7 Reasons Why Local Manufacturing Is The Way To Go When Launching A Fashion Startup

If you are thinking of launching a fashion startup and the only step left is to choose a manufacturer for sourcing clothes, you should opt for a local manufacturer near you. Choosing a manufacturer may seem like the last step in the process, but it is crucial. Quality, the manufacturer's experience, their culture, the time, and other logistical factors all influence your decision.

So why should you take the local route? Local manufacturing helps you produce clothes faster and saves import and export costs. While offshore manufacturing may seem lucrative, there are numerous pitfalls. Here are some of the reasons why offshore manufacturing may not be suitable for your business:

-Costs

Offshore manufacturing means high costs as it involves the costs of shipment, warehouse, and add-on costs that you may not have factored into your initial budgeting. Import and export costs blow up the original budget. These extra expenses incurred in the manufacturing stage will cut your profit margin. What starts as a low-budget alternative may cost more than a local manufacturer. 

You may not have enough funds to afford offshore manufacturers as a startup. Hence, businesses should straighten their priorities before opting for offshore manufacturers.

-Communication

Offshore manufacturers will have employees who work in different languages and in another time zone. The working hours may shift, and coordination with the offshore company may be difficult. These barriers to easy workflow and communication will, in turn, lead to a slow manufacturing process.

-Quality Control

Quality checks are important to do in person. When the manufacturing happens offshore, so does the quality control. Traveling to an offshore city will incur costs, increasing your production costs.

-Damage Risks

The responsibility to secure the products lies with the offshore company. The risk of materials being lost, misused, or mishandled increases when the production is not going on right under your nose. Offshore manufacturing also increases the transportation of materials and products. Offshore manufacturing increases the risk of damage much more than local manufacturing. There may be damage incurred while shipping products from far places.

-Logistics

Working overseas means you have to make samples of your products overseas. It would incur unanticipated costs, especially when you offer materials locally to them. The courier costs of samples, materials, and others will increase the manufacturing costs. It would be a lot easier if you were manufacturing locally.

-Culture differences

Working overseas means different business etiquette, national and local holidays, and respect for local traditions. All this may negatively impact your manufacturing process.

Hence, local manufacturing is much more beneficial than offshore manufacturing. Offshore manufacturing means high costs, risk of damage, culture difference, poor quality, no control, and many more. Opting for a local manufacturer would benefit you in all of these areas. Let's look at how?

Seven reasons local manufacturing is the way to go when launching a fashion startup

As per recent research, 72% of buyers always prefer to source locally. Locally made clothes provide transparency to customers. Customers get to know how, when, and where their products were made.

Here are some reasons why local manufacturing would be perfect for you!

-Faster Delivery

As someone who works in the fashion industry, you never know when an opportunity can come to your door, and you will face a challenge. For example, will you be ready if your existing client wants to ramp up their manufacturing to meet their demand?

-More Control

The further away your manufacture is, the less control you have over them. Manufacturers may say that they treat all their purchase orders the same, but if you ask for a drop-in meeting or site visit, chances are they will keep you at the end.

Face-to-face site visits and meetings enable you to address your concerns and ensure your products meet your standards. There is also less chance of your products getting lost in translation, which often happens when working with an international manufacturer.

-Reduced Supply Chain Costs

If you are looking for cost-effective solutions, you should also consider fast-pacing your supply chain. Companies spend a lot more on the supply chain from storage to shipment than one can imagine.

Products are stored in the warehouses until they are shipped to the next supplier. Many such costs can be minimized when you opt for local manufacturing.

-More Revenue

Opting for local manufacturing does not mean just saving money. It also means generating more revenue. Companies nearby may be impressed due to your efforts of keeping a fast and tight-paced supply chain that can help you a lot in attracting customers.

Local manufacturing helps in producing products a lot quicker and shipping them a lot faster. It helps in saving money and generating revenue. As when the products are made available to customers faster, customers will be attracted towards you and want to buy from you always.

-Good for the Economy

When you manufacture locally for your fashion startups, it will increase your bottom line, and it will also increase the same for other manufacturers and suppliers in your area, which can be a huge benefit to your local and domestic economy and also for the public who live there.

Well-paid and happy employees would like to invest in your fashion startup. In addition, well-off and respected businesses will be in a position to contribute to communities by volunteering, fundraising, sponsoring, and hosting benefits.

-Sustainability

Localizing your manufacturer and supply chain portrays a huge opportunity to help the environment and support sustainability. When you reduce storage and shipping, you also are reducing energy usage and emissions. Locally manufacturing contributes to green manufacturing and eventually helps in building your customer's confidence towards you. When customers buy from you with confidence, your fashion startup will benefit through increased customer loyalty and brand awareness.

In today's times, customers opt for products that are sustainable and have clean labels and labels that explain the origin of the product. Fashion companies need to supply products that include zero wastage and are sustainable to the environment.

-Faster Launch

Local manufacturing means working with manufacturers in the same time zone that leads to speedy and easier communication. You can easily resolve problems quicker and launch products in order to meet your customers' spikes and demands.

Customer demands are increasing towards the fashion startups that have corporate social responsibility and supply products faster. 

Conclusion

Local manufacturing is the way to go when launching a fashion startup as it helps in reducing costs, generating revenue, sustainability, clear communication, and many more. Opting for a local manufacturing process would be so beneficial for you, and it will help you in reaching your startup to a whole other level.

Let's ditch the labels noting 'Made in' and make local manufacturing a thing again! If you are looking for a manufacturer to source clothes, then Fashinza is here for you! Fashinza helps fashion startups to manufacture their collections locally by connecting them with local suppliers. Our chief offers that brands use our platform to place an order, receive updates, communicate with manufacturers, make payment, and track it.

Fashion startups can use our platform in order to place local manufacturing orders for their designs and have them make payments, track communication and have them delivered on time. We make the manufacturing process fast, transparent, and hustle-free for the startups.