How to Buy Clothes Wholesale for Your Shop in India

The most common mistake new retailers make is buying what looks good in a supplier's catalogue instead of what sells in their own area. Before you place a wholesale order, write down the five or six products your customers ask for most — everyday cotton kurtis, party-wear dresses for girls, men's t-shirts, printed bedsheets — and the price your customers expect to pay for each.

That retail price is your starting point. Work backwards from it: if a kurti sells for ₹599 in your shop and you want a 40–50% gross margin after GST and freight, you need a landed wholesale cost of roughly ₹300–₹350. Any listing above that band is a poor fit, however good it looks.

A first order should cover a narrow range in enough sizes and colours to fill a rail, not one piece of everything. Buyers walk out when their size is missing. For most apparel that means:

• 3–5 designs per category rather than 20.
• A full size run (S to XXL, or the age range for kids wear) for each design.
• Two or three colours of your best design, since a proven style in a new colour sells faster than a new style.
• One or two slower 'statement' pieces to make the display look fuller.

The minimum order quantity (MOQ) is the smallest quantity a supplier will sell of a listing. On wholesale apparel it is often expressed in sets: one set contains one piece of each size, so a 'set of 4' kurti listing in M, L, XL and XXL means four pieces, one per size.

Sets protect suppliers from being left with only the hard-to-sell sizes, and they help you too: you always get a complete size curve. When you compare prices, divide the set price by the pieces in the set so you compare like for like.

Read more in our guide to what MOQ means in wholesale buying.

In wholesale, the supplier's reliability matters as much as the price. At minimum, confirm the business has a valid GSTIN that matches its trading name and state, that it can raise a proper tax invoice, and that it has a clear returns policy for damaged or wrong goods.

On ForWholesaler every supplier is checked against GST and business registration records before they can list, and each listing shows whether it comes with a GST invoice.

Doing this yourself? Follow our supplier verification checklist.

The listed price is not what a piece costs you. Add GST (claimable as input tax credit if you are registered and get a valid invoice), shipping to your shop, and an allowance for the occasional damaged piece. Divide the total by the number of sellable pieces — that is your landed cost, and it is the number to compare against your retail price.

Avoid paying the full amount upfront by bank transfer to a supplier you have never bought from. Prefer platforms where your payment is held until delivery, or cash on delivery with a small advance. On ForWholesaler you can pay online at checkout or choose cash on delivery with a 20% advance, and escrow-backed orders hold the payment until the release conditions shown on the order are met.

Check every parcel on arrival: count the pieces against the invoice, check sizes and colours, and photograph anything damaged straight away — returns are decided on that evidence. After two or three weeks, look at what sold through and reorder those designs first. Repeat orders on proven products are where a shop's margin really comes from.

Ready to start? Browse wholesale categories.

• What Is MOQ in Wholesale? Minimum Order Quantity Explained
• How to Verify a Wholesale Supplier in India: GST & Trust Checklist