Are you considering white label clothing manufacturing? Discover the advantages, disadvantages, and tips to choose the right manufacturer for your brand.
What is white label clothing manufacturing?
The white label is a concept that allows you to create your brand by selling products that you have not designed yourself. White labels are that the manufacturer provides a product template that can be personalized by the buyer who can put their logo on it, products are finished or pre-designed products that buyers will sell with their brand names. A white label clothing product or service created by a manufacturer so that other retailers can rename and sell according to their needs.
White label clothing manufacturing is very suitable for small and new businesses that want to test the market while making a profit. So by buying finished clothing products, you will sell your clothing faster and have more time to invest in your branding and your marketing system. However, finding a reputable white label clothing manufacturer with many years of experience in this field is not an easy task.
Advantages and disadvantages of white label clothing manufacturer
Advantages of white label clothing manufacturer
High quality
Most of the famous fashion brands in the world today outsource their products from clothing manufacturers overseas. If you choose the same suppliers as these clothing lines, you can guarantee that your merchandise will be of the same top-notch quality as these other brands. With the white label, you can leave it to the expertise of the clothing field, so that your company will not have to worry too much about what types of fabrics to use, or types of designs to make.
Save cost
Selling white-label clothing products does not require such a large budget as ODM/OEM service. The white label allows you to market the products you want without spending a lot of money on machinery and a skillful labor force for the manufacturing process so that brands can have the opportunity to develop. You have time to build a stronger customer relationship and earn their loyalty. Thus, your brand will gain value, which will have a positive impact on your income.
Unlike low-value items where consumers won’t remember your products and your brand, high-profit products like branded clothing will catch the eye of consumers who will remember your brand which will bring a higher margin.
Wide range of apparel
With the white label, you can sell any type of clothing product, for example, from activewear to casual wear, from women wear to men wear or even kid wear. You can choose any fabrics or designs you want. That means you can easily add any color, logo, pattern, or type of button you want to any clothing product.
Reduced time and faster to market
White label products save you time on product manufacturing, you don’t need to have your factory build your brand. Good white label manufacturers often have the latest innovative products and get quick turnaround time, you can receive the clothing that matches the trends and styles of buyers in the market.
Therefore, you spend less time on product development, at least save half of the time. You can spend that time doing marketing research to keep updates trending faster and devote more attention to your sales.
Disadvantages of white label clothing manufacturer
Legal issues
White label clothing manufacturers make and sell the same kind of clothing products to several other companies, so it is difficult to stand out unless you choose a single supplier. White labeling is not that exclusive as manufacturers offer the same product to many retailers like you.
Intellectual property is another problem that white labelers must deal with. What if you buy white label clothing that turns out to be patented? As a general rule, we recommend that you check whether the product you want to sell exists on the internet or the manufacturer’s website, if so, it is probably patented.
Long shipping time
Long distance or miscommunication can lead to long delivery. You will need to maintain communication frequently with the supplier or manufacturer. You must stay in touch with the supplier to deal with any problems and delays. When your customers place an order for your clothing product, you will contact your manufacturer. The reason why you must establish a means of communication for this purpose. It could well be an email or live chat with your supplier to ship the products in real time so that you can deliver them to your customers.
Hard to modify
White labeling means clothing is already made before you even deal with the manufacturer, this means that you cannot customize the product to your specifications. So the only changes customization option which you have control over are the packaging, branding, and marketing of the brand.
Tips to choose the white label clothing manufacturer
After you have decided on the products you want, you can start researching suitable manufacturers. But before looking, you have to already define whether you should look for manufacturers in your own country or overseas.
Local manufacturers
Advantages:
- It is easier to verify the reliability of manufacturers and control the quality.
- No language barrier, no communication difficulty.
- Local manufacturers are more familiar with the desires of local consumers.
- Faster shipping and shorter delivery time.
Disadvantages:
- Significantly higher labor and manufacturing costs.
- Much less choice of manufacturers, for certain niche products, it is very difficult to find clothing manufacturers. Therefore it is not possible in this case to play the game of the competition to obtain a more attractive price.
Overseas manufacturers
Advantages:
- Much lower cost of labor and manufacturing, only $4/hour for labor-intensive versus $20/hour in the US on average.
- A much larger choice of manufacturer and therefore the possibility of competing for better prices.
- Higher production capability
- Quicker turnaround time
Disadvantages:
- The language barrier sometimes can cause big problems of miscommunication
- Quality control is not easy when your clothing manufacturers are in other countries. Thus, you must hire a control or sourcing agent on site to help you with quality control. This will increase an additional cost.
- The import process is more complicated, and the shipping time is longer. Maybe a week for transport to the port and loading, a month for sea transport, and again a week for unloading, customs clearance then delivery.
To choose a reliable supplier who will provide you with quality products, make sure that the supplier offers 24-hour service, including customer service. The manufacturer must also be able to have a range of transport choices, in particular time-limited delivery and a strong overseas storage network. Besides that, they must be able to take responsibility for their mistakes and must be able to process orders within 24 hours.
There are several ways that you can find a supplier that offers an online sales service. You can therefore use the various search engines to facilitate your research. To do this, type in several keywords that may help you find potential white label suppliers or manufacturers.
You can also find suppliers by looking at online marketplaces such as AliExpress, eBay, Alibaba, Amazon, etc. Trade fairs are also a great way to find suppliers. Do not hesitate to join these kinds of forums. Thygesen Textile Vietnam is an ODM/OEM clothing manufacturer that produces your clothes 100% to your request at the best quality and price rate. You can select your fabric according to your purpose as well as the best cut for your clothes and the colors. Thanks to our local partners and clothing factories, we provide you with textiles adapted to all needs. Our customers from the EU, USA, Australia,… were provided with premium custom clothing manufacturing services. Our textile company has achieved so many certificates like ISO 9001: 2015, ISO 13485: 2016, CSV, WRAP, CE, FDA, and Oeko-Tex 100. Thygesen Textile Vietnam is the right choice of OEM/ODM partner in Vietnam.
