1.

BUYING HOUSE
 Buying house is an Intermediate between the Buyer and vendor
 Buying house is an agent who is working for a buyer abroad. Buying house represent the
buyer
 Buying house not only performs the final inspection before the shipment but also involve
him in the various activities such as sampling, order tracking, trouble shooting, ensuring
timely delivery
 The merchandise runs from a single line to the full complement of merchandise
 The operation of office is not restricted only to the purchase of goods
 The office is primarily an advisory agency or market representation

Buying house basically is an office with some testing machine and equipment’s, as it is not
directly executing the order. So every Buying house needs some energetic skilled merchandiser
to maintain the placement of order and execution, some quality controller (QC) to maintain the
products quality some other officials to do official works. Garment buying house means, the
buying house procures garments from the manufacturers and exports to other countries is called
garment buying house.

Basically Garment Buying houses try to communicate with buyers of other countries who want to
buy garment products. Then they contact with garment factories who can make those kinds of
products and fulfill buyer’s demand. Like this they create a contract between these two parties.
Sometime buying houses make their own sample section, so that they do not have to go to
factories for collecting sample and they can attract customers faster and easily. On the other
hand, they create a show room of their product to attract the buyer. Moreover, this house
maintain the merchandiser to follow up the product processing line perfectly and also build a
quality assurance team for checking the actual quality of the product

2. IMPORTANT FUNCTION AND SERVICES OF BUYING OFFICE

A buying house may provide number of services to their buyers.

1
Below mentioned are the major services provided by most of the apparel buying houses.

 Product development and sampling for buyers

 Finding good suppliers for their buyers
 Order processing from local vendors
 Contacting with buyers and taking approval on developments, samples, swatches,
strike offs etc.
 Forwarding buyers comments on samples and buyers requirement to vendors
 Giving local approvals to vendors
 Follow up order processing with vendors (export houses)
 Take care of product quality from sample development to final inspection
 Sometimes buying house do outsourcing of fabrics and trims for buyers and vendors
 Conducting social compliance audit at vendor factories
 Shipping and logistics

3. TYPES OF RESIDENT BUYING HOUSE/OFFICES

3.1 The Private office

 Privately owned, retailers of enormous size with specific needs
 Few in number
 Merchandising mix – high price & unusual offerings
 Limited market

3.2 The Cooperatively owned office

 Smallest in terms of size, sales, volume & prestige of its member stores cannot be
overlooked
 Ownership by a syndicated store organization
 Composed of chains of department stores structured
 This buying office services the needs of all of the stores in the chain
 it plays important role in the store’s merchandising plan

2
  It serves only the member stores
 Formulates the pricing policies

3.3 The independent owned office

 Largest buying office
 Salaried, fee, or paid office
 Charges annual fee based on a percentage of the store’s annual sales, paid in monthly
installments

3.4 The Merchandise Brokers or Commission Office

 Store does not pay the buying office any fee
 The merchandise broker collects his remuneration from cooperating manufacturers in
the form of a commission based upon a percentage of orders placed for their clients.

4. ORDERFLOW

Chart 1

3
5. WORKING PROCEDURE OF A BUYING HOUSE

Every organization has its own working procedure. It’s varies from organization to organization.
Buying house work flow is given below:

 First of all marketing merchandiser contact with a buyer and collect an order by
showing the garments they made before or directly ask which type of garments buyer
need.
 Then he /she find out the suitable factory for that specified garments. The factory
must be audited by recognized organization like WRAP etc. (Depends on Buyer).
 Do consumption & costing and bargaining with factory for cost for the specific
product. Finalize cost and send it to buyer.
 Then development merchandiser develops the product send 1st pattern for any
correction.
 Usually buyer makes some modification on 1st pattern, so 2nd pattern is submitted
according to 1st pattern comments.
 Then fit sample is made and QC (Quality Controller) check is it follows the approved
2nd pattern.
 Then the Red seal sample is sent for approval which is also known as buying sample.
And if the red seal sample approved then the order is confirmed.
 Then production merchandiser starts his work.
 Production merchandiser basically follows up the total production stage. After getting
approval of red seal sample he has to book the fabric and trims.
 He has to Follow up the fabric and trim arrived in factory in time or not. After all
approval he does production planning meeting with factory.
 QC has to follow the production is running with approved item, fabric and accessories
or not. He helps production merchandiser by giving all production information.
 QC’s main task is to check all samples (red seal, gold seal, web sample etc) sent to
buyer, and help factory people if there any confusion with production.
 Fabric, trims accessories are checked in lab in buying house. It‘s called in-house test
like Bulk fabric hanger, shade variation in shade continuity, lab dip, fabric quality etc.

4
  Different types of inspection also done in lab before ex-factory/shipment.
 After doing ex-factory showing packing list and some commercial activities buying
house receive their commission.
 There are huge task is done by a buying house which starts with meeting with buyer
and ends with collecting commission from buyer.

6. MERCHANDISER IN A BUYING HOUSE

6.1 Merchandising:
The word “Merchandising” means the persons specially involved in garments trade. The term
merchandising has been derived from the merchandise. Merchandise means goods that are
bought and sold. The term Merchandising may be defined as: Person who merchandises the
goods, specifically for export purpose. Garments merchandising means buying raw materials and
accessories, producing garments, maintaining required quality level and exporting the garments
within schedule time. From the above definition, we can say that a person involved in garments
merchandising needs a wide range of knowledge and skill to perform his job successfully. The
job itself is Technical and general as well.

6.2 Main function of a merchandiser:

 Fabric requirement calculations.

 Accessories requirement calculation (e.g. thread, button, interlining, label, poly bag,
carton etc.)
 Costing.
 Sourcing of yarn
 Sourcing of accessories
 Sourcing of Dyeing
 Possible date to arrival fabric and accessories in the garments factory
 Garments production planning.
 Pre-shipment inspection schedule

5
  Shipping documents
All the main functions, mentioned above are important but the procurement of yarns and
accessories are most important as because there are many technical parameters involved in
specification in this area.

6.3 Qualities of a Merchandiser:

 Good command of English and good communication skills in English.

 Good knowledge of Yarn, Fabric, Dyeing, Printing, Finishing, Dyes, Color Fastness,
Garments production, etc.
 Clear conception of the usual Potential Quality problems and garment manufacturing.
 Good knowledge of the usual raw materials inspection systems and garments
inspection system.
 Knowledge of the compliance, buyer’s code of conduct, SA 8000, Warp,
International human rights, Core ILO conventions and various standards.
 Knowledge of quota system and category countries, duty rate, custom regulation,
shipping and banking documentation.

6.4 Role of Merchandiser in Buying House

Merchandiser role is very important in any buying house, starting from sampling stage to
order execution.

• He is the one who build relationship with both vendors as well as buyers.

• Merchandisers monitor the order process flow and coordinate between the vendor and
Buyer.

• A merchandiser makes sure that factory implement all SOPs. It is divided in two phases.

• PHASE 1-Sampling

• PHASE2-Bulk order production

6
 • As soon as the Techpack is received merchandisers accesses with the QA and decides
upon the factors like production feasibility, requirement of any special machinery
required etc.

• He also assesses the tech packs in terms of design, embellishment, fabric etc. and contact
factories according to their expertise, experience and strength.

• He forwards the tech pack to factory and asks for costing. After much negotiation it is
closed with the factory with best quote.

• He then allocates the styles to the factories approved by the buyers.

• He updates the TNA every week and in case of any delay alerts mill, factory or buyer. It
is one of the ways of having complete control over the process. Merchants do the
backward planning according to the delivery date.

ORDER SCHEDULED

Order Date

Planned Scheduled Actual

Date Date Date

chart 2

Planned Date: Obtained from the preplanned template.

Scheduled Date: Fixed by merchant accordingly for each style.

7
Actual Date: Date at which the actual activity happens.

 Once the bulk production starts merchandiser ensures that he receives all inspection
reports from the respective QA for their styles.

 A merchant stays in direct contact with the forwarding agents and check if the shipment
is being received in the correct condition.

 Once the final production is over merchant sends the shipment under his supervision
along with required documents.

8
REFERENCES

 www.wrapapparel.org
 www.fibertofabric.com
 www.onlineclothingstudy.com
 www.textilelearner.blogspot.in
 www.garmentsmerchandising.com
 http://iosrjournals.org/iosr-jbm/papers