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.
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.
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.
National Retail Federation executives returning from a visit to Bangladesh said a report issued by the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety reflects improvements in garment worker safety they saw during tours of factories and other facilities.