Working With Suppliers: Lead Times, Minimums, and Better Terms
Most shops take the terms they were given when they opened and never revisit them. Suppliers expect to be asked. What they respond to is not hard negotiation, it is predictability, so most of the work here is about how you order.
Know your real lead time
The quoted lead time is not your lead time. Yours runs from the moment someone notices you are low to the moment the box is on the shelf, which includes the days before the order was placed and the day it sat unopened in the back.
Time three recent orders end to end and use that number when setting par levels. Most shops find their real lead time is two to four days longer than they assumed.
Understand the two numbers on minimums
- Minimum order value: the smallest order the supplier will accept
- Free freight threshold: the value at which delivery stops costing you
They are rarely the same number. Ordering above the minimum but below the freight threshold is the most expensive way to buy. If the gap is wide, consolidate into fewer, larger orders instead of splitting across weeks.
Consolidate before you negotiate
A supplier can do more for a shop that sends one predictable order a week than for one that sends four scattered ones. Consolidating also gives you a clean order history, which is the only real leverage a small shop has.
Pull twelve months of purchases and total your spend per supplier. Bring that number to the conversation.
What to actually ask for
Roughly in the order shops get a yes:
- A lower free freight threshold, or a fixed delivery day
- Case pricing on your top five items, the ones you buy every month
- Payment terms such as net 15 or net 30, once you have a clean history
- A named contact instead of a general inbox
- First notice on backorders, so you can substitute before you are short
Ask for one or two, not all five.
Get the backorder and substitution policy in writing
Two questions matter when something is out of stock:
- Do you ship partial and complete later, or hold the whole order?
- Do you substitute automatically, and can we turn that off?
A held order nobody told you about is how shops run out. Ask before it happens.
Be the customer suppliers want
- Order on a schedule, not in bursts
- Pay on time, every time
- Send one contact, not five people emailing separately
- Report shortages and damage within a day, with photos
- Give notice before a spike such as a convention or a guest artist week
None of this is complicated, and all of it compounds. Shops that order predictably get better allocation when stock is tight, which is usually worth more than a small discount.
Review once a year
Put a yearly reminder on the calendar to compare pricing on your top items across suppliers and to revisit terms. Prices move, and terms that were fair two years ago may not be now.
