WHEN IS THE RIGHT TIME TO LAUNCH YOUR FASHION BRAND?

Whether we are talking about how to launch your fashion brand for the first time or launching a new range for an existing brand, timing is everything! Currently, there is a growing trend with brands being more trans-seasonal which is fantastic in lowering fashions footprint. However, it is still crucial to get your brand’s launch timing right, you can create a beautiful product but if you are not selling it at the right time to the right customer you will not see the success required to build your brand. 

Certain times of the year are better for sales, some months the buyer is more interested in sales and other times they are happy to invest in full price items. Spring is a fantastic time in the year for ready-to-wear, activewear, and swimwear. The weather is warming up and consumers have just gotten out of winter and are ready to refresh their wardrobe in anticipation of the summer social season!

Key times to launch your collections

Southern hemisphere 1.     SPRING / SUMMER: August / September  2.     HIGH SUMMER: October / November 3.     AUTUMN: February/March 4.     WINTER: April/May

Northern hemisphere 1.     SPRING/ SUMMER: April 2.     HIGH SUMMER: June 3.     AUTUMN: August 4.     WINTER: September/November

How to ensure you launch your fashion brand in time?

The easiest way to work out your timeline is to work backwards. Starting with your launch date and working your way back to designs submissions and tech packs. You want to ensure you have allocated sufficient time for tech pack designs including fabric sourcing. For start-up brands this timeline will be far more unpredictable at first, there will be a bit of trial and error with additional time needed for a factory to create samples, in comparison to a brand they have worked with for some time.

Allowing for additional ‘back up’ time rather than the bare minimum in your development and production reduces the risk of rushing things last minute, which in turn reduces the risk of compromising on quality and missing out on your desired launch date. Development and production timelines that are realistic is key to having an successful launch by meeting your customers expectation.

If your brand is going to include wholesale, then you will need to allow time for indenting (pre-orders from other retailers). You will, on average need 1-2 months for wholesale marketing and collecting your indent order before you place your orders to the factory. This, of course, needs to be accounted for in your wholesale timeline.

Find below samples of development and production timelines that are attainable and realistic to launching your fashion brand or collections.

Is your audience ready for you to launch your fashion brand?

When you first start up a brand, having an audience to launch to is particularly tricky to prepare for and on time.  This is the biggest downfall for most start-up brands because it is difficult to come up with content prior to having your physical product. Many start-up brands underestimate how long it takes for Google to crawl a new website, how long it takes to gain subscribers on your website as well as followers on social media.  This can result in a customer base heavily weighted on friends and family, which is not going to make your brand profitable.

You may have the most incredible product…

But if no one no knows about it…

Who is buying it?

We love to help our start-up and existing brands as much as we can to ensure their success beyond design and production, so we have created some Marketing Solutions as well as Website Development.