5 Tips to Help You Choose The Right Textile Supplier

As a business owner, if you want to ensure a successful supply chain, you must look for the best textile supplier for your brand. Before you go with the supplier, know that there they should be able to satisfy all of your requirements. Given below are some tips from experts that will help you choose the best supplier. Read on.

1. Put together a selection criteria

First of all, you should put together selection criteria that the prospective suppliers must meet in order to be considered for this position. This selection criterion should contain a list of important points. Listed below are some of those pointers. The list is not complete, though. Based on your research, you can add more pointers to the list.

• Communication methods
• Delivery method
• Handling and storage facilities
• Lead Times
• Min and max order quantities
• Quality assurance
• References
• Return and refund policies
• Samples of materials and products
• Terms and conditions regarding payments

2. Find out about The Supplier’s Reliability

The second important pointer on the list is about the supplier’s reliability as it can have a great impact on your production process. If the delivery times are not consistent, you may not be able to complete your orders on time. As a result, your customers will be unsatisfied because of defective garments and production delays. So, what you may want to do is assess:

• Supplier’s location
• Supplier’s proximity to different logistics centers
• Information transparency
• Their experience with the delivery of small and large orders
• Their communication ability

3. Investigate their CSR

You may have heard about suppliers that are popular for their best CSR practices, such as ethical labor practices, proper working hours, and zero exploitation of any type. So, what you may need to do is ensure that the supplier is not involved in child labor, discrimination, and exploitation.

In fashion companies, for example, different stakeholders, such as consumers play an important role to encourage positive CSR activities.

4. Investigate their raw material and Equipment Quality

If you want to produce high-quality products, keep in mind that it will depend on the raw material quality. Apart from this, it also depends upon the quality of the equipment the suppliers use for production. Therefore, you may want to go with the supplier that inspects raw materials and equipment on a regular basis in order to prevent quality issues.

5. Investigate their Team

Finally, you may want to ensure that the team members of your supplier are trained, skillful, competent and dedicated. This is important if you want them to fulfill your production demands. You can ask them to show their qualification certificates. If the team members are not trained or qualified, you may want to consider a different supplier.

Long story short, these are the 5 tips that you may want to consider when looking for the best textile supplier to meet the requirements of your brand. If you follow these steps, it will be much easier for you avoid the common mistakes when choosing a supplier.