In the vast global sunglass industry, prominent designer brands represent the high-end luxury niche segment. Sunglass companies are able to secure selective and prestigious wholesale partnerships with top designer labels gain access to significant new revenue opportunities.
Nevertheless, the complex landscape of wholesaling sought-after designer sunglasses comes loaded with unique considerations around pricing, brand relationship building, product presentation protections, and more.
Understanding the Nuances of Designer Brand Pricing Models
The most immediate challenge sunglass wholesalers face when bringing luxury designer eyewear into their product portfolio is accommodating the premium pricing such brands command. Because of their coveted brand recognition and premium materials, designer sunglasses retail for 2 to 4 times higher than non-designer pairs.
As a wholesale partner, brands will expect your business to stomach higher wholesale acquisition costs in order to carry their labeled products. This gives you less margin flexibility compared to budget eyewear.
However, according to the folk over at Olympic Eyewear, it doesn’t hurt to pursue negotiations for additional volume discounts on bulk designer sunglasses. Reputable designers may be able to offer graduated wholesale pricing tiers based on total order volumes placed.
Maximizing your profit margin opportunity even within the premium pricing constraints can be achieved through sales programs incentivizing retailers to purchase designer stock in higher quantities.
Building Strong Mutually Beneficial Brand Relationships
Wholesaling designer sunglasses hinges greatly on creating strong, tightly aligned partnerships with the brands themselves founded on shared values. As protectors of their luxury image and reputation, designer brands generally operate highly selective and controlled distribution models.
When pitching a potential wholesale partnership, be prepared to clearly demonstrate how your operations and distribution align with the brand’s luxury sensibilities and images.
Provide confidence that you can uphold an aura of exclusivity. Wholesale relationships that facilitate success on both sides through respect and transparency drive the best designer deals.
Respecting Brand Merchandizing Guidelines
Once partnered with a designer brand, following prescribed merchandizing guidelines closely preserves the intended brand promise and experience.
Most high-end designers mandate intensive control over branded sunglass presentations and in-store displays provided to retailers.
Seek explicit guidance from brands and get necessary approvals before creating any co-branded marketing materials or promotions leveraging designer logos.
Cultivating Exclusivity Around Designer Brand Offerings
A primary factor driving consumer desire and willingness to pay premium prices for designer sunglasses is the sense of exclusivity attached to owning them.
As a wholesaler, avoid saturating the same regional markets by broadly distributing one designer’s products across dozens of same area retailers. This undermines the elite sense of access and prestige the brand wishes to maintain.
Designers may firmly limit the number of approved retailer accounts within certain geographical territories or product categories to protect brand image, so being highly selective and discerning with partner allocation is expected.
Manage sunglass model quantities and new release access to perpetuate the perception and reality of limited availability.
The most successful designer wholesale partnerships strategically cultivate and echo the aura of exclusivity perpetuated by the brand itself.
Protecting Designers from Diversion and Counterfeiting
Due to the extremely high profit potential, designer sunglasses constantly run elevated risks of unlawful diversion to unauthorized discount sellers and counterfeiting once the products move beyond direct brand control.
Only distribute designer sunglass products to verified authorized retailer accounts to help minimize potential gray market diversion. Be extremely vigilant in identifying and reporting suspected counterfeit imitation goods to designers to help protect both parties.
Conclusion
While taking on designer sunglass partnerships requires wholesalers to approach operations with far more care and consideration, the rewards of selling premium luxury eyewear can be significant and game changing for companies able to align processes to meet designer brand demands.
