Orders Shifting to India… Can India Tap The Opportunity?

There is no doubt that nearly after two years of slowdown due to the pandemic the business is coming back to pre Covid levels in fact, the current situation signals that India is seeing a lot of business diverting from China. A big change, however, is that the buyers all over the world no longer want to gamble upon keeping themselves stuck in outsourcing from only one or two destinations like China or Bangladesh and this opens an array of opportunities for Indian apparel exporters.

Team Perfect Sourcing spoke to the industry about the current situation of orders from India and opportunities.

“Of course it is true that a lot of orders are coming towards India and one of the reasons is that buyers want to reduce dependence on China, however, with ongoing challenges of labour shortage and raw material getting expensive it is difficult to tap the opportunity,” said Rajeev Bansal, MD, Celestial Knits.

Bangalore based company Indian Design also reported an increase in demand for products and enhanced orders. “Yes certainly there is an increase in demand at present,” confirmed the MD of company Naseer Humayun.

A lot of changes are being noticed in the sourcing pattern as well.

“2021 was overall a fantastic year in terms of bookings, however, it is a fact that the pressure to move faster than ever is prevalent. We have witnessed that most buyers are booking at the last minute due to the market uncertainty, which gives us only 50-75 days for production even for fully embellished products,” said Linda Augusstson, Founder, Continuum Buying Agency Buying Agency.

“The concept of streamlining business for optimized effectiveness is also happening as buyers

who were buying only ladies wear from India, are now also adding other product categories to the same supply chain,” averred Linda.

Another emerging trend is reduction in customers’ response time to repeat orders has shortened drastically due to improved technology and artificial intelligence. India is always good in acting fast and getting started.

“We have benefitted from the fact that buyers have tried to move certain orders from China, due to price points but also lead-time, rather than Covid related sentiments,” said Linda.

A big question is whether Indian exporters are prepared to handle sudden surge in orders. “On this Lalit Thukral, President, Noida Apparel Export Cluster replied, “We are definitely witnessing surge in orders due to diversion from China and in the future even if 3% of orders move to India it will be challenging for exporters as we are facing shortage of skilled labour in our cluster ever since the pandemic came in. Also, the regular increase in raw material prices is an area of concern which is hampering smooth business operations.”

It is observed that in general there is a positive outlook in the market and the trend is towards variety and newness. Buyers are now trying new colour combinations with bestselling products and making them innovative is also working out well in the market.

“The future is bright for India for as long as we honour our commitments and continue to invest in design and R&D ,” said Linda. n

It is observed that in general there is a positive outlook in the market and the trend is towards variety and newness. Buyers are now trying new colour combinations with bestselling products and making them innovative is also working out well in the market.

“2021 was overall a fantastic year in terms of bookings, however, it is a fact that the pressure to move faster than ever is prevalent. We have witnessed that most buyers are booking at the last minute due to the market uncertainty, which gives us only 50-75 days for production even for fully embellished products,”

Linda Augusstson, Founder, Continuum Buying Agency.

“We are definitely witnessing surge in orders due to diversion from China and in the future even if 3% of orders move to India it will be challenging for exporters as we are facing shortage of skilled labour in our cluster ever since the pandemic came in. Also, the regular increase in raw material prices is an area of concern which is hampering smooth business operations.”

Lalit Thukral President, Noida Apparel Export Cluster (NAEC)

“Of course it is true that a lot of orders are coming towards India and one of the reasons is that buyers want to reduce dependence on China, however, with ongoing challenges of labour shortage and raw material getting expensive it is difficult to tap the opportunity,”

Rajeev Bansal, MD, Celestial Knits.

Yes certainly there is an increase in demand at present and number of orders are going up. We expect the trend to continue in the coming days also.

Naseer Humayun, MD, Indian Designs