huge one. Again, I think a lot of people don't understand how important this is, and especially in 2026 when people are inundated with so much stuff all the time, 24 7, buy my stuff, buy my stuff. If you can just serve them something that feels very complete and easy and a no-brainer, and they can get the whole thing done at once we got the sale. People don't wanna have to go to this site to get that and then go to that site to get this and then go over here to buy the shoes and then go like, you gotta make it easy for them if it makes sense for your ideal customer. Right? So no matter what you're selling, no matter what the category is, you gotta make sure that you have multiple things that go together to make it easy on them, but also to make you more money. Increase your A OV. Yes, exactly. Okay. So that is the second thing. We wanna make sure we're doing cohesive collections. Now the third thing is so much more important than people realize, and it's as you scale, you will get how freaking important this one is. But when you are buying, you have to understand that vendors that you're buying from become almost like a business partner. The better relationships you can create with your vendors. The more you're going to be able to lean on them for things that you need for your business. For example, let's say you have a piece of inventory that you purchase at a market. It shows up four to six weeks later or whatever it is, and you settle outta that sucker like that. If you have a relationship with that vendor, you can call'em up and say, Hey, I just sold out of my first two packs of, you know, the pink t-shirt. Do you have any more? And they could go, oh, hey Susie Jane. So great to hear from you. Let me check in the back and let me see what I have. And they're gonna work harder for you when they actually know you and feel like there's a relationship there. That's just business, right? Like the better relationships you have, the more successful your business is gonna be. So don't go into this just thinking like, this is just transactional. I'm going to market, I'm gonna pay these people money, they're gonna send me stuff, and that's gonna be the end of that. I have retailers that I've been working with for years, and we do everything because we love them. We're humans at the end of the day. We're in the retail industry. We like people, right? Hopefully. That's part of this, right? But we are so happy to help our customers that have been with us for a long time and make sure they have what they need. I mean, even our new customers get that service. But it's good for the, for the customers to feel like they have a relationship with us. And we are not just a random business, like on Fair or at Dallas Market. People come in and like Brenda, who works for me, if you come into my showroom and you've been there before, she will recognize you. She will ask you. Hey, how did those sweatshirts go? She just has this uncanny, incredible ability to remember everything, which is so freaking amazing, and I love that about her. But you guys need to know that on the other end, as the buyer or the retailer, it's important for you to put stock in the effort that you have for the relationships with your buyer. It it, or with the relationships, with the re, with the vendor. It's very important. You have to really know that they. Especially as you scale are going to be an integral part of your success.'cause at the end of the day, when you're selling out of this stuff, you wanna be able to pick up the phone and call'em and say, Hey, I've got 50 people on the wait list. How many do you have? And you don't want it to be, oh, well, um, just call back. Or you get an answering machine. Right? Or like you send an email, like you wanna have a person you deal with. So when you're at these markets, try to like get to know each other, right? Have a conversation. Try not to just make it so transactional. And even if you're in the early stages, just practice, right? Practice having relationships. Even if you're buying like one or two things from them, there's, they like, that's what we're all here for. At the end of the day, the best businesses, the best buyers understand that your business really become stronger when you have stronger relationships with your vendors. By the way, this definitely goes for my girlies that are selling, you know, their own brand. Like if you have a clothing brand or a candle company or jewelry or accessories, you're making them and you have vendors that provide parts or wax melts or scents or whatever it is for your business, jewelry parts. You need to know that you should be building relationships with these people. Again, they will probably be around for a long time, like we've been working with a lot of the same people for a very long time. I have a really good relationship with my reps from different vendors that we can, if we are in a bind, we can call them and they will deliver. Here's a perfect example. So on Friday before market, I was like, oh, I have this idea, but I need my vendor to make a certain piece of this idea happen. But I've already passed the cutoff, like right where it's like Friday, we're leaving to market on Monday, right? Or it was Thursday actually. So I was trying to get this stuff by Friday and I texted him and said, Hey, bill. I know it's last minute, but we had already placed an order that day. We order from them almost every single day, one of our vendors, and we do a lot of business with them. Okay? And I said, Hey Bill, I have a couple things I need. It's gonna take you two seconds. Would you guys mind? I know it's a lot to ask, but is there a way that we can squeak it out with the order replaced earlier this morning that did make the cutoff? He writes back, yeah, of course we got you. No worries. And I was like, oh, okay, great. And this is why I continue to use Bill and his company over and over and over, and we send thousands and thousands of dollars with them every single month because I know that we have a strong relationship and he's not just a guy out there. He is an integral part of my business being successful. This is gonna be the same thing for you guys and your vendors and what you do. So just think about vendor relationships and just again, do a little audit on your own business and go, okay, do I have some vendors that I'm like making a little bit of a connection with here? Like, Ooh, maybe send'em some cookies. I don't know, right? But make sure that you are paying attention to that, because when the time comes for both of you, right? You wanna make sure there is that solid relationship, it's only gonna benefit you and your business. So, again, these are some of the three things that I just noticed and again, spoke about with people as I was at market that were really, really important to their success and why they were so successful. So, if this is you listening or watching again, do a self audit, right? How clear are you on your ideal customer? When it comes to buying decisions, you better be fricking clear, right? We have no room for maybes. No room for the maybes. Here we're only absolute yeses. Number two, cohesive collections. Why we wanna increase that? A OV. A OV sounds like, you know, like, I don't know, it's like a, sounds like a song or something. We wanna increase that. A OB. Okay, that is the point of the cohesive collections. We wanna get that number up. This is huge for you and your business. And then the third thing is your vendor relationships. Right? These are so, so freaking important and I'm even thinking about like some of the private coaching that I've done this week. I have amazing women that I've been coaching all week long, you guys. Oh, it's so fun. It is just the best thing ever to actually like work one-to-one with you guys. You know, we have the trendsetter university. We have our Let's Go Girls group, but then we also have our private clients and I get to get really, really deep with them in their businesses, dissect everything that's going on, like what are the leaks, what are the things that need to change? And every single woman that I work with, it's different for their strengths and the lifestyle that they want and the scenarios that they're in and all of these things we spoke about this week, especially when it came to like ideal customer clarity. This comes up over and over with my private clients, and some of them have been trying to work on this for like years. Literally years they've been trying to figure out who is their ideal customer. And this is something that I can just, I can help you figure out like that. And we've been able to do that this week with so many of the women. It's been really, really fun. Also working on cohesive collections to make sure they're buying the right things. And it's just these little pieces of information. I don't want them to go in one ear and out the other. I don't want you to stop listening to this podcast here in a second when we wrap it up and go, okay, well that was cool, and then never think about this stuff again because you're. Back to being sidetracked from everything. Like I'm giving you the hot takes, like I'm giving you the tips, the things that are actually going to help you grow your business. The things that I do with my clients every day to help them succeed. I just had one of my private clients, you guys, this is crazy. Okay. I have to tell you the story real quick. So she had not had an online sales since January. Okay? It is currently March 25th, so that's January, February, March, three months. No online sales. She started working with me last Thursday. We had our first call. At the end of the call, I said, okay, this is exactly what I want you to do. Don't worry about anything else. Don't think about all these things that people have been telling you you need to work on or this or that. I'm like, ignore everything. Here's exactly what to do. I gave her her homework and I said, this is all I want you to do, and until we meet again on Tuesday. So we, we spoke on, on the Zoom call on Thursday, we had an hour long zoom call. On Tuesday, we were to meet again on Telegram, which is where I like go back and forth with my clients. So on Thursday we have the call. I give her the exact homework based on her, her specific situation and what I knew was going to help her actually get sales, right? And all this other random crap that people try to tell you, okay, like exactly for her situation, what to do to get sales. Literally by Tuesday she had three sales. She went from no sales for three months to a phone call with me. I told her exactly what to do, and then she got three sales. Now I'm not surprised because this is just like, these are the results that I expect because I know what it takes to get you guys sales. But it was so fun to see her go, oh my God, Allie, holy crap. Like imagine having no sales for months and then like having crystal clarity on what it actually takes to get sales. This is the best thing about mentorship, and it's just truly so beneficial. So I'm so glad you're here in the community. Whether you're listening to the podcast, whether you're in my private coaching, whether you're in the university, whatever it is, you are a smart one. Because you're gonna learn everything it takes to actually get sales and make your business grow and flourish. Oh my gosh, this has been so fun. Hopefully you guys have loved this. Um, and I am gonna try to do way more live streaming like this. This will get uploaded here shortly to the podcast, so you can re-listen to this if you want. It'll be on the YouTube channel. I'll figure out how to get it to stay on Instagram. I should be live on TikTok right now. Well, should we check that? Let's just check that really quick before we close the little, the little live here. Do, do, do. This is a 9 1 1 emergency. Oh gosh. 9, 9 1 emergency. She's saying. Okay, so I don't, I don't know how to tell if I'm actually live on, on TikTok right now. If I am. Hello everybody. Alright you guys, thank you so much for listening. This has been so fun. If you have any questions you would like for me to cover here on the podcast, what I want you to do is DM me on Instagram. My TikTok gets a zillion dms and it gets very messy, but on my Instagram it's like nice and neat. You know, we have like folders, we can put things in. DM me on Instagram, it's ally dot d. Ceo. Okay. Make sure it's that specific account, not my brand account or my personal account. Go to ally.d.ceo, DM me there, your questions. And I would love to start answering these on the podcast. We can do like little Q Ass live on the podcast. I think it'd be super duper fun. Okay, so we'll kind of submit the questions there. Maybe we'll get it like a more formal way to do it, but for now, this is how I wanna do it. Get those questions coming in. This has been so fun. I hope you guys learned something. Don't let this go in one ear and out the other. Let's take action, baby. Okay. Have an amazing day.