Clothing and apparel industry in Canada is a significant contributor to the GDP and is estimated to contribute about CAD 1.1 billion to the GDP. The industry is most dominantly engaged in producing clothing, accessories, and other products which also includes knitting factories and all products manufactured from knitted fabrics. The industry has an extensive product range which includes textiles for apparel, clothing, industrial use, protective clothing, and products facilitating tourism, etcetera. Another important domain where the industry is currently focusing is the introduction, development, and ultimately producing technical textiles which include clothing that has more specialized uses like fire-retardant, cooling effect, heating effect, burn-proof, cut-resistant, and other similar uses.
Changing Trends in Clothing Manufacturing in Canada
The apparel and clothing industry in Canada is slowly shifting its production to off-shore locations in order to cope with the rising labor costs within Canada. Since clothing industry is labor-intensive, therefore, the rising costs and the profitability margins led the industry to take a shift from producing off-shore. This is also signified by the rising number of imports and declining exports. However, the local consumption of Clothing is significant enough for many companies to sustain the reduction in exports. Another important factor which convinced manufacturers in Canada is the fast pace picked up by fashion industry and its changing trends. This also helps them to manufacture high-end products and technical textiles. However, the key components of clothing manufacturing like Research and Development, Designing, Merchandising, buy and sell Distribution are still managed within Canada.
The decision to produce off-shore and cut costs enables the clothing manufacturers within Canada to put more effort in bringing innovation, new technologies, and automated procedures in order to be competitive with the rest of the world. Another area being rapidly tapped by the clothing manufacturers is the establishment and development of e-commerce channels for sales and distribution in the country.
Increase in Online Sales for Clothing
The development of e-commerce in retail sector especially facilitated Clothing sector but there are still newly discovered platforms which are proving to be more efficient than online retailing. Online retail sales have certain advantages where well established goods are readily introduced and sold. It also allows users to cut significant costs increased during storage and delivery and therefore, gives users an added benefit. However, with the introduction of classified sites in Canada the growth and promotion of online sales have been dramatically shifted from online retailers to classified websites. The reason is that almost every variety can be displayed and small-scale manufacturers can also post there which do not need to attribute a particular share to the online retailing site further reducing the prices. Secondly, users are not restricted to a particular category of products and are able to find arts, antiques, baby items, bikes, books, magazines, electronics, business, computer, accessories, free stuff, and much more using these websites.
There are many classified websites operating in Canada but the leading website for clothing and related accessories is CatchFree.ca which is the most secure and efficient way of online trading. The website has an extensive category list which includes furniture, garage, shops, medical equipment’s, house hold items, jewelry, musical instruments, phone, accessories, sports items, tickets, coupons, tools, toys, games, and other similar products. It also encourages all users to access the platform without having to pay for any services and provide an efficient way to search whereby all suppliers are given equal opportunity to be able to sell their goods. Visit CatchFree.ca now and start trading online!