As the internet grows in importance, the balance of power is shifting between fashion buyers and their suppliers. 

The relationship between the buyer and supplier has never been more complex than it is today. Buyer needs products quickly; they need suppliers to respond to trends and deliver them even faster. Conversely, the internet has also put more power into the hands of the suppliers, enabling them to reach consumers directly. The rise of the internet means the buyer “is no longer king.” It also means that suppliers no longer ‘need’ the retailers to get their products to market. That relationship has evolved. 

The buyers have to adapt and ask themselves what they want from that relationship.

Nevertheless, good supplier-buyer relationships are more important than ever before and careful selection of suppliers and trusting them to do their job will help brands and retailers achieve the “holy grail of speed, flexibility, and price” – fundamental for business success in the apparel industry today.

Managing apparel supplier relationships can be complicated and sometimes, overly formal. Both parties want what is best for their business and want to maximize their time, money, and resources which can put pressure on the relationship if it is not managed carefully. 

It is important to understand that if you want to remain competitive in retail, successful supplier relationships are necessary and will lead to a thriving business. Moreover, taking the time to nurture your relationships with important suppliers, may induce favorable prices, improved availability, generous terms and you may even benefit from the occasional buyback. 

This requires Strategic Sourcing.

Strategic sourcing in the textile and apparel industry has received increasing attention over the last decade due to two important developments.  First, textile and apparel firms have increasingly been competing in a dynamic and complex world marketplace, considering continual changes and uncertainties in product availability, prices, and competition.  Second, the prominence of effectively managing the global textile and apparel supply chain has increased. Business managers are thinking of new strategies and implementing new practices to increase firm performance. The nature of the textile and apparel industry and the increased pressures from fickle consumers and uncertain business environment are making more and more firms recognize the strategic role that sourcing can play in achieving sustainable competitive advantage. In sourcing, to manage suppliers as assets and integrate suppliers into the supply chain, buying firms need to make considerable effort to develop a beneficial buyer‐supplier relationship.  Buying firms attempt to interact closely with their key supply partners to manage environmental uncertainties. The development of relationship‐specific capabilities can lead to collaborative advantages for both supplier and buyer firms in the dynamic marketplace. After long innings in the trade, one can safely outline five ways to get the most out of buyer-supplier relationships and the burning issue on every buyer’s lips:  How to improve lead times and efficiency

#1: Faster time to market

This is definitely top of mind, and it starts at the very beginning of the process. From trend prediction, design, and fabric selection, through the fitting, sealing, and production, even getting the product to store and uploading images to websites, everything needs to be as efficient as possible. 

Working more closely with the supplier base is an important consideration in speed improvement. 

• Make inspirational trips with your supplier so that new designs and ideas can immediately be put into work. 
• If you have fabrics and trims on the floor, you can essentially start the season by trialing and scaling up those options as the season goes on. 
• Include suppliers in your weekly and monthly design meetings so that you can discuss how your range is developing and ways to make the range stronger. Collaboration is key. 
• Suppliers can also self-seal. These options are becoming standard. If suppliers are self-sealing, you can shave two weeks off your lead time, again giving you that speed that is critical to get to market.
• Few brands allow a supplier to deliver directly to the store, which enables them to get those quick reactions and then scale them quickly for that market, which satisfied the customer and made us more profitable.

#2: Real-time reactions

We are a little bit fickle in the fashion industry; we change our minds, fast. Today it might all be about midi-dresses and trainers, tomorrow it might be about tonal dressing. Who knows what the new color might be this season? We need to be able to change our minds. We need that flexibility and that is hard when you are trying to marry that with being faster and more price competitive. It is about finding a balance, which is why planning and capacity planning is important. Having those yarns and those fabrics on the floor to trade into – and even blank garments to react quickly to trends – is very much the way to go for the retailer. 

We can book capacity up to a year in advance. We all know the mix that we want from fashion to the basic products within our ranges thanks to the sales data we collect daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly. But how often do we share that with our supplier base? When we do share that information, it gives us the option to buy more products and also, flexibility. So, if we were to plan the capacity in advance and therefore get the blocks ready in advance, we can then color our plates to a season after receiving information from the catwalk.

Using spectral color data we can reduce the lead time further with our suppliers by getting them to self-approve. We are not sending lab dips around the world wasting two-to-three weeks doing so. We have to trust that supplier to get it right. Often spectral data is more efficient than the human eye. 

You have blank garments on the floor that enable you to trade quickly into slogans or react to something topical in the media giving your brand more personality and credibility in the market. 

My customer did try this on denim jeans, and it worked very successfully. We had the blank denim jeans on which we were able to then do the slashes, finishes, and washes and turn them around in two weeks and get them to store – incredible, given this is usually a long lead-time area.

#3: Plan ahead

With the fabrics on the floor, you can try those emerging trends quickly by seeing good-performing styles and getting them into stock faster for the customer. To improve your hit rate, you need to do the research, know the trends, spot new opportunities, get to know your customer, run customer events, focus on his/her interests, as well as be focused on your product. Listen to your customer, their needs, their insecurities, what they are looking for, and determine how you can tap into those emotions to improve your sales. Trial the trend and scale winning styles more quickly. 

Always remember, a trusted supplier, fabrics, and trims on the floor, and making sure your relationships are good enough to be able to trade into those fabrics and trims more quickly, are essential to this process. Make sure your supplier has those relationships with their mills and trim suppliers. 

Focus on fewer suppliers that have a meaningful role in your business. Focus on key fabrications to ensure numerous styles can be made from one fabric to make you more agile. This will also help with relationships with mills and suppliers and give you a price advantage.”

#4: Live and let live.

As well as flexibility and speed, price matters – to the supplier, the buyer, and the customer too. Consumers are becoming savvier when it comes to purchasing decisions. It is less important that something is cheap but more important that it is of great quality, that they can identify well with the brand, and it has been sourced sustainably. The final price relies on several ingredients and requires both the buyer and supplier to be experts in their areas. A supplier needs to focus on approving, fitting, and producing efficiently. The retailer must focus on range building, styling, marketing, and customer experience. The common goal is the customer. Ultimately, this comes down to trust, so it is important to build those relationships with your key suppliers, so your business is their business, and both are respectful of the other's expertise.”

#5: Know your customer.

While many buyers rely on trend sites, catwalk shows, street trends, and social media, the real research needs to be closer to home. The best way to do so is by sitting in fitting rooms and overhearing conversations about a product and watching how people coordinate garments and style them delivers a far more compelling lesson. It is as important for suppliers to understand your customer as it is for you. Once they understand your market, they become more integral to your business. Do the trips together, collaborate through design and sourcing processes, research together, and spend time doing customer events and groups. Involving them in every step of your process is definitely the way forward. 

If you let your suppliers work closely with you, they will give you endless opportunities, endless options to try. 

It is when we do not have any plan at all that we lose flexibility.

RELATED TOPICS:#Apparel,Sanjay Lal