After somewhat of a hiatus, I am very glad to be sharing this white paper with you that I wrote for Amber Road. You can download the full paper here - below is the executive summary…

Executive Summary

Fashion brands have always had their fair share of challenges. The complexities, speed and reach of the industry together with short seasons, fickle consumers, online fulfilment and disruptive competitors are hard enough. Add to this the need to maintain margins and quality amidst global trade wars, while navigating shifts in market economies to sustain growth, and work becomes… well… complicated.

Today’s fashion industry serves super-informed consumers who buck trends to behave as individuals and as a result can be persnickety, fickle, impetuous, and careful, all at the same time. Amidst the turmoil, CEOs of apparel, footwear and accessory brands see three perennial, interrelated goals for their businesses: reducing costs, maintaining quality, and increasing speed and agility. Progress towards each of these goals has challenges, not least of all for supply chain leaders. Overcoming the challenges brings huge competitive advantages that will place brands in winner’s enclosures during the 2020s.

In this three-part series of white papers, we look at these competitive advantages and their corresponding challenges from the perspectives of global supply chain, sourcing, logistics, and trade compliance executives. We consider what needs to change and suggest how you can improve your company’s global supply chain performance to deliver on cost, quality, and speed concurrently.

This first paper considers the goal of building cost advantage.