The textile and apparel industry can be a complex one. Developing a proper sourcing strategy is crucial to success.
The first step to forming a sourcing strategy is understanding your needs. This is important because it will help you determine the suitable suppliers and the best markets for your products.
Negotiate
If you are a textile or apparel company, you must have a strategy for negotiating with your suppliers. This will help you ensure that your business is safe and that you won’t be affected by any sudden changes in the market.
The first step in negotiating with your supplier is understanding their needs and requirements. Then you can make an informed decision on how to deal with them.
A good fabric sourcing process can help you get the best possible prices and deals from your suppliers. But you must also be aware that it can be challenging to negotiate with them, and you may only sometimes be able to get what you want.
You can use different approaches to negotiate with your suppliers, including a solo-supplier and many-supplier strategy. These strategies can vary greatly depending on your company’s needs.
Understand Your Needs
Before you can formulate the right sourcing strategy, you must first understand your needs. This will help you determine what goods and services are required for your business to operate effectively.
To achieve this, you must compile a list of the desired goods and services and categorize them by their significance to your business. This will enable you to identify which suppliers are best suited for the job.
Once you have identified the needed products and services, conduct market research to understand your target customers’ needs and expectations. This will enable you to release products that meet their requirements and reduce the risk of releasing goods that don’t sell well.
When choosing suppliers, ensure they can deliver quality garments at competitive prices and on time. It is also essential to evaluate their previous performance and their working pattern.
Conduct Market Research
The apparel and textile industry is one of the most labor-intensive industries in the world. Developing a well-formulated sourcing strategy is essential to ensure the best quality, price, and delivery time for all your products.
To achieve this, you must conduct market research to help identify suitable suppliers for your company. This can be done through primary market research or online surveys.
While conducting primary research is more time-consuming, it can provide unique data specific to your business and customers. It can also give you the insights you need to improve your marketing campaigns and strategies.
As an illustration, to grow your market share in China, you can research Chinese and find out how the country is performing in terms of production, prices, and consumer trends. This can help you decide whether or not to expand your presence in China.
Another strategy is to outsource parts of your supply chain, which can be especially useful in developing countries with low labor costs. While doing so can help you increase your profit margins and lower production costs, it also puts additional responsibility on your shoulders to manage logistics and import tariffs.
Evaluate Suppliers
When sourcing textiles and apparel, companies have to make sure they choose the best possible supplier. This can mean evaluating quality, price, and delivery time.
One of the best ways to evaluate suppliers is by checking their past performance and conducting a factory assessment. This will ensure they have the right equipment to produce your products and meet your production tolerances.
Another way to evaluate suppliers is using a data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach. This method uses a multi-criteria decision model to determine how efficiently your suppliers can perform.
This study aims to develop an integrated framework for supplier evaluation in the apparel industry by combining the techniques of data envelopment analysis (DEA), analytical hierarchy process (AHP), and order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS). It also proposes a method of ranking efficient suppliers based on their performance.
Hit The Market
Before you hit the market with your sourcing strategy, you must research and analyze your needs. This will enable you to formulate the right sourcing strategy for your company and ensure that you place your products in the best possible destination.
Sourcing in the textile and apparel industry is a complex process that requires understanding the market, a sound plan, and a good communication system. Moreover, you should develop an approach to measure and evaluate your suppliers’ performance.
Global sourcing is a critical component of the apparel industry. It coordinates business activities between design/product development, merchandising/marketing, and foreign apparel production and importing.
Traditionally, apparel companies have profited from moving their manufacturing to low-cost countries that offer cheap materials and labor. However, this has also led to various environmental and social issues that are now being addressed by the industry.
Fast fashion retailers are also embracing sustainability considerations by implementing multi-sourcing strategies. They also have been increasingly concerned about supply chain transparency and reducing their carbon footprint by shifting their raw material sourcing away from China to other Asian countries.