Purchasing practices are the way that a company interacts and does business with the manufacturers that supply their products. It encompasses strategic planning, sourcing, development, purchasing (buying) and the underlying behaviours, values and principles which impact workers. Making last minute changes to product design and purchase agreements can create knock-on effects for workers who may be forced to work excessive overtime in order to deliver these changes.

A note on the scoring system

Wikirate has a standardised 10-point scoring system making it possible to compare company scores across different benchmarks. On Wikirate.org, the Fashion Transparency Index scoring system, where each company can get a maximum of 250 points, has been converted to the 10-point scoring system - with 10 being the highest a company can score and 0 being the lowest. These company scores can also be translated to percentages e.g. if a company has scored 2.5 out of 10 on Wikirate, they have achieved 25% of the 250 points in the Fashion Transparency Index.