Globalization, online shopping and the highly competitive economic climate of today’s sink-or-swim business world has had a hard impact on the modern-day fashion industry. While it seems the latest trends and styles are all that matters, the bottom line still rules and it is getting harder to make that bottom line big enough to survive.

However, while some apparel businesses are dying, others still manage to thrive thanks to smart business practices.

The Need to Adapt

Businesses that fail to adjust to the Internet-driven, information-based economy are those businesses least likely to succeed. It isn’t just a matter of keeping your head down and weathering an economic storm. There’s much more to it. Businesses must adapt. By evolving just as fast as the fashion industry, staying well-rounded and employing the latest trends in modern technology, prosperity is possible.

To thrive today’s cutthroat apparel industry, there are three key elements to success: Brand, loyalty, and speed. Companies must build a brand, establish customer loyalty and move faster than ever before.

Speed is Essential

Businesses must move fast at every level. Data collection is vital. The study of that data and implantation of target-based marketing must be done at lightning speed all while maintaining a competitive price tag for the consumer. Many successful businesses are relying on more than just a well-established name. Leading businesses have adopted a full-spectrum approach that reaches out to customers on multiple levels — establishing brand loyalty.

Information is Profitable

Belt-tightening has been of the utmost importance in recent years, but the businesses that have negotiated the economic roller coaster are those that have harnessed the power of information and used it to define what products are kept in stock. Business owners need the right information to ensure they don’t run out of stock or, in some cases, overstock to the point of stagnation. Both of these issues can cause product price erosion and turn clients away.

Solid Workforce

Reducing or reallocating labor is often a recommended route when cutting expenses, but more and more experts are finding that companies must, instead, ensure an ample, experience-rich workforce is producing top-notch results. It has proven to be a much more effective means to turn a profit than the increasingly common practice of driving a skeleton crew to exhaustion. Thriving in the apparel industry is possible, but it has to be done right.