In today's challenging retail landscape, apparel and footwear brands are encountering difficulties due to significant economic headwinds that indicate trouble ahead for wholesale orders. According to a recent Bloomberg article, brands are witnessing a substantial decline in new orders, as the quantity of apparel imports has dropped by approximately 30% in the first four months of this year compared to the previous year.

Dan Leahy, the CEO of MakerSights, shared his perspective with Bloomberg on the state of the wholesale market and the factors contributing to this decline. Leahy attributes much of the softening in demand to retailers' concerns about their inventory levels relative to the demand signals they are receiving from consumers. Ecommerce retailers play a significant role in this scenario, as they have realized that the surge in online sales caused by the pandemic is not sustainable, resulting in excess inventory.

This decline in wholesale orders comes at a time when brands have shifted their focus to embracing wholesale as a crucial channel for growth. According to The Wall Street Journal, many brands, including Nike which in 2021 announced that it was dramatically editing down it’s breadth of wholesale partners, are now eager to reestablish partnerships. The Direct-to-Consumer model, which many brands were enthusiastic about adopting, has proven to be less profitable than initially believed. With the skyrocketing acquisition costs associated with digital marketing, selling directly to traditional retailers is now viewed as a more straightforward and profitable business model.

Given the critical role of retail for brands, it has become more important than ever to gain a competitive edge in this challenging environment.

To address these obstacles, MakerSights offers an insights platform that helps the world's leading apparel and footwear brands design products that are guaranteed to succeed with their key retail partners.

Unlike traditional research platforms, MakerSights captures and presents insights in a highly visual manner, facilitating collaboration between brands and retailers and streamlining the sell-in process. Through this platform, brands can easily share the results of Consumer Sentiment studies and Line Efficiency Analyses on tested products with retailers, ensuring a seamless and efficient wholesale experience. This collaborative approach fosters stronger relationships between brands and retailers, resulting in increased sell-in rates and improved business growth. Major retailers such as Nordstrom, REI, and Target have leveraged the data generated by MakerSights to make crucial decisions.

Jim Biolos, the President of Farly Robin Footwear, has been a long-time customer of MakerSights and has experienced the direct benefits of using the platform to enhance relationships with key retailers.

He explains, "MakerSights has transformed the strategic conversations we have with our retailer clients.

The data we bring from our MakerSights tests has enabled us to work collaboratively with the merchants at our retailer clients — so that what they do buy is supported by the voice of the consumer and is the result of a rich set of discussions about a range of styles.

The MakerSights data is helping us and our retail partners become better product developers and merchants.  It has enabled the kinds of discussions that result in a deeper collaboration about the shoes we design for them and the items that will best achieve their merchandising goals.  MakerSights has been instrumental in taking our retailer partnerships to the next level.”

The road ahead in retail will be challenging for many brands. But by leveraging MakerSights' visual and collaborative approach to insights, brands can enhance their sell-in rates, establish themselves as trusted partners, and achieve success in the competitive retail environment.