Part 3 in my three-part series of white papers for Amber Road (now part of E2Open). This one explores ways that fashion brands can gain a supply chain speed advantage to anticipate changing business environments - such as recent volatility around trade policies - and rapidly adapt global supply chains and sourcing strategies to reduce the impact to business performance. Part 1 discussed building a supply chain cost advantage, and Part 2 considers sustainable quality, when a growing number of consumers care about the impact of fashion on the environment and their fellow global citizens. You can download Part 3 here and all three parts here. Below is the executive summary of Part 3…

Executive Summary

Dealing with volatility, uncertainty and shifts in the global economy has been the #1 challenge of the fashion industry for the last three years1. Sometimes, however, trade war woes are balanced by evolving preferential trade agreement opportunities. Fashion brands therefore need to build defensive and offensive sourcing strategies, mitigating the effect of rising tariffs while exploiting preferential trade agreements, lower manufacturing costs, and other cost components.

Being agile enough to adapt and take advantage of such volatility requires a micro-focus on supply chain execution speed and global trade enablement.

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. Part Two addressed how to build a quality advantage when consumers are demanding faster innovation cycles and sustainable supply chains.

Here, in Part Three, we delve into building a speed advantage to provide agility within changing global economies.