Fashion companies come form a broad spectrum of enterprises operating in the apparel, footwear, home textiles and accessories market with value supply chains of retailers, manufacturers, distributors, media and even celebrities. They operate in an evolving global market with different cultures, laws and environments. Successful businesses continue to prioritize customer demands with the emergence of new luxury concepts, the use of free trade and organic products and awareness of social and ecological responsibilities. The industry is also affected by macro economic pressures and is sensitive to currency fluctuations in its retail and manufacturing processes. Buyers who once craved European designers are considering other options like America as the cost of European collections are out of reach with the increasing value of the Euro. This presents a perfect opportunity for domestic designers to grow brands and retail presence in America.

As the industry remains focused on customer trends, it has found that market saturation in mature areas have slowed growth. Volume businesses compete in an environment of low margins and luxury businesses compete in lower volumes but higher margins. In either case, customer sensitivity to brands and to obsolescence is a critical player in forecasting and delivery. There is no intellectual property protection over clothing designs so designers are forced to compete through innovative styles and coming first to market. There is increasing opportunities of emerging markets in Asia and Central and Eastern Europe. The global economic climate needs fashion companies to be flexible in buying and selling products with consideration of foreign currency fluctuations. This creates an increased need in cost efficiencies for manufacturing, production, and distribution derived from global outsourcing. There are also heightened international regulatory pressures which businesses can harness into better controls and efficiencies. There is a necessity to utilize sophisticated and integrated operational and process excellence together creating synergistic results.