The International Trade Centre has held the first of three seminars on increasing sales efficiency, aimed at Moldovan SMEs in the apparel sector, organised in the framework of the EU- funded project ‘Eastern Partnership: Ready to Trade – an EU4Business initiative’.
The trainings have been developed following stakeholder consultations and a baseline assessment, and are organised with the Centre of Excellence and Acceleration in Design and Technologies “ZIPhouse”.
The first seminar was held on October 10-11 on the topic of ‘How to boost wholesale efficiency’, and was led by Natalia Chinenova from Fashion Consulting Group (Russia). The training sessions allowed the participants from a pilot pool of apparel companies to learn about:
- Wholesale efficiency (renting effectiveness, managers’ salary effectiveness, advertising effectiveness, logistics and storage effectiveness, correct calculation of wholesale sales level – forecasts and facts)
- Price assessment in wholesale (Initial mark-up, dealers’ discounts and bonuses, what is the product & credit policy of the company and why is it needed)
- Methods to increase wholesale sales (motivation of existing customers, attracting new customers, base of sleeping buyers, new distribution channels)
- Working with customers at the exhibition and in the show room (when participation in an exhibition is considered effective, how to attract new customers to your exhibition stand, what is an effective show room, how to choose the right wholesales strategy for each company, what is and how to develop a wholesale strategy, how to implement a wholesale strategy in a particular business).
The next two seminars will take place on October 25-26 and November 22-23 on the topics of “Improving retail sales efficiency” and “The basis of the assortment matrix and the principals of assortment management in a fashion company”, respectively.
Eastern Partnership: Ready to Trade - an EU4Business initiative helps small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to access new markets with a focus on the EU, helping SMEs identify and comply with quality and standards to meet international requirements, linking them with buyers along the value chain, and providing cluster support.