Why Retail Merchandising Plans Focus on Consumer Trends, While Manufacturers Prioritize Production
Retailers and manufacturers both play a very crucial role when it comes to a clothing supply chain. They are seen collaborating to provide their consumers with the best possible products. However, both of them usually focus on different things. Retailers are seen to be consumer-centric, while manufacturers are production-centric. The other targets, of course, arise from different approaches they have towards a merchandising plan. The main goal of a retailer’s merchandising plan is to generate more sales, attract new customers, and generate maximum profits. The manufacturers try to source raw materials on time, ensure their products align with the market and retailers, and figure out strategies to sell bulk merchandise for the best profits.
Are retailers consumer-centric?
If you read in-depth blogs on retailers’ merchandising plans, you will notice plenty of times that they analyse consumer sale trends to develop strategies. So, no doubt yes, retailers are consumer-centric. Let’s see how.
Understanding the consumers
A significant factor that makes retailers follow consumer trends is that retailers directly deal with their consumer base. Hence, they are often seen thoroughly analysing their sales and trying to predict future customer trends. These directly impact their sales.
Their major plans are filled with questions like what kind of clothing to source, what kind of designs, what price point they should use, and how they will advertise these fashion pieces. All these questions trace back to what their consumers want. Retailing is a highly competitive sector, so such deep knowledge and a well-planned way to do business are essential for retailers.
Ever so quickly changing market trends.
The fast fashion industry has also risen with brands like Shine and Zara. Nowadays, the trends are very unpredictable. They may last a whole season or a few weeks, becoming a microtrend. Fast fashion has become a challenge for retailers. If they aren’t quick enough, they might get left behind.
They might be at an advantage if they are flexible with trends. But if they aren’t quick to adapt, it means an excess inventory, declined sales, and loss of consumers to other businesses. Retailers should have a strong data analytical team and chronically active social media pages to avoid this. They also invest in systems that will manage their inventory.
A good shopping experience.
Retailers invest large amounts of money in providing their customers with a smooth and memorable shopping experience. Such strategies keep them coming back for the same. You might have a favourite store with pleasant and attentive staff, flashy adverts, and great discounts. You keep going back and even suggest your friends and family visit it. These techniques optimize the sales for retail stores as the customers love the shopping experience.
Marketing based on target customers.
Retailers also invest a lot in advertising their clothing. This also is a target-centric strategy. For example, a brand targets teens, and they often advertise themselves in newspapers and on the radio. Do you think they’ll be able to reach many customers and generate sales? No. They might make a few sales, but if they would instead advertise on Instagram and send out PR to influencers. So, a good strategy becomes extremely important, especially where their consumer base is saturated.
Why do Manufacturers focus more on production?
While manufacturers are affected by consumer trends, they are not as affected by less than retailers. They aren’t directly producing for them but for the market. Hence, they analyze trends that will arise in the long run and don’t have to be as flexible as retailers. However, they have to maintain a good inventory. Let’s understand why and how.
Cost efficiency
Tailers focus on making maximum sales. They do this by ensuring that their fashion pieces are up to the standard and delivered in bulk to lower the cost of clothing per unit. These techniques help them provide the retailers with merchandise at a competitive rate in the market.
The process of manufacturing merchandise is tried to be kept seamless and organized. The layout of workstations, sourcing raw materials in a timely and low cost, and bulk production.
Managing the supply chain
Maintaining a smooth supply chain is the heart of the manufacturing process. Manufacturers depend on the suppliers of raw materials, workers, required machinery, and so much more. So maintaining a good relationship with them all becomes essential to ensure the smooth running o the business. They can’t delay payments as they have to avoid late deliveries and maintain a low cost for materials.
Manufacturers have to plan their inventories way ahead of time than retailers as the production process requires a lot of time. Moreover, they must also prepare the production, keeping the delivery time in mind. If the clothes take a month to be shipped and delivered to the retailers, they must plan their production accordingly.
Innovation and quality control checks
Manufacturers heavily spend on an excellent team to design and test suitable fashionable clothing that meets retail standards. This step is equivalent to retailers investing in the analysis of consumers. Manufacturers are always trying to develop new ways to make their clothing more durable and signature-like. These innovations take time and effort, and retailers reject most of the pieces—a few break through the market trends, profiting the manufacturing business.
Managing production with demands
Manufacturers have to plan the production in such a way that they meet the demands of the retailers but avoid overproducing. This is a delicate process of analysis of retailers to forecast demands to prevent over or underproducing. However, quick changes in trends make it harder for manufacturers to adjust to them as they operate on a very time-consuming process. Fast fashion trends cause a further problem as they might not be able to produce clothing in time, and if they do and the trend dies out, they are overstocked.
We hope this helped you develop a better understanding of the manufacturing plans of these different sectors.
Conclusion
We hope this list of Why Retail Merchandising Plans Focus on Consumer Trends gave you a good starting point for you to build something that stand the test of times. If you are looking to start a clothing brand, we recommend that you read our guide – how to start a clothing brand.
If you have already started a fashion brand and you are looking for suppliers, do read our guide on how to find clothing manufacturers and do not forget to download our checklists. If you want to get in touch with us, please connect with us here.
We also have a separate section – Commonly asked questions about the most expensive clothing brands, it is worth checking out.
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