Game Between Apparel Agents And Supply Chain: Inventory And Win Win

Chinese Clothing brand enterprise In the current marketing mode, agency system still occupies a leading position. Agents in traditional Supply chain The system is responsible for the retail business of the brand clothing enterprises, and its relationship with the brand enterprises is interdependent and mutually competitive.

Game 1 who's inventory

More and more clothing enterprises realize that independent production and sales have not been able to adapt to the rapidly developing market and changing customer needs. The key to maintaining long-term competitive advantage lies in the establishment of strategic partnership, focusing on the key business of the enterprise, and transferring non critical businesses to other excellent enterprises. In this way, a supply chain running from suppliers to manufacturers to distributors and retailers will be formed, and the overall competitive advantage can be achieved through complementary advantages, so as to achieve a win-win goal. Therefore, the new management ideas and management methods of supply chain management developed in 80s twentieth Century have become the focus of attention. Supply chain management embodies the advantages of overall strategic management, rapid response to market demand, high flexibility and low risk.

Apparel supply chain is based on Garment industry The supply chain operation mode. It is a dynamic alliance formed by traditional garment manufacturers, suppliers of surface and accessories, clothing distributors and retailers in order to quickly respond to the uncertain needs of customers and maximize profits. In the process of customer centered supply chain operation, even in the same sales season or off-season, the clothing manufacturers' customers' orders fluctuating to a certain type of clothing products fluctuate considerably, or when garment manufacturers produce products to distributors at the shortest time, they will face a large number of return and replacement. This inevitably increases the production, supply, inventory management and marketing risks of the apparel supply chain, and even leads to confusion in production, supply and marketing. It is difficult for enterprises to accurately grasp market demand information, and it is difficult to accurately formulate enterprise capacity requirements plan and production plan, which is likely to result in excess production capacity, excessive inventory or shortage, thus making the operation cost of the entire supply chain high and customer satisfaction low.

Most of the agents focus on establishing and improving their sales performance, focusing on the research of terminal consumers' consumption habits, consumption behavior and consumption demand. According to these research results, the marketing process such as ordering and sales is launched, so the relationship between them and the supply chain is based on game theory.

When the brand enterprise develops to a certain stage, marketing is more and more dominant in the supply chain. Therefore, as one of the marketing representatives, the status of the agent is becoming more and more important. In the whole operation process, the agent will transfer the risk of the stock to the clothing product brand enterprise. Agents often ask brands to support their businesses. They are not buying large quantities of goods before the selling season, but ordering a small number of products, and regularly deciding the replenishment volume according to the sales situation. This has led to changes in manufacturing and logistics. This change can reduce the risk of inventory, but increase the risk of brand enterprises.

Clothing brand enterprises to avoid inventory risk, the best solution is rapid response. Rapid response is a fast and effective way to meet the changing needs of consumers in the textile and garment industry. Brand enterprises can effectively link the members of the apparel supply chain (yarn manufacturer, fabric manufacturer, clothing manufacturer, clothing agency) to provide flexible manufacturing and meet the requirements of agents. It emphasizes the two-way flow of goods and information. First, information is transmitted to the upper reaches of the supply chain, which can reduce production and delivery of clothing products to the customer's lead time, so that it can respond quickly to changing market demands. As inventories are reduced, prices can be reduced and the appropriate level of production in the entire supply chain will be maintained.

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Game 2 who's making profits?

Because of the change of sales environment, agents want to get more profits and earn profits. They must ensure low inventory rate, high replacement rate and quick response, so they must follow a small number of product strategies. At the same time, this method can be regarded as creating a scarcity, thus inducing the attraction of customers' intangible purchase. The more difficult it is to get, the more it can stimulate people's desire to buy. For the same style of clothing, there are only a few pieces of inventory in the retail store, which can reduce the stock that may be formed, and exchange the decisive purchase speed when the customers are patronizing again, and cultivate a large number of loyal followers. Small batch supply and warning of supply shortage all stimulate the frequency of customers visiting shops, and it is a good strategy for dealers to make profits.

And this small batch, multi style business strategy for apparel brand enterprises undoubtedly increase the difficulty of corporate profits. At this point, there is a game relationship between agents and brand enterprises. Especially small brands or channels do not fully establish new brands. Once ordering, they will have a headache. They say that small quantities and multi styles are the trend now. But for garment enterprises with processing links, starting from ordering, they will increase their purchasing costs. The reason for this is that agents should minimize their risk.

Game 3 how to win

The relationship between an agent and a brand enterprise is like two people's love. At the beginning, they show their best side to each other. But with the deepening of cooperation, their interests have led to the beginning of various games. Winning a win-win situation should be the best way to maintain this relationship. This requires many agents and brand companies to take the same view. This is the end consumer.

The basic point of the successful operation of the supply chain is to effectively provide the ultimate consumers with a high quality and satisfying consumption environment, because the final result of the supply chain should be to deliver the products to the consumers concerned and obtain the highest customer satisfaction. Ultimately, and maximize the benefit of consumers, we can really bring benefits to enterprises and agents. Industrial production and large-scale retail formats bring consumers a wide array of clothing products, offering more and more choices. But consumers spend less time and energy on consumption, and various problems in the process of consumption often make people exhausted and annoyed. Therefore, a reasonable supply chain system should simplify the process of purchase and use of customers. This can not only reduce costs, but also save both parties' time, so as to achieve the best supply chain performance. Therefore, the small volume and multi style demand of agents is the trend of retail sales.

Customer centered is not only the essence of marketing management, but also the foundation and starting point of enterprises. Successful business is inseparable from successful marketing management, which is inseparable from the success of customer centered customer relationship management. In this era of customer king, customer centered is the art of identifying customers, meeting specific consumer groups, positioning precise supplies, and achieving enterprise profit goals. Since supply chain management is a way of resource organization, customer demand is the primary factor to decide whether or not to adopt supply chain management mode and what form of supply chain management mode to create value for customers through integration of supply chain. The correct choice of target market and the positioning of supplies enable enterprises to be in a competitive position that is compatible with their own resources. The change of the target market and the positioning of suppliers will also change the requirements for the operation system of enterprises, and the mode of operation management needs to be adjusted accordingly.

With the upgrading of consumption, the main factor that customers consider in consumption is not only the clothing product itself or product price, but a series of supporting services for the entire product. It seems that a reasonable supply chain system can not bring consumers the best efficiency and the least trouble, so the supply chain system is unsuccessful.

Enterprises are clearly positioned in the supply chain, focus on core businesses, establish core competitiveness, and outsource non core businesses to other professional enterprises on the basis of core competitiveness. They can more effectively utilize resources, strengthen their main businesses, and increase business flexibility through cooperation among enterprises. Supply chain collaboration emphasizes that members of the supply chain change their business concepts, work closely together, share risks and share interests.

　　 Editor's comment: with the formation of globalized economy and international market, and the rapid development and extensive application of information technology, the trend of borderless operation of enterprises is becoming more and more obvious. Market competition is becoming increasingly fierce, and competition rules among enterprises are beginning to be rewritten. The original management idea can not fully satisfy the new competition form. The customer centered modern business philosophy has gradually replaced the business concept centered on production and products. Who can discern the needs of customers with keen insight and meet the demand with the lowest cost and the most satisfactory service in the shortest time, who will win the competition.