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Payment terms, for the most part, are set by the vendor, although some vendors, retailers say, should be more flexible. “Give us time to sell merchandise without constant demands of payment after 30 days,” a retailer says. “Sometimes we need a bit more time.”
Retailers report that due to the credit crunch and new bank policies, many vendors are much tighter about payment today than they used to be. “The banks have hunkered down on these guys,” one says. “Terms have changed and the banks are giving them 30 days to pay. We used to have months.”
Some retailers prefer to pay quickly and expect a discount to do so. Surprisingly, most retailers say that they do only “limited” memo or consignment and most also say that they don’t like it.
“We do memo but frankly the jewelry you get for memo isn’t something that we can sell. Sometimes we will take memo collections for two or three weeks but usually it’s not the latest collection or styles we would buy.”
RETURN ENGAGEMENT
Returns are the lifeblood of the retailer-vendor relationship, the issue that generated the most heat in our discussions. Most retailers definitely expect to return merchandise regularly as long as they reorder. “They should be taking back merchandise regularly to keep clean as we place orders,” one says. Another expects “to trade out old for new after a full season.”
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