This white paper looks at sustainable quality for fashion brands and is Part 2 in a three-part series that I wrote for Amber Road (now part of E2Open). The papers share supply chain perspectives on how to achieve advantages in cost, sustainable quality and speed. You can download the full paper here - below is the executive summary…

Executive Summary

Consumers are hungrier than ever for innovation in the products they are buying, but they also care about sustainability and increasingly want fashion that reflects their own social consciences. The effect that brands and their supply chains have on the planet and on fellow global citizens is swaying buying decisions more than ever.

Maintaining quality amidst ever-faster innovation cycles while proving sustainability in a transparent supply chain is central to attracting new customers in the fashion industry. Risks are higher than ever – one small slip damages brand value and revenues.

This three-part series of white papers looks at competitive advantages sought by all brands and retailers in the fashion industry, and the 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 improvements concurrently.

In Part One, we looked at ways to reduce product costs while simultaneously supporting growth into new markets. In Part Three, we will delve into the volatile global economy and how fashion brands can build defensive and offensive sourcing strategies to mitigate the effect of tariff increases and other global economy changes.

Here, in Part Two, we explore building quality advantage to support sustainable innovation.