Export channels for surplus apparel

Size curves differ by market, so an assortment that is unsellable in one country can be well matched in another. Seasonality inverts across hemispheres, which converts an out-of-season lot into an in-season one. And price points that are impossible domestically can work where the comparison set is different.

This is why closeout distributors maintain export relationships alongside domestic off-price accounts: the two absorb different parts of the same lot.

Brand restrictions come first. Many disposal agreements limit the territories in which goods may be resold, require de-branding, or prohibit export outright, because a brand protecting its full-price channel cares where the goods surface. Those terms are the subject of resale restrictions.

Then the ordinary trade constraints: duties and classification, documentation, and in some markets restrictions on imports of used or second-hand clothing that do not apply to unsold new goods but require proof of which category the shipment falls into.

A buyer valuing a lot prices the exportable portion differently from the domestically sellable portion, and a restriction on export removes a channel that may have been carrying the slowest part of the assortment. A lot that looked balanced can become unbalanced purely because of a contract term.