How Fashion Wholesale Sales Reps Can Use Data to Sell More Effectively

Traditionally, wholesale selling was a process that took place primarily at trade shows and during in-showroom appointments, with buyers using a mix of learned expertise and intuition to build assortments.

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Today, the process has evolved alongside technology to include digital tools that garner valuable data, which brands and retailers alike can use to inform their business decisions.

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What is Data-Driven Selling in Wholesale?

Data-driven wholesale selling is a strategy used by fashion brands to try to increase revenue. It involves harnessing sales performance metrics, customer demand, and inventory insights to inform buyers on what is in demand and what will perform best in their region. 

It's a particularly useful selling strategy in the fashion industry, where trends move quickly, and sales cycles are becoming increasingly shorter. Data-driven selling allows brands and retailers to respond quickly to an ever-changing fashion landscape using hard data rather than a mere hunch. 

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Why Data Matters for Fashion Wholesale Sales Reps

Today, wholesale fashion sales reps are moving from traditional pitching to a more data-driven approach:

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• Shift to consultative sales: sales reps are now using data to help guide buyers and offer them assortment advice rather than just purely pitching new products to them.

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• Buyers expect personalization: modern buyers want tailored recommendations based on their store performance and customer demand, rather than generic products. Data can facilitate this.

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• Faster decision-making: data helps reps provide quick, confident recommendations thanks to tools that can build reports in seconds

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• Competitive market: brands are now using data to gain an advantage in winning retail partners, and sales reps can’t afford not to harness the power of data when selling

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Key Data Points Every Fashion Sales Rep Should Track 

Successful wholesale fashion sales can be achieved by tracking the right data points. These include:

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• Sell-through rate: useful for brands creating pricing strategies and for reps when highlighting profitability with buyers
  
  
• Product performance: crucial for evaluating demand and showcasing bestsellers to buyers
  
  
• Inventory imbalance: helps reps identify potential size-run gaps
  
  
• Seasonal trends: allows reps to share insights with buyers on key trends or events they can capitalize on
  
  
• Regional performance: understanding of local consumer behaviour can help reps create better assortment suggestions for buyers
  
  
• Customer purchase history: helps reps create bespoke collection suggestions based on the retailer's customer base

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How Sales Reps Can Use Data To Sell More Effectively

Here are five simple ways brands can use data to move from reactive selling to a proactive, insight-driven approach:

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Personalize Buyer Pitches with Data

Sales reps should delve into past order data to gain a deep understanding of buyer preferences and use these insights to create personalized product suggestions and relevant styles based on historical performance.   

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Predict Demand & Recommend Reorders 

Examining sell-through rates can help sales reps to spot trends and become more accurate with their demand forecasting. They can then use this knowledge to advise buyers on when to reorder to avoid stockouts. 

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Identify Upsell & Cross-Sell Opportunities

Access to data on bestselling products and best-performing categories allows sales reps to suggest complementary products to buyers, helping to increase the average order value. 

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Optimize Inventory Conversations 

Data insights can use inventory data to give bespoke recommendations to buyers on which stock to buy more of and which to avoid. This will help to reduce dead inventory for retailers and improve their turnover. 

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Use Regional Insights To Sell Smarter 

Sales reps can make more targeted recommendations to buyers after examining regional data. If a rep is trying to start a partnership with a new retailer, they can look at data from other partners in the local area to guide how they approach the new connection. 

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Tools That Improve Sales Rep Performance

The right digital tools can help sales reps to improve their productivity and decision-making.

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‍Some of the most popular include: 

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• Wholesale B2B platforms: end-to-end wholesale platforms like JOOR help sales reps to manage orders, linesheets, and buyer interactions all in one place so that insights can easily be shared with retail partners. 

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• CRM systems: customer relationship management systems help track buyer relationships, interactions, and sales history so reps can engage in more personalized selling.

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• Analytics dashboard: reporting dashboards provide insights into sales performance and trends that help reps make data-driven decisions.

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• Digital showrooms: virtual stores allow buyers to view and order collections remotely, improving efficiency and reducing their dependency on meeting in person. 

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Common Mistakes Sales Reps Make Without Data 

Without data, sales reps have to rely on assumptions, which can often lead to poor outcomes. ‍

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Common mistakes that are made include:

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• Guess-based selling: without data to rely on, reps have to rely on intuition, which can often lead to mismatched product recommendations that don’t align with buyers' needs.
  
  
• Overloading buyers with irrelevant inventory: without data, sales reps often try to present buyers with as many product options as possible, but this often leads to confusion, increasing decision-making time, and reducing conversions.
  
  
• Ignoring sell-through data: if sales reps aren’t able to learn what products are selling, they will continue to make poor inventory decisions.
  
  
• Poor follow-ups: without data to help facilitate personalized follow-ups, brand reps can often miss sales opportunities by not building a strong relationship with buyers. 

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The Future of Wholesale Fashion Sales: Data & AI

AI-driven insights are helping to accelerate fashion wholesale sales and will spearhead industry growth in the coming years in the following ways:

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• AI & predictive selling: AI will use data insights to help forecast product demand and offer bespoke recommendations based on historical data and current trends, so that sales reps can be more accurate and proactive in their selling.
  
  
• Real-time analytics: Live data will continue to help sales reps make faster decisions, with AI helping to further improve responsiveness in the face of rapid market changes.
  
  
• Smarter decision making: AI-driven insights will take assumptions and guesswork out of wholesale selling completely, replacing it with smarter inventory, pricing, and sales strategies backed by hard data. 

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How Digital Wholesale Platforms Enable Data-Driven Selling

B2B platforms like JOOR enable data-driven selling by acting as a single source of truth that links all areas of a wholesale business. Brands can log in to a platform and immediately get reporting on real-time inventory visibility, as well as sales performance data, filtered by style, region, or partner. This allows brands to be much more proactive in their sales approach. 

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FAQs

What is data-driven wholesale selling in fashion?

Data-driven wholesale selling is a strategy brand sales reps use that involves sharing data insights on how their styles are performing to convince fashion buyers to purchase more product. 

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What data should fashion sales reps track? 

Fashion sales reps looking to embrace data-driven selling should track metrics like sell-through rate, product performance, inventory imbalance, seasonal trends, and customer purchase history.  

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How does data improve wholesale sales performance?

Data improves wholesale sales performance by allowing reps to create more personalized pitches and bespoke recommendations for buyers, predict demand and reorders more accurately, and more easily identify upsell opportunities.

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What tools do fashion reps use?

Fashion brand sales reps use several tools to help with data-driven selling, including B2B platforms, CRM systems, virtual showrooms, and analytics dashboards. 

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How can sales reps increase wholesale fashion sales? 

Sales reps can increase their wholesale fashion sales by using data to create more bespoke and more accurate selections for buyers.