Best Practices
The following 10 Best Practices are suggestions from frequent Calico Users. Use these tips to accelerate product time to market and create fruitful interactions with suppliers.
Provide measurements for your product. Suppliers will need specific measurements in order to provide a meaningful quote. Submitting a Development project without measurements will typically result in delays to getting quotes from suppliers as well as potential inaccuracies with costs.
Include a target price in your BOM. Even if it is a guess, it is better to provide a target price than to leave this section blank as it signals to suppliers that you are committed to the process and negotiation can occur.
Check for Supplier messages frequently. After starting the Sampling process, it is a best practice to log into the Calico and check frequently for responses. Often times, suppliers are many time zones ahead and will respond at unexpected hours but every time a response is not acknowledged, there will be a delay in moving ahead.
Upload clear pictures of product: front, back, side and close ups of any important features.
Annotate pictures with as much detail as possible to avoid any ambiguity or missed details.
Upload pictures of your logo and any branding/packaging needed for your product. When uploading make sure to add both JPEG and Illustrator/photoshop files. Include measurements for the logo files. Provide as much as information as possible.
If requesting a specific finish or trim, provide reference pictures to facilitate sourcing.
Include inspiration pictures of the product. In the techpack, use images to provide product references to the suppliers. Pictures of patterns, fabric, product details (collars, sleeves, etc). are helpful in creating a full picture of what you are trying to create.
When submitting a Development project, ask suppliers for feedback or alternatives for your project. Here are some examples:
Can you quote me in an alternate material?
Are there any changes I could make to save cost?
Are there any construction changes you would recommend?
Do you have any examples of [process / fabric / recommendation] ?
Could you send me a physical reference or a reference photo?
It often helps to have a physical sample on hand, especially when we really want to recreate something we've seen before. It's usually most effective to photograph and annotate on it clearly, and even offer to send samples to the supplier early in the process.
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