To stay one step ahead of the trends or at least to keep up with the trend the retailers are increasingly going for quick-response collections / short orders. Here is the detail.

1. Short Order

2. Short Order
 Fashion MARKETING is the process of
managing the flow of merchandise from the
initial selection of designs to be produced to the
presentation of products to retail customers,
with the goal of maximizing a company’s sales
and profitability.
 Successful fashion marketing depends on
understanding consumer desire and responding
with appropriate products.

3. Short Order
 The business of buying merchandise, here,
clothes, from manufacturers and selling them to
customers is known as retail.
 Retailers make initial purchases for resale three
to six months before the customer is able to buy
the clothes in-store.

4. Short Order
 Buy in season rather than forward ordering – is
what is know as Short order

5. Short Order
 It helps the retailer to react quickly in order to
capture current fashion trends.
 Hence, it is also sometimes referred as “quick-
response collection”

6. Short Order
 Independent research conducted amongst
buyers showed that over the next year they will
be looking to spend almost double on trans-
seasonal and short order buying rather than
forward order.

7. Short Order
 It is the progressive retailers stocking younger
labels in particular who favour short order, and
seek fresh individual fashion keeping them
upbeat with the high street.

8. Short Order
 Buyers feel that :
 the short order is easier to manage although
buying is stressful as it is hard to find”.
 “short order responds better to the current
trends, changing the concept of buying within
the industry.

9. Short Order
 Womens wear brands is allocating more funds
to short order as it is more trend-driven
(than menswear, which tends to be brand-driven and is predominantly
forward order)

10. Short Order
 To be able to react to emerging trends, short-
order mid-season buying is becoming more
important.
 Buyers are allocating about 25% of their budget
to short order. It’s a risky strategy but many feel
it’s a risk worth taking

11. Short Order
 But for some buyers it depends what they find
during the season.
 If they find a product or brand that is niche or a
one-off, they will be prepared to buy it as they
are always looking for a point of difference.

12. The Benefits
 Fundamental to the process “Short Ordering” is
that goods are produced during the season.
 When they are produced well before the season
starts then they need to be transported to a
storage facility and then stored until they are
required.
 Both these actions require additional resources,
staff time and effort.

13. Short Order
 When they are stored some degree of
heating/lighting, security is required and again
these take up resources.
 The direct benefit is in cost reduction of
accommodating stock and produced goods for
longer period.

14. The Benefits
 Since the merchandise is delivered during the
season and delivered to stores more quickly,
the money is blocked for shorter period, (which
retailer has to pay for the manufacturer) and
results in direct saving of capital cost.
 It also helps in reducing the pressure on
working capital.

15. Potential Drawbacks to Short Order
 The only drawback to a system such as this can
be reluctance on behalf of staff to believe that it
will work effectively.
 Without doubt “Short Order approach” takes a
great deal of trust on the merchandise providers
and Buyers to ensure that the merchandise is
available at the right time.

16. (prepared for internal training)