Purchasing risks, with globalization

A deposit scheme for the return of batteries has a number of drawbacks. Technically it would be unrealistic to expect manufacturers to mark products for a small market such as Belgium, when they are produced on a global scale. The scheme would be complex to administer, particularly with the risk of fraud resulting from batteries being returned which were purchased outside of Belgium. 

A winning procurement strategy for products with high demand variability is to buy globally from fhe lowesf cosf counfry and handle demand variability through "spot purchases" from local sources. This is similar to FlP s portfolio strategy to handle supply risk we discussed in Section 7.7.2. 

Care labels that are easily understood by consumers increase their confidence in caring for the apparel and reduce their perceptions of risk concerning the purchase of the item. The care instmctions can be passed to the consumers with text only, symbols only and a combination of text and symbol (Yan et al., 2008). The manirfacturers of clothing and other textiles prefer to use symbols on the care label, as the care symbols are globally recognizable and do not need to be translated into other languages. A majority of consumers prefer care labels that contain text and symbols, as these skills are taught and reinforced from an early age. 

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