A buyer asks for a sample before placing an order, and the unit makes one. It is cut, sewn,
pressed and couriered, and it is not on any costing sheet, because it is never sold. Its cost
is real all the same. Whether it is a good spend depends on a number most units have never
worked out: how many samples it takes to win an order.
What one sample costs
A sample is dearer than the same garment made on the line, because it is made alone. There is
no marker shared with other garments, no run to spread the work over, and a person working
slowly and carefully rather than at line speed. The cost is the sum of five things:
- Fabric. One garment cut by itself, with its own wastage.
- Trims. The few pieces it needs, bought at whatever pack size you buy.
- Cutting. Cut by hand or in a short lay, which costs far more per garment
than a deep lay (see the
cutting cost article).
- Making. The sample maker's time, longer than the standard.
- Sending it. Courier and packing.
A worked example
These figures are made up to show the sum. They are not a benchmark and not a claim about any
unit or any buyer. The garment is the one in the
costing example, the fabric is the
₹250 a metre from the
fabric consumption article, and the
stitching rate is the ₹6.67 a minute of the
rejects and rework article.
- Fabric: 1.70 m, since one garment is cut alone and takes its whole
piece length, plus 8% wastage = 1.836 m, at ₹250: ₹459.00.
- Trims: an assumed ₹10.
- Cutting: 15 minutes by hand at the ₹10 a minute of the cutting
article: ₹150.
- Making: assume the sample takes three times the 18-minute standard, 54
minutes, at ₹6.67: ₹360.
- Courier and packing: an assumed ₹250.
One sample: ₹459 + ₹10 + ₹150 + ₹360 + ₹250 =
₹1,229. That is 1.7 times the ₹738.30 total cost of the same
garment made on the line.
How many garments earn it back
The profit on a production garment in the costing example is ₹258.41. A sample of
₹1,229 is recovered after 1,229 ÷ 258.41 = 4.8 garments. If the
buyer wants two rounds of samples before approving, it is ₹2,458, or
9.5 garments.
The sample that does not turn into an order
Not every sample leads to an order. The honest cost of a won order includes the samples sent
to buyers who did not place one. If you win one order for every four samples sent:
- Every sample wins (1 in 1): ₹1,229 per order, 4.8 garments.
- 1 in 2: ₹2,458 per order, 9.5 garments.
- 1 in 4: ₹4,916 per order, 19.0 garments.
- 1 in 5: ₹6,145 per order, 23.8 garments.
On an order of 50 garments, the profit is 50 × ₹258.41 = ₹12,920. At 1 in 4,
the sampling that won it cost ₹4,916 — 38% of that profit. On
an order of 200, profit is ₹51,682 and the same sampling is 9.5% of it.
The small order was barely worth winning; the large one was.
Count your own 1 in N
Write down every sample sent and every order it led to, for a quarter. The ratio is the most
useful number a sampling room can have, and nobody keeps it.
Who should pay
- The buyer, with the fee refunded on an order. It filters out buyers who
are only collecting samples, and it costs the serious buyer nothing in the end.
- You, for a buyer you want. Then at least know the figure: it is a
marketing cost of ₹1,229 times the number you send.
- Neither, and a smaller sample. A swatch or a part-made piece can answer
a question a full garment would, at a fraction of the cost.
What the sums leave out
- Made-up costs. The 3× making time, the cutting minutes, the trims
and the courier are assumptions. Use your own.
- Pattern work. The one-off pattern cost, in the
minimum order article, is paid
whether or not the sample wins the order, and is not counted here.
- Sample rounds that change the style. A buyer who asks for a fourth change
is a cost no ratio of 1 in N will show.
- The sample as a sale. Some buyers buy the sample. If yours do, that
income comes off the cost.
Put the cost of a sample against the order it is meant to win before you start, and the
costing calculator will give the profit on the garment you are
sampling.