How do I figure out my vendors' real lead times before market?
Subtract the order created date from the fulfilled date in your Shopify orders or email PO confirmations to get actual days per vendor, then average them.
“A vendor saying oh we ship in two weeks — that is marketing, not a delivery guarantee.”
Vendor lead times are one of the most important buying decisions you make at market, but vendors consistently understate them. The fix is to calculate real lead times from your own order history instead of trusting booth promises.
If you place wholesale orders through Shopify, export all orders and subtract the created date from the fulfilled date for each one. Build a pivot table with vendor name as the row and average lead time as the value. If you order through vendor portals, paper forms, or phone reps, search your email for PO confirmations and match them against when shipments actually arrived. Even rough averages are more reliable than marketing promises.
Once you have averages, tier your vendors: gold for under 14 days, standard for 14 to 28, and pre-season only for over 28 days. Print this sheet and bring it to market. A vendor in the pre-season tier at a late-May show means summer product arriving in late July — when your customer has mentally moved on to fall.
Listen to the full episode: Episode 22: How to Prep Your Summer Market Order With Data Instead of Gut Instinct (The 4-Hour Pre-Trip Audit)
More answers from this episode
- How do I replace Shopify's removed benchmark comparison feature?
- How do I set up Shopify Flow to alert me when bestsellers are running low?
- How do I stop impulse buying at trade shows and stick to my plan?
- How do I use AI tools like ChatGPT to speed up my pre-market inventory audit?
- How do I use my top-ten bestsellers to make better buying decisions at market?
- How should I split my open-to-buy budget for market?
Source: BoutiquePulse podcast. Last updated: 2026-05-26 · Sourcing & methodology · Corrections log