An impending international requirement that shippers verify the weight of their goods before transport will sharply raise shipping costs on major trade lanes and trigger delays in moving cargo through ports, according to a new report.

A nascent trend of clothing start-ups bringing business back to American factories in under way. Over the past two decades, there was a 90 percent decline in apparel manufacturing industry in the U.S., from 940,000 jobs in 1990 to 136,000 in 2015. This has been in part due to the Trans-Pacific Partnerships, which provide incentives such as lower tariffs for companies that want to produce clothes overseas - though the merits of free trade have been hotly contested in this election cycle.

Shoppers are expected to spend roughly $17.3bn on Easter goods this year, a record amount according to the National Retail Federation's annual Easter Spending Survey conducted by Prosper Insights and Analytics.

Zady's supply chain is markedly different from those of most apparel companies today. Here's how the company is working to slow the pace of a business that has become obsessed with speed, often at the expense of factory workers and the environment.

Analyst Insight: For online customers, the buy button is easy; everything behind that is complex. Eighty percent of omnichannel strategy is about inventory strategy. It comes down to making intelligent inventory allocation decisions across the network and building an infrastructure flexible enough to quickly realign inventory to meet customers where they want. The key to omnichannel success is offering the customer multiple options and incentivizing the profitable flows. - Jason Denmon, Apparel Industry Leader, Fortna Inc.

Analyst Insight: The retail apparel market continues to lead the charge when it comes to deploying innovative technologies like RFID that allow for much higher inventory accuracy levels and can pave the way for omnichannel retail strategies. Both Inditex and H&M have made strong commitments to RFID technology, following in the footsteps of Macy's, long considered the leader when it comes to RFID and apparel. According to industry estimates, nearly 4 billion apparel items were tagged with RFID in 2015. - John Johnson, Senior Content Specialist, Gartner Supply Chain

The outsourcing of logistics is supposed to save businesses big money. They pay only for the services they need; they turn over complex operations to a pro, and they get expensive assets off their books. It all makes eminent sense - unless your name is Amazon.com Inc.

Challenged by fast fashion, prompted by speed to market and buoyed by thoughts of small runs/low inventory levels, reshoring or the return of manufacturing for a company and its brands to its country of origin (COO) has sparked continuing interest in the best strategies for market entry and what it takes to succeed once you are there.

NGC Software has added a Management Consulting Services practice for the apparel industry.