Whether you’re a boutique owner already or are planning to open your clothing store soon, finding good wholesale clothing vendors is probably the top priority on your to-do list. And if it’s not yet, it really should be.

Buying wholesale it’s an art that needs practice and scouting the right wholesalers for your store it’s the starting point. They need to be reliable, make you the best prices, and offer you a selection of wholesale clothing that is curated and unique. Ultimately, wholesale clothing distributors are your allies for building a boutique of success.

So, where to buy wholesale clothing? As you can imagine, options are many, with different pros and cons. To help you out and save you hours of research, we rounded up a list of the best ways to buy wholesale clothing for your boutique.

Online Wholesale Clothing Vendors

Yep, in the modern world, you can buy wholesale online. Just as it happened ages ago within the B2C market, the wholesale industry is gradually switching towards online buying, with the most forward-thinking boutiques jumping on the train before anyone else. If you haven’t considered buying wholesale online yet, here’s a quick overview of the benefits you could take from it.

PROs

• It’s convenient, saving you time and effort: you can buy wholesale online from anywhere and at any moment. You just need a laptop and a good connection, and that’s it. No need to travel around the world to attend trade shows or showroom appointments, you can really find what you’re looking for in just a few clicks.

• It’s cheaper: consequently from the point above, buying wholesale it’s also cheaper. There are no transfers involved, no day trips, and no team lunches between appointments. It is a zero-cost activity.

• It gives you way more options: when you browse a physical showroom or a fashion trade show, the brands and products on display will eventually end. On the internet? No shortage of them. You can have all the options for online clothing vendors that you need, and each one of them can offer many more products and brands than a physical showroom, for the simple reason that an online catalog has an infinite space capacity.

CONs

If you’re wondering if there are some cons of buying wholesale online, for sure there are— as with everything in life. The main con is that you can’t see the products in real life: you can’t touch the materials and textiles or evaluate the size of each product. For this reason, it’s even more important to find an online wholesaler that you can trust and build a good relationship with. Look for wholesale distributors that have detailed product descriptions and clear photos, as well as dedicated customer service that can support you throughout the buying process.

Here are the top online wholesale clothing marketplaces you can buy from:

Mirta

Location: Milan, Italy

Mirta is a digital showroom where you can buy from local, independent, and contemporary brands. Innovative and young, it was born in Milan in 2021, with the aim of establishing a better way to shop wholesale and escaping the traditional and restricting timings of the fashion system. They have a great focus on Made in Italy, especially with their Artisan Gems edit of artisanal brands, and they support ethical production and a conscious approach to fashion, especially with their Sustainable Brands selection.

Strengths:

• In-season orders and real-time fashion: Mirta is revolutionizing the wholesale world by promoting real-time fashion. This means that you don’t need to plan your buying months and months in advance: you can order now and receive your products in a few days only, always buying for the current season. In this way, you can easily stay on top of emerging trends, as well as adjust your boutique’s offer depending on your customers’ evolving demands and needs.

• No minimum order quantity: with no minimum order by brand, on Mirta you don’t need to stock up and you can make frequent small orders, regularly bringing newness to your community. This is also a good incentive for testing different brands, as you can buy a little from each one of them before choosing your favorites and buying more of their products in bulk.

• Sell now, Pay later: Mirta offers you the possibility to sell products before paying for them. You can indeed start paying 60 days after your order and, by then, your products will have already been sold to all your lovely customers.

Weaknesses: 

• No return policy: Mirta doesn't offer free returns on your orders. However, since it allows you to place very small orders with no minimum quantity, the risk of dissatisfaction is kept to a minimum. You can always test a few products before buying in bulk.

• Catalog in expansion: as a relatively young reality in the business, the wholesale catalog of Mirta is still expanding, so in comparison to other wholesale vendors, it has a smaller offer. However, this allows for extreme curation and leaves space for an expansion that will grow organically month after month.

To buy on Mirta, register on their website and start browsing their collection of women’s clothing or women’s bags. They also have a great offer of shoes and accessories, as well as an extensive men's collection.

Faire

Location: San Francisco, USA

Faire is an online wholesale marketplace connecting manufacturers and makers with retailers and boutique owners. It’s big and established, with a category mix that ranges from apparel and fashion to home decor and food.

Strengths:

• Flexible payment terms

• Free returns on opening orders

• Net 60-payment

• Many curated collections

• Wide range of suppliers and categories

Weaknesses:

• Minimum order quantity: each brand has a different MOQ, so you’ll find some that don’t have any but a majority that has one.

• Separated shipping costs: shipping costs change according to each brand, so if you buy from multiple brands you have to pay different shipping costs for each one of them.

Lonca

Location: Istanbul, Turkey

Lonca was established in 2021 to help small and medium businesses digitally buy wholesale clothing from Turkey. 

Strengths:

• Transparent shipping costs

• No minimum order quantity

• Product Samples

• White labeling

Weaknesses:

• No net-60 days payment

• Limited number of categories

Ankorstore

Location: Paris, France

Ankorstore was founded by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs and is an online marketplace offering retailers a curated selection of European brands.

Strengths:

• Wide range of brands from Europe

• Buy now, pay later, with net-60 days payment

• Free return

Weaknesses:

• Minimum order quantity of £100

• Separated shipping costs

Handshake

Location: San Francisco, USA

Handshake is the Shopify wholesale marketplace connecting retailers with US-based brands and suppliers.

Strengths:

• Handpicked and curated collection

• Free shipping on orders over $100

• No fees or commissions

Weaknesses:

• Only available for US retailers

• Minimum order quantity: different for each brand

• Separated shipping costs

• Return policy depending on brands

Wholesale Fashion Trade Shows

Attending fashion events and trade shows is another great way of finding good wholesale suppliers for your boutique. These occasions bring brands and buyers under the same roof, allowing more immediate and easier connections. Here, we’re doing a quick recap of the pros of attending these events, but make sure to dive deeper into the topic with our article about Good Reasons to Attend a Trade Show.

PROs

• You can have a physical perception of the product: attending a trade show gives you the opportunity to see products in real life, touch them, and accurately evaluate their finish and quality.

• You can establish deeper connections: there’s nothing like talking face-to-face with someone, and fashion events bring that retailer-brand connection to the next level. This will give you a sense of who’s behind the brands you’re working or going to work with, establishing more trustworthy connections that will be useful for your business development.

• It’s all about discovery: fashion trade shows are the perfect place to nourish yourself with all kinds of inputs. Keep your eyes wide open and be ready to discover the latest market trends, countless new brands you didn’t know about, the most innovative materials, and much more.

CONs

The negative sides of attending a trade show are mainly two: it requires a lot of time and effort, and it’s expensive. Before attending you have to go through specific registration processes that will probably nurture your bureaucratic anxiety, and while at the trade show you have to be ready to spend long days on your feet, cruising among stands and talking to hundreds of different people. On top of this, moving around the country to join the most relevant fashion events is also expensive, especially if you want to bring more people from your team. Every decision needs a compromise, so consider whether attending a trade show is the right solution for you depending on your business’ priorities.

Here are some of the top fashion trade shows around the world:

• MIPEL (Italy): happening twice a year in Milan, it’s the most important international leather and fashion accessories event. It showcases a balanced mix of artisanal, traditional labels and young emerging designers. 

• MAGIC (USA): a wholesale show happening in Las Vegas, New York, and Nashville. It showcases young and trendy fashion brands for sportswear, apparel, footwear, and accessories for women and men.

• Texworld (USA and France): the trade show bringing together thousands of exhibitors from the fashion industry, ranging from basic products to the most creative and qualitative. It happens both in Paris and New York City.

• MICAM Milano (Italy): the world’s leading footwear fair, organized in Milan by Assocalzaturifici.

• COAST (USA): held in Miami four times a year, with collections from both well-known and up-and-coming designers.

• International Apparel & Textile Fair (UAE): UAE’s exclusive sourcing fair, happening in Dubai and showcasing the best in textiles, fabric, footwear, accessories, and print from renowned mills across the globe.

• Pure London (UK): UK's leading trade fashion buying event, showcasing the seasons's must-have collections in womenswear, shoes, accessories, and jewelry.

Local Fashion Markets

Don’t forget to pay a visit to nearby apparel markets, as they can be a great source of wholesale clothing for your boutique. They work especially well for the lower price point range of a store’s collection, as they allow you to negotiate the price down with the vendor. On top of this, browsing local markets can also give you some precious inspiration on how to style different products together, learning from how the brands display them and replicating the same in your boutique.

Wholesale Fashion Directories

Wholesale directories are collectors of different wholesale companies that sell certain items, and provide you all the details you need to start purchasing from them. Using a directory can be very helpful as it easily expands the options of manufacturers for your boutique. At the same time, it guarantees that those vendors are trustworthy, since they undergo a strict verification process before being onboarded on the database. Some of the most popular and used directories are Sqetch, for Europe, and Maker’s Row, for the U.S.

If you have more questions about buying wholesale you can reach out to us at wholesale@mirta.com and we’ll be happy to help. If you want to get deeper into the topic, don’t miss the rest of our Magazine section, where you can find articles about How To Buy Wholesale For Resale: Tips & Tricks, How to Shop for Unique Wholesale Products, and so much more.

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