Simple economics, the more you buy the less it costs. Just like at Sam’s Club or Costco the benefits of ordering in bulk saves you money. Why is that? I can break it down for you.
Most of the time the money comes from labor. In the screen printing industry it takes the same amount of customer service, artwork prep, screen prep, and production prep for 12 shirts as it does for 120. So when you order in larger amounts all of that prep and set up time is being divided into a larger set of garments thus bringing the cost per piece down. On top of that you have added savings in shipping costs by hitting minimum purchases breaks, as well as breaks from the shirt wholesaler or manufacturer for some of the same reasons.
Ordering in bulk for apparel is a no brainer. For example using rough numbers from our pricing system 12 fashion cut black shirts with a 1 color print is going to cost me about $10.32 per shirt for a total of $123.84. If I change that same order to 100 shirts, the cost comes down to $6.56 per shirt! Yes there is a big difference between the total costs of $123 vs. $656 but the gains come back in force. If you were to sell these shirts at $20 each, the 12 shirt order would have a 94% return on investment. Meaning for every $123 you invested you would gain $116 more than you spent. Which is good, but by reaching the price breaks by ordering 100 shirts you get a 205% return on investment! You gain $1344 more than you spent, that’s over twice your initial investment. The gross profit of the 100 shirt is enough to place that order three times over! It may seem like a bear in the initial investment, but you will break even in a smaller fraction of your shirts and make gains far greater than on a smaller order. If you have the money, time, and patience to sit on shirts there is really no reason not to.
I have been talking a lot about buying in bulk for resale in the retail market, but don’t forget it makes good sense for your professional apparel too. Apparel as a commodity is not perishable. If you run a business that outfits your employees with company branded gear you should be buying in bulk too. You’re going to need the gear so stock up and order less often to take advantage of the large order price breaks. It is simple business sense that will save you in the long term.
Larger quantity orders will save money whoever you are with whatever you are using your custom apparel for. I think this is one of the most underutilized tools in saving money when ordering apparel.
If you found this post interesting, you might also like; “The Higher Gains of Higher Quality” or “How to NOT FAIL at selling custom apparel”