How to Conduct a Buyer Audit in the Clothing Industry: A Step-by-Step Guide
Noor Ahmed Raaz
Specialized in Apparel Manufacturing
Owner and Editor in Chief Textile Merchandising
Asst. Prof., Department of Textile Engineering
Atish Dipankar University of Science & Technology
Email: textilemerchandising1@gmail.com
Buyer Audit:
Every buyer always wants to deal with the right manufacturer for establishing a successful order. Therefore, the buyer needs to check some important parameters before placing an order to the manufacturer, which is known as buyer audit. A buyer audit is a set of queries about finding a company profile. This profile includes with company’s location, capacity, product, types of product, machinery details, product price, terms, and conditions, etc.
How to Make a Good Buyer Audit:
An international buyer generally collects information from the following sources
- Different embassies working in his country.
- News media.
- Yellow page of the export promotion bureau.
- Own website of the company.
- Ministry of Commerce and Industries.
- Foreign trade fair in this country.
- From other buyers, other resources persons like Merchandisers, Fashion Designers, and Production people.
- Different websites of the internet.
- by Facebook, Twitter and other social media.
- By different types of training, get-togethers, workshops, etc
Buyer Inquiry
What are the Buyer Audit Points?
Generally, a buyer makes an inquiry as follows-
- First, he/she checks the Company profile (The details about machines, products, workers, existing buyers, skills, reputation, bonded warehouse, etc) of the factory.
- Previous records of works, the rate of success.
- He/she checks compliance and Code of contact of the company with the labor law of the country.
- Safety measures of the workers, security procedure of the products.
- Proper authorization of the company from the government of the country.
- Negotiating Bank Support.
- Facility of the power supply and alternating power supply.
- Strong and weak points, etc
In the final round if the buyer gets satisfaction above study then he/she sends an inquiry paper of 4 parts where he/she asks the supplier to give a price quotation for the asking products as per the described requirement attached there.
In the paper, the following components are available-
- Shipment date and Quantity.
- Product details of fabrication.
- Size chart of the product manufacturing.
- Technical sheet for sewing instruction.
- Accessories and print/embroidery options.
- Payment terms of cost.
- Wash, lab test, and other service requirements.
- Packing list details and assortment (proportion of packing in each carton), etc.
Calculation:
After receiving the inquiry, the company makes a costing considering all the aspects and informs the buyer about the price of the asking product (which is called a Price quotation). Sometimes, the buyer makes a negotiation to reduce the price and makes a confirmation to give the order for the asking product.
Mohammad Noor Nabi, known by his author name Noor Ahmed Raaz, is a PhD Fellow at Bangladesh University of Textiles (BUTEX) and the Founder & Editor of Textile Merchandising. He is also an Assistant Professor and Chairman of the Textile Engineering Department at a renowned university in Dhaka, Bangladesh. His research focuses on textile innovation and sustainability. Awarded the Research & Development Fellowship twice from the Ministry of Science & Technology in Bangladesh, Noor Ahmed Raaz is dedicated to advancing textile engineering through education, research, and industry collaboration. For inquiries or collaborations, contact Noor Ahmed Raaz via email at textilemerchandising1@gmail.com or WhatsApp at +8801673758271.