Merchandise Sourcing: Is There Life Beyond China?

But Haugen, whose firm represents such catalogers as Blair, Haband and Restoration Hardware, offered some eye-opening trends on product sourcing around the world that can ultimately affect even the smallest cataloger.

For starters, he noted that prices aren’t going up on the producers’ end because competition is driving them down. “China doesn’t necessarily control pricing,” he said, “ because it’s Bangladesh, Cambodia and others. There’s no particular reason for prices to go up on products today; in the world of free trade, you have the whole world to choose from.”