Apparel sourcing is becoming more challenging each day. Can digitization make the processes simpler or not? Check out this presentation on the future of apparel sourcing to know the answer.

1. What is the future of Apparel
Sourcing?

2. Introduction
• Apparel sourcing decisions can make or break an apparel business. Balancing
cost, capacity, and compliance, while maintaining navigation volatility, is not an
easy task. Apparel businesses run in a fast-changing and highly demanding
environment. Apparel sourcing in such a scenario can become the key to
survival.
• Right apparel sourcing decisions offer greater process efficiencies and flexibility
along the complete supply chain.
• Today, apparel buyers are shifting their focus towards lower-cost offering
countries, where alongside, some traditional low-cost countries are also losing
their sheen. But the cost is not the only factor. Agility, proximity sourcing, and
re-shoring are also the factors that have come into play.

3. Factors Affecting Apparel Sourcing
• Trade policies and politics: Trade policies are one of the major contributors to the product cost.
Trade politics, and thus the resulting trade policies are one of the key determinants of the decisions
relating to the choice of suppliers. This is especially valid in the global sourcing scenario of the
apparel industry.
• Changing market environment: Price fluctuations, changing requirements with different market
segments, market-specific security and customs compliance, customer value and consolidation,
and the ethical values pertaining to the markets all define the choice of supplier countries.
• Supply chain management: Lean retailing, advances in IT and multi-channel sales are forcing buyers
to look for ways to optimize sourcing aligned to their supply chain management strategies.
Dynamics of strategic sourcing function, like supply chain optimization, reduction of lead time to
market, total cost focus, the cost to vendors, push functions and reduction in the vendor base and
span of control, also factor into the sourcing decisions.

4. How Sourcing Decisions Affect Businesses
• Costs are increasing steadily, compliance is gaining more importance and awareness,
compliance laws are tightening due to multiple unfortunate incidents apparel industry
has seen recently, and buyers are continuously looking for new markets.
• These factors have made apparel sourcing much more complex. With an increasing
demand for transparency in the supply chain and growth of multi-channel markets, the
impact of apparel sourcing decisions has much wider span now.
• There are multiple layers in choosing the right suppliers. Sourcing decisions not only
affect the cost and profits a business gets, but also the product’s quality, order lead
times, supply chain responsiveness, sales volume and the value system of the company.
Good sourcing decisions also lead to long-term supplier relationships which further add
many advantages to the list.

5. Sourcing Destinations in Apparel Manufacturing
• To engage more with their suppliers, apparel
companies are not only working on improving
productivity but also on compliance. For instance,
more than 150 companies from 20 different countries
have signed the Bangladesh Accord on Fire and
Building Safety.
• Hence, gradually apparel buyers are working towards
developing industry standards that ensure
transparency and compliance. This is making
compliance a top criterion, along with costs, capacity
and supplier’s proximity to US and European markets
in the evaluation of sourcing markets.

6. The Future of Apparel Sourcing
• Balancing cost and compliance with the other factors, and managing the rise in globalization
in apparel market are making sourcing much more complex than it already is. To add to this,
multiple retail channels and greater visibility demand more from sourcing managers than
ever before.
• Digitization is a factor that can take sourcing into the desired directions, but along with that
the way business is done has to be changed. Sourcing professionals and merchandisers need
to develop new skills aligned to the changing requirements of the industry.
• The future of apparel sourcing lies in instilling new skill set amongst sourcing professionals,
who possess product knowledge, business acumen, consumer-centric focus, Omni-channel
perspective and design and engineering capabilities. Empowerment of sourcing staff in
companies, meaningful professional development opportunities, opportunities of cross-
pollination among functional departments and better talent management can help in the
development of a talent pool like that.

7. For more insight on this topic, visit
http://stitchdiary.com/future-apparel-sourcing/
Or
You can also visit the Stitch Diary YouTube channel for more information
on topics regarding the garment industry.