The Best Times for Reaching Out to Buyers

Timing is everything and here’s a calender to make your life easy

photo courtesy: SKUE member May28th.me

We always time our buying rounds to match a buyer cadence. Here’s a breakdown of how we do it, (courtesy of Katie Gaertner our advisor for retail strategy and owner of store Whistle.)

• The best time to send an email is Monday through Wednesday. Buyers are least busy during those times.
• Few buyers have time to respond during the major trade shows like NY NOW, Atlanta, Dallas and Vegas Market. Find out what those dates are. Follow up after those dates.
• Plan to pitch your products two or three months prior to a major shopping event. The major events are Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Plaid Friday (Black Friday for big Box retail) and of course Holiday season.
• Pitching after October is probably a waste of time, unless the buyer is local. You have some really hot shit going on. Or you already have an existing relationship. With SKUE, we’re reducing the time to get to place an order and get to stores to 14 days. That might change things.
• Pitching in December means you are a total noob. Don’t do it. Holidays are a great time for greetings. Send a note to a buyer, “hope you had a great holiday season” and that you’ll follow up with your winter collection right after the holidays.

So there you go. If you have some tricks that worked for you, please share with us.

Interested in working with more stores? To participate in our monthly buying rounds, join us here.