What: From altering products to buying materials in bulk, brands and retailers are adapting to a volatile market.

Why is it important: Brands and retailers are struggling to preserve cash at a time when everything from labour to materials to energy is becoming costlier daily.

Raising prices alone won’t be enough for businesses to maintain healthy margins. Managing inflation could also mean negotiating better rates with suppliers, using deadstock, introducing lower-priced products and more.

The first step in preserving capital is being efficient, brands should look at small measures, such as ordering fewer samples, along with bigger solutions. Also, look to alter products in small ways, such as hang tags, zippers and packaging, for instance, are subtle enough to change without eliciting too many complaints from customers.

Optimizing production costs by powering factories by solar energy or exploring new production partnerships with vendors who could make the same product for cheaper.

Purchasing a larger-than-usual quantity of materials is an easy way to negotiate lower prices with suppliers, especially when those prices are changing daily also seeking partnerships with other brands in order to build up negotiation leverage.

Finessing the price increase with loyalty programmes and encouraging customers to buy in stores, where margins per purchase are higher. Also, introducing a new assortment of low-price, low-cost products.

How brands adapt to rising costs