The cost of a T-shirt ｜一件上衣的成本有多少？
Do you feel excited by snapping up the on sale deal?
對於大打折扣的搶購你心動嗎？
Everyone includes me takes a while in front of the on sale banner because of the unbelievable offer. Have you ever thought about how much the profit is taken by brands? and how much remain for manufacturers? You might be stunned by the answer - over 60% of revenue is taken by brands, 4% is for factory's margin and the workers get less than 1% for producing a T-shirt. The graph below clearly shows the cost for producing a shirt.
我跟大家一樣,在紅色的打折促銷牌前輾轉徘徊,腦裡儘是加加減減的算術公式,試圖說服自己省下了多少。但是你是否曾經想過,這樣的價格之下,品牌拿走多少利潤,而歸製造商的部份又是多少？答案可能會讓你感到驚訝 － 製造一件上衣,企業可得超過60%的利潤,製造商4%,而工人僅得不到1%的工資。下圖說明了一件上衣的配置成本。
So did you realize what the problem is? How could international brands like Zara, H&M earn such huge profit but selling cheap offer to consumers? The fact that sustain this successful business module coming from low-wages countries with huge labor force, such as Bangladesh, Cambodia. China used to be a major world manufacturing hub, but since few years before, labor's wage and raw materials have been risen. Therefore, western companies started to look for lower-cost manufacturing - Bangladesh becomes the second largest manufacture exporter. Cambodia is been seen as a place to supply fast fashion as well. Around US$ 5 billions of amount were exported from Cambodia in 2013, and the percentage still raise till now.
現在你發現問題的根源了嗎？Zara,H&M等國際平價服飾品牌如何以平價的銷售策略製造出豐厚的利潤？支撐這個成功經營模式的關鍵是將訂單外包至廉價勞力的新興國家,例如孟加拉,柬埔寨等。過去,中國被視為是世界工廠。近幾年來, 隨著製造業的蓬勃發展,不可避免的成本如原物料及工資也逐漸上漲。而這些品牌的因應辦法則是轉往更低廉的國家尋找製造商,於是孟加拉成為現今世界第二大服裝製造輸出國。另外,柬埔寨也被平價品牌相中是下一個投入訂單的國家, 2013年的出口總數多達5兆,而這個數字至今仍在攀升。
However, above figure explain that the minimum wage in Bangladesh and Cambodia is contrary with its productivity - US$ 68 in Bangladesh while US$ 75 in Cambodia per month. It's even lower than a selling price of cloth in store. In order to keep low-cost, manufacturers do not have much money to improve working safety facilities even can not satisfy worker's basic need. Therefore, the common issues like
exploitation of child labor, exposure in danger condition...etc happen quite often during the process of manufacturing.
以上數據說明了在孟加拉,柬埔寨這些地區的最低工資並沒有與其生產力一同成長－2013年孟加拉的一個月最低工資僅US＄68, 而柬埔寨只有US$75, 這個數字甚至低於店內架上的衣服。而因為無力拉高利潤,工廠的安全設備往往簡陋草率,更別說能給予工人支持家計的工資了。常見的情況如剝削童工,長期暴露在危險的工作環境等更是時有所聞。
In short, cheap fashion is a series of butterfly effect of supply chain that out of sight but existing in our life. Be aware the issues in Bangladesh and Cambodia, think about the problems of exploitation before you are fascinated by the on sale deal.
簡單來說,這是一連串的供應鏈蝴蝶效應,它不易察覺但卻存在於我們生活中。做為一個高意識的消費者,搶購特價商品前想想孟加拉及柬埔寨的工人。