Garment Merchandising and Export Procedures

January 22, 2021
Posted by: admin
Categories: Funding trends, Uncategorized

Garment Merchandising and Export Procedures

With constant pressure to realize cost savings throughout the supply chain, pro-curement teams invariably look overseas for suitable suppliers. While ensuring that any supplier has the quality standards, working conditions and factory com-pliance that meet your values and ethics, one of the biggest challenges of using overseas suppliers is the complexities introduced when a supply chain crosses customs borders.

There are numerous aspects to this complexity, and while the most obvious is the export process itself, it also includes establishing order protocols to make sure that suppliers deliver the right quantity of the right product, with the right quality standards delivers at the right time at the agreed cost. While this sounds straightforward, it is not, and many buyer’s and procurement teams have been caught out with aspects of this process.

Whether ending up with too many garments, sub-standard quality garments, un-expected costs or late deliveries
just one problem can result in significant costs that can even lead to an overall loss on the product line.
However, there is a solution to prevent this, allowing you to seek out suppliers in these important overseas markets with confidence
knowing that you will receive the product you need, exactly as expected.
That solution is the Merchandiser, part of the team from a buying house that de-livers expert local knowledge and superb on-site management of your orders.

How a Merchandiser can power your supply chain

Think of the merchandiser as a bridge between your procurement team and the supplier or suppliers you are using. They are on location with suppliers, bringing both industry expertise and the local awareness that smooths out interactions where language and cultural barriers can often cause unintended problems.

Because a merchandiser will be involved in almost every step of the process from product choice through quality control and order management, to shipping, scheduling and logistics, they are a crucial part of the procurement activity. A good merchandiser will ensure that you always get the product you expected with the quality standards you need, delivered on time and with no costing surprises.

However, while a merchandiser does have an involvement in almost every step of the process, there are some key areas that really make the difference.

Communications

One area where the use of low-cost overseas garment manufacturers causes problems for buyers and procurement teams is communications. The language barrier is always a challenge, but an ongoing problem is often that suppliers are reluctant to say they don’t understand something, concerned it will impact continued business, and this can lead to errors.

Everything from wrong materials or garments to orders containing to few or too many items, scheduling errors causing stock to arrive late or detail issues that render garments unsuitable can all stem from simple communication problem. For buyers, unless your team happens to have an expert in the supplier’s language, this is an issue that is a cause of constant stress. Communication mistakes can happen at any time, the first order places or the hundredth, the result can be a significant loss and endless problems.

With a merchandiser, these problems disappear.
Fluent in English and both local language and culture, the merchandiser leads the conversation and ensures there are no misunderstandings.
This is not just about language, but the nuances of culture
how western businesses and the local businesses differ in the way they do busi-ness and the expectations for every stage of the process.

Importantly, being local and active on-site, the merchandiser can see issues before they become problems and deal with them accordingly. The remove the stress from your supply chain process, and also give you confidence that your expectations are being met.

Order Management

Every buying department that has taken the opportunity to use overseas suppliers to cut costs will have had issues with the order process at one point or another. From quantity errors to the wrong garment entirely, these vary in seriousness, but all can have a significant impact on your business strategy.

With oversight from a merchandiser, errors can be identified and dealt with, and because the merchandiser is involved in samples and product specifications too the issues of the wrong garment, color and material errors and so on disappear as well.

Quality Control

Quality control is perhaps the biggest challenge facing any buying team sourcing products from a low-cost overseas supplier. Without someone on site able to check in-production output, you are always open to problems. By the time a production run arrives with you, if there are quality issues, it is too late to deal with the issue in a timely way.

By that point, rectification means returning an entire production run, and the delays and costs involved can have a knock-on effect for the entire business. It is often the biggest risk that dissuades businesses from using these suppliers at all.

But with a merchandiser, quality need not be an issue. Quality inspections during the production run can spot potential problems early, giving time to rectify within that production cycle and before shipping out. Additional inspections before shipping can confirm quality standards and again give confidence in the shipped garments.

In fact, a merchandiser can go further than that, and actively assist in the pro-duction process to ensure efficiency while maintaining quality standards
helping both supplier and buyer to get the most from the order.
This is important, because while a buyer’s first duty is to ensure the right product is delivered on time and as specified
it has to be a process that the supplier benefits from too, else they will not con-tinue to supply further orders.
Because business moves rapidly today, delays and problems can present signifi-cant issues, making the merchandiser more valuable than ever in these situa-tions.

Shipping

The final area where issues can traditionally occur for cross border purchasing is shipping. Ensuring everything is correctly labelled, itemized and checked is more important today than every before. From ensuring appropriate packaging to logistical scheduling, everything is more challenging when trying to manage it all from another country. Different time zones, language and cultural differences can all impact the process and leave you with problems.

Conclusion

While we have covered the main pain points of procurement from a new supplier overseas, the merchandiser can assist with every stage of the process, including factory compliance to expected standards, material choices, sample assessment and more.

The merchandiser allows you to take full advantage of the cost savings available from suppliers in countries like Bangladesh, Vietnam, Cambodia and Ukraine, without the operational challenges that normally follow.

By having someone on site with a good understanding of your needs and expectations as well as the trust of the local business, a merchandiser is the perfect link between your business and theirs, removing obstacles and allowing you to realize the cost savings you need while maintaining an easily managed supply chain and ordering process from end to end.

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