Abstract
Competitive dynamics in many segments of the US apparel industry are being transformed by technological innovations that allow the low-cost collection, processing, and dissemination of consumer sales data. These innovations lay the foundation for a new set of retailing strategies directed at reducing a retailer's exposure to market demand risk by using daily, point-of-sale information to adjust the supply of products offered to consumers at retail outlets to match actual levels of market demand. An analysis is presented of the transformations in process in the retail-apparel-textile channel, exploring both economic forces leading to the channel's historical organization and recent forces that are blurring distinctions between production stages in the channel.