A clothing retail company relies on suppliers to bring in lots of products for it to sell. You’ve seen brands like ASOS be extremely successful in operating an online-only business model because they partner with so many clothing manufacturers. There’s a recipe for success in there somewhere – and it starts with your choice of partners.
If you need other companies to make clothes for your business to sell, you must ensure you’re partnering with the right people. Bad choices can be devastating for your brand, meaning you may struggle to recover.
What should retail companies look for when choosing clothing manufacturing partners? Keep an eye out for these five features above anything else:
Good Ethics & Sustainability
It’s never wise to partner with suppliers that have a history of bad ethics. You need to be confident that the clothes you’re selling a made under ethical working conditions. It also helps if you know the sustainability practices involved in the manufacturing process.
The ideal clothing supplier will have excellent working conditions, treat its employees fairly, and commit to reducing the environmental impact of manufacturing. If the opposite is true, your brand will inherit a poor image by partnering with a company that’s known for bad ethics and terrible sustainability. Thus, customers are less likely to buy from your store because they don’t like where the clothes came from.
High-Quality Manufacturing Methods
Quality is everything for your retail business. You want to provide customers with high-quality clothing items that will last for a long time. Otherwise, customer loyalty will take a huge hit. Why would people keep buying things from your store if they rip or the graphics fade after a few washes? They see it as a waste of money, so they take their money elsewhere.
You need assurances that the clothing manufacturer makes things of a very good quality. If possible, you could take a tour of their facilities to see how they make things. Keep an eye on the equipment they’re using – if they have things like Husqvarna Viking Sewing Machines, then you know they’re utilizing great equipment from well-known industry brands. But, if they’re using flimsy machines and everything looks cheap, the clothing quality will probably match.
Learn about the supplier’s methods and take a look at them if you can. The more you know about how the clothes are made, the more confidence you’ll have that they’re either high or low-quality items.
A Fabulous Reputation
Retail brands partner with the same manufacturers and suppliers all the time. We mentioned ASOS earlier, but other retail brands will use the same suppliers they do. It’s how the industry works, meaning certain suppliers earn good or bad reputations.
You can see where this is going! Pick partners with excellent reputations. This is visible via reviews or through word-of-mouth at industry events/conferences. Suppliers should also have testimonials on their websites – or at the very least a list of brands they’re partnered with. It’s worth contacting other brands and seeing what they think about this manufacturing partner.
When the consensus indicates that the manufacturer is good, you know they’re worth trusting. Especially when all feedback and reviews state their clothing is made exceptionally well and they were pleased with how it turned out. Try to steer clear of any clothing manufacturers with bad reputations – for whatever reason. It doesn’t matter why they’re shunned by the industry; it clearly means there’s a problem with the company and how it operates.
Brilliant Production Capabilities
As you review different manufacturing companies, ask yourself a straightforward question:
Can this company keep up with your production needs?
In layman’s terms, are they able to meet your demand with their supply? The perfect retail partner will constantly meet your needs to ensure your store is stocked up. As the products fly off the shelves, you can contact them and place a restock order. They manufacture everything you need and it gets shipped out before you run out of stock. Therefore, you’re never in the terrible situation of displaying “out of stock” on all of your items.
When retail stores are “out of stock” – especially online ones – it can lead to a dramatic loss of business. Customers will simply look to buy the same product, or something similar, from elsewhere. As such, you unintentionally drive them to your nearest rivals. All it takes is one positive experience at a rival retail business to make a customer loyal to them over you.
So, make sure the clothing company can meet your demands. If they aren’t capable of hitting your projected order numbers, they’re not worth partnering with.
Great Location or Excellent Logistics Flexibility
The location of your partner or their logistics flexibility ties in nicely with supply and demand. You can approach this in two ways. To begin, think about where your manufacturing partner is located. Are they in a prime location with great transportation routes and easy access from their facility to your stockroom? Ideally, you’d love to partner with someone in the same country as this reduces delivery times, lowering the overall cost of acquiring products.
Alternatively, you could partner with suppliers who have flexible logistics procedures. In essence, they’re able to dispatch products straight from their end to your customers. It eliminates the need to deliver to your location and then deliver to the customer, which reduces the logistics costs further. Then again, you have to think about their location – if they’re on the other side of the world, it’s probably not the most optimal place to cater to your customer base.
The perfect scenario is a clothes manufacturer as close to your business as possible that can ship directly to customers if required.
Use this guide to help filter the best suppliers from the rest. You need great clothing manufacturing partners to help your retail business thrive, so be sure they have these five hallmarks. It will mean you partner with a company that produces great products to sell to customers and helps you improve your business model.
