Reordering as a Small Brand: Keeping Colour and Feel the Same, Order to Order

Short answer: your customer bought two towels in March and wants two more in October. They must match. Keep one untouched master sample per product and colour, give your spec a version number, and state both on every reorder. Reorder early enough that you never sell out between batches.

Why small brands feel this most

A hotel can hide a slightly different batch on another floor. A brand cannot. The customer puts the new towel on the same rail as the old one. A review saying "not the same as my first order" does lasting damage.

The three things to keep

Take a fresh master from each delivery too, so you can see whether batches are drifting.

What to write on a reorder

*"Reorder of [product], spec version 2 dated [date]. To match master sample from order [number] in shade, piece weight and hand-feel. Photos and weight readings of first finished pieces to be sent before the run continues."*

That last sentence costs nothing and catches a problem while there is time to fix it.

Changes: one at a time, and renamed

Customers and suppliers both suggest improvements. Some are worth making. Rules for making them safely:

• Change one thing per reorder.
• Give the spec a new version number.
• Sample the change before producing it.
• If customers would notice, treat it as a new product or tell them.

When to reorder

Count back from the day you would run out.

If you sell 150 towels a month and your total lead time is 12 weeks, reorder when stock falls to about 450. Selling out for a month costs more than holding a month of extra stock.

Order size and price

Trial runs of 500 pieces carry a small premium. Wholesale pricing starts at 2,000 pieces per SKU, and our volume curve gives 8 to 12 percent off list from 1,000 to 2,499 pieces. If you can forecast, one larger reorder is cheaper than two small ones. See how order size changes the price per piece.

Bed linen and white robes can be reordered from 50 pieces per size, which suits a brand that sells steadily in small numbers.

Colours across products

If you sell matching sheets and towels, each reorder of one must match the current stock of the other. Send a piece of the other product with the reorder so the two can be compared. See building one coordinated range.

What we keep on our side

We hold the approved spec and a reference from each order, and make reorders against both. If your master and ours ever disagree, yours is the one that matters, so look after it.

Our quality page describes the checks on every order. To set up a reorder, or to move an existing product to us, send the spec and a sample.