Wholesale replenishment: selling during the season, on the retailer’s actual sales

Five weeks after delivery, a boutique has sold 15 of the 24 shirts it received. It has 9 left and sells 3 a week: in three weeks, the rail will be empty. If the brand waits for the buyer to call, the reorder will arrive after the stock-out, and the shopper looking for her size will have gone elsewhere.

Pre-orders are decided months before the season, on samples and forecasts. Reorders happen during the season, once in-store sales show what is really selling. For a brand, it is often the safest sale: the customer already knows the products, the decision is quick, and every piece reordered has already proven that it sells. It still has to be organised: knowing what to offer, to whom, from which stock, with what lead time and on what terms.

Why wholesale replenishment matters more today

Figures from the Institut français de la mode (IFM) describe retailers under pressure. In 2023, independent multi-brand stores in France saw their sales fall by 18.7% compared with 2019, against 5.6% for the fashion market as a whole (IFM observatory, reported by FashionNetwork in February 2024). Over the first nine months of 2025, the French fashion market was still down 1.3% year on year, and the 100 brands and retailers in the IFM panel recorded an average 1.6% drop in sales volumes (LSA, November 2025).

A store in this position tends to commit less at pre-order and keep part of its budget, its open-to-buy, for the season. For the brand, replenishment stops being an add-on. It is a share of the season that is won, or lost, week after week.

Reorder or pre-order: what is the difference?

The first order, or pre-order, commits the retailer to a selection built at a trade show or in a showroom, often six months before the products reach the shop floor. The brand then produces according to the total of orders received during the selling campaign. The wholesale campaign calendar sets this rhythm.

A reorder, on the other hand, is an additional order placed during the season to replace what has sold. Quantities are smaller, lead times shorter, and it covers styles already in the store or a few new arrivals available from stock.

NOS programmes: a stock commitment in exchange for steady revenue

Some styles do not follow the rhythm of the collections: a basic, a best-seller carried over, a signature colourway. These programmes, known as NOS (never out of stock) or permanent lines, are meant to be available all year round. The wholesale glossary lists them alongside the other terms of B2B selling.

They require a commitment from the brand: holding stock, or keeping production lead times short, so it can deliver at any time. In return, the retailer gets a reliable core range that does not have to be bought in full every season, and the brand gets steady revenue between two selling campaigns.

Collection pieces, by contrast, are replenished as long as stock remains, with no promise beyond that. Tell the customer clearly which category each style belongs to. That is what lets them build their assortment without unpleasant surprises.

Should the reorder minimum be lower than the opening minimum?

A reorder costs less to process than opening an account: the customer is known, their terms are set, their selection already exists. Demanding the same threshold as for the opening order pushes the retailer to wait, then to give up.

Many brands therefore set a lower reorder minimum, for example half the opening minimum, or simply a number of pieces. The calculation method is the same as for the wholesale minimum order: start from the real cost of processing an order, then check that the threshold matches a realistic reorder for a small boutique.

On-demand, brand-proposed or automatic replenishment

Three approaches coexist, often within the same brand:

• On demand: the retailer reorders when they decide to. It is simple, but they often react too late, once the stock-out is visible on the shop floor.
• Proposed by the brand: the sales rep tracks the customer’s sales and sends them a costed proposal. This is the most effective approach for collection pieces.
• Automatic: fixed quantities on fixed dates, or topping up to an agreed stock level, based on the sales the retailer shares. It suits NOS programmes and requires reliable data exchange.

How to calculate the reorder quantity

A good reorder is not guesswork. It is calculated from three figures: the retailer’s sales, its remaining stock and the delivery lead time. The sell-through rate, the share of the pieces received that have already sold, shows what is moving. The weekly rate of sale shows how many pieces are needed to last until the next delivery, and beyond.

Back to the boutique’s shirt:

1. It received 24 pieces and sold 15 in 5 weeks: a sell-through of 62.5% and a rate of 3 pieces a week.
2. With a delivery lead time of 3 weeks and a target cover of 4 weeks after receipt, it needs 3 × (3 + 4) = 21 pieces over the period.
3. It has 24 − 15 = 9 pieces left, so the proposed reorder is 21 − 9 = 12 pieces.
4. These 12 pieces are split according to the sizes that actually sold, not the size curve of the opening order: the sizes that run out are not always the ones you expected.

The calculation also tells you when to order. At 3 pieces a week, the 9 remaining pieces cover exactly 3 weeks, which is the delivery lead time. Every week of delay in the decision is a week without the style on the rail.

Getting the retailer’s sales on fixed dates

The brand does not always have these figures. The safest approach is to ask for them at fixed points: four weeks after delivery, then mid-season. In a study carried out in 2017 for the French women’s ready-to-wear federation and reported by FashionNetwork, the consultancy Roland Berger advised brands to organise the handling of unsold wholesale stock during the season, based on feedback from the field. Tracking sales therefore pays off twice: you offer reorders on what is selling, and you spot a style that is not selling in time.

Available stock or new production: knowing where the pieces will come from

Before offering a reorder, the brand needs to know where the pieces will come from. Available stock ships quickly, but it is limited and shared among all retailers: first come, first served. A small top-up production run is possible for a best-seller or a NOS programme, provided manufacturing lead times and the factory minimum allow it.

Some brands deliberately keep a small production reserve for their best customers’ reorders. Either way, never promise a piece that exists neither in stock nor in scheduled production: a stock-out announced after the fact costs more than a refusal.

Reorder lead times: what the buyer needs to know before ordering

A reorder is meant to fill the shop floor while the season is in full swing. Delivered too late, it lands during the sales and eats into the retailer’s margin. As early as 2018, the German fashion retail federation (BTE) urged retailers to align delivery dates more closely with their customers’ actual needs (FashionUnited, January 2018). Replenishment meets exactly that expectation, provided it arrives on time.

So when the order is placed, state what is in stock, what has to be produced and the estimated delivery date of each line. Finally, write your reorder terms (minimum, lead times, carriage-paid threshold) into your general terms of sale: in France, once established, they form the sole basis of commercial negotiation (Article L441-1 of the French Commercial Code). Payment terms belong there too, as explained in the article on deposits and payment terms in wholesale.

The most common mistakes

1. Waiting for the retailer to call, when their sales had been signalling the stock-out for weeks.
2. Replenishing according to the original size curve instead of actual sales.
3. Applying the same minimum to reorders as to the opening order.
4. Promising a piece without checking available stock or production lead time.
5. Delivering an in-season reorder just as the sales begin.

Organising replenishment: what to tackle first

Start by classifying each style as NOS or collection, and tell your customers: everything else depends on it. Then set a reorder minimum separate from the opening minimum and write it into your terms of sale, together with lead times and the carriage-paid threshold. Schedule the two sales check-ins in the sales calendar, at four weeks and then mid-season, and turn each one into a costed proposal, size by size. Keep automatic replenishment for NOS lines. And before every proposal, check stock and the delivery date: better to drop a reorder that would arrive during the sales.