A sales agency sells a brand’s collection to retailers on commission without buying the stock, so the brand keeps ownership, pricing, and the account relationship.
Oct 5, 2026
The difference from a distributor is ownership. An agency never purchases the goods: it writes orders in the brand’s name, the brand invoices the retailer directly, and the agency takes a percentage of what it sells, typically somewhere between 10 and 15 per cent.
That leaves the brand carrying the credit risk and the unsold stock, but it also leaves the brand in control of distribution, pricing, and the account list. For brands where who stocks them matters as much as how much sells, that is the whole point.
Agencies are usually multi-brand and territory-specific, running a showroom where buyers see several complementary collections in one appointment. The agency’s real asset is the appointment itself: a book of buyers who already come, and who trust the edit.
In practice the brand supplies a linesheet, samples, and a preline date, and the agency returns orders across a selling window. Brands get the most from agencies by making ordering easy, because an agent carrying six lines pushes the one that is least work to sell.
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