GENERAL FAQS

  • A database of named wholesale buyers at fashion retailers worldwide - who they are, what they buy, where they are, and when they are open to being approached. We have been building it by hand since 2019.

  • Years of agency, showroom and trade show work. Relationships, not scraping. Every retailer is researched and reviewed by a person before it enters the database.

  • An editor goes through the store’s own website and social accounts, builds a profile of what the business actually stocks, and where necessary writes to the retailer to confirm who handles line sheets. It is slow, and it is the reason the lists exist.

  • The full database is reviewed every six months. Between reviews, around one in ten contacts will change - buyers move, stores close, remits shift. We would rather tell you that before you buy than have you discover it in March. The pricing reflects it.

  • Fourteen data points: store name, country, region, buyer or contact name, direct email, buying categories, store type, retail positioning, buying power, intelligence tier, recommended outreach approach, best outreach window for autumn-winter, best outreach window for spring-summer, and the trade shows that buyer type attends.

  • ICON - flagship department stores and luxury platforms. These warrant a market appointment and a tailored approach.
    STRATEGIC - concept stores and strong independents. They respond to a direct, well-targeted email with good imagery.
    CURATED - selective accounts built across seasons rather than closed in a week.

    The tier is there so you know which fifteen emails to write properly instead of sending two hundred identical ones.

  • Direct buyer addresses wherever they exist. Where a store genuinely operates a single buying inbox - and some of the best independents do - that is what we supply, and the contact field says so. We do not dress up an info@ as a named buyer.

  • The global lists span the major wholesale markets. Regional lists cover Europe, the Americas, Asia-Pacific and the Middle East. If you need specific countries, write to us and we will tell you what we hold.

BUYING AND DELIVERY

  • Choose your list, add it to the cart, and complete checkout. The file downloads immediately and the link also arrives by email.

  • Straight away. There is no waiting period and nothing to approve.

  • A formatted Excel file, sorted by tier so the highest-priority accounts are at the top. Filter it, sort it, work it. PDF on request.

  • If you sell across more than one region, the global list in your category is better value - the regional cuts are priced so that buying all of them costs roughly the same as the global. If you are opening one market, buy that market.

  • Tell us what you make, your wholesale price point and where you want to be stocked, and we will point you to the right one. If none of them fits, we will say so rather than sell you the nearest thing.

  • Major cards through Stripe, plus digital wallets and buy-now-pay-later. If card payment is difficult from where you are, we can arrange a Wise transfer in your local currency.

  • Yes. Your order confirmation serves as a receipt, and we can send a full invoice on request - write to info@thefashionlists.com with your order number and company details.

  • The file is delivered the moment you pay, so sales are final once you have it. If something is genuinely wrong - a broken file, or data that does not match what the page described - write to us within fourteen days and we will put it right.

LICENSE AND USE

  • No. You buy the list once and hold the licence for one year of unlimited use by your business, with one updated version included in that year. You are not paying rent on relationships you built yourself.

  • Yes, within the business that bought it. The licence does not extend to clients, members, agencies or any third party.

  • Not under the standard licence. If you are an agency, showroom or consultant buying on behalf of brands, write to us and we will arrange appropriate terms.

  • Yes. We review orders, and we reserve the right to refund an order and withdraw access where the purchaser operates a competing database, directory or membership product. The lists took seven years to build and we intend to keep them ours.

  • Start with the accounts closest to what you already do, not the ones you dream about. Lead with images. Know your wholesale price, your minimums and your delivery dates before you write. Send in the window the list gives you, not when it occurs to you. Follow up once, then again next season.

  • It depends entirely on fit, price point and how you present the collection - and we will not pretend otherwise. Some buyers reply in a day. Some reply eighteen months later when the right season comes round. What we can tell you is that the name is real, the remit is correct, and the month is right. The rest is your work.

  • Use the outreach windows in the list rather than your own calendar. Autumn-winter is largely bought in January; a brand writing in March has missed it by two months and usually concludes the collection was the problem. Spring-summer runs on its own schedule, and resort, bridal and swim all sit earlier than people expect.

    Every row carries both windows for that buyer. It is the column most people skip and the one that changes the most.

  • No, and not only for the obvious reason. A few hundred cold emails sent in one morning from a domain that has never sent volume will land in spam, and you will conclude nobody is interested when in fact nobody received it.

    Send in batches of twenty to thirty over several days, write each one as though it is going to one person, and start with the accounts closest to what you already stock. If an address bounces, tell us - we will check it and replace it.