Order Processing and Despatch Cycle

This is a flow chart of how party plan works.

People totally underestimate the high impact of party plan!  At one point when I had my own label Retro we had 150 sales agents UK wide and we planned commissions and house parties.  We turned over at its peak £36,000 a week and had very few  returns as we were selling in peoples houses!  The customer would try on the garment there and then and buy it – what a dream situation.

So how does party plan work? Well, this form attempts to show how the systems of payments and commissions work.

The organiser is the seller.  She organises a party at a friends house. This friend is called the Host. The Host invites her friends to her house one evening and provides drinks and nibbles.  The host will recieve 10% of the night takings for her time and trouble. The host organises the payment and sends the information on to the regional bureau.  This is normally one person working from home but the regional bureau coordinates the orders for the region that the host is in.

When we had Retro we broke the UK up into 13 regions.  So we had 13 Regional Bureaus and then we had the sales force underneath the Regional Bureau.  its far easier to talk and discuss business wtih 13 people than 150! The Bureau is responsible for sending on the total orders for the region to the Distribution Centre.

There has to be a fabulous Distribution Centre – now called a Fulfillment Centre.  All your garments need to be prepacked and prepared ready for despatch.

There are then links to the Head Office and there has to be an open link of communication too because its all about people at the end of the day! We all want happy content people!

Click here to download the Order Processing and Despatch Cycle