THE IMPACT OF DATA ON CREATIVE FASHION? IN CONVERSATION WITH STEVE BROWN AND KORNIT DIGITAL
“Used correctly Data has the power to transform the industry and paves the way to greater transparency within the supply chain. The workflow within the current fashion cycle is fractured, outdated and in need of digital reform. The Industry also has a poor reputation for its environmental impact and increasingly the consumer demands that fashion cleans up its footprint” - KORNIT DIGITAL
The Impact of Data on Creative Fashion?
In conversation with experienced buyer Steve Brown, and Omer Kulka, chief marketing officer at Kornit Digital.
The Kornit Digital “Business Unusual” series brings together thought leaders and Fashion Industry experts from across the globe. The future of the fashion industry relies heavily on collaboration, if the fashion industry is to reform, then the supply chain must innovate. All industry practitioners, suppliers and technology providers are stakeholders in the journey to a sustainable, viable Fashion Industry, and as such, these important conversations play an essential role by sharing knowledge and in giving all partners access to the valuable insights that will help fashion make the seismic shift to a sustainable future.
The Industry is in the midst of a digital revolution, it needs a reset and must adapt to move forward. The Covid crisis will without doubt be a catalyst for change for this complex $2.4 trillion dollar industry.
Steve Brown is an experience buyer, in this talk he shares his insights on Fashion’s most valuable currency – Data. Used correctly Data has the power to transform the industry and paves the way to greater transparency within the supply chain. The workflow within the current fashion cycle is fractured, outdated and in need of digital reform. The Industry also has a poor reputation for its environmental impact and increasingly the consumer demands that fashion cleans up its footprint.
The Fashion industry has made some progress, predominantly in the use of design software, moving away from the drawing board to utilize digital sketchbooks by example. However, as a huge industry change has been hard to embrace and adoption slow. Technology is disrupting the customer face of the industry which continues to change rapidly as the tech utilized for retail and ecommerce sales advances. Software provides an enhanced customer experience and increasingly valuable customer engagement all of which generates data.
However, the back end of the supply chain isn’t keeping pace and is slow to adopt new technologies.
The majority of the supply chain is still analogue and manual. The design cycle has adopted digitization, at the front-end virtual showrooms and look books are the new normal, but then the process drops back to a manual format. In principle because the operational systems are not in place to digitize the workflow within these often complex supply chains.
The industry needs to invest and digitize the workflow, by onboarding new, vital skill-sets that are now an essential requirement.
However, fashion is a business of margins and whilst it wrestles with its legacy production its very difficult to make the change whilst fighting to make margin. The issue really is that the industry has been struggling for many years and it will take time to adopt new digital practices at scale. The industry needs to slow down in order to recover its margins, the 24/7 design cycle driven by analogue technologies has taken its toll and the industry now needs to consolidate its efforts and release energy to study new practicalities and allow time for changes to be made.
The industry needs a 360 approach to make a realistic transformation, it must move to add transparency throughout the supply chain which now requires real-time data, if fashion is to recreate the best version of itself.
Ecommerce sales are an important driver for change, in a truly virtual world technology delivers a powerful sales platform, from design to production, but for many brands products are still required for photography, and here this new digital hybrid is balanced between both worlds – digital and analogue. If product is to be sold in a virtual format, they have to be a true digital twin of the physical item for sale.
Bricks and mortar still represent 70% of fashion retails sales, but here too changes are afoot. With many retailers trading in a crowded space, differentiating your brand from your competitors is an important sales enabler. The market is moving further to deliver a sticky brand experience, offering exceptional customer service and customer engagement which are all becoming increasingly important core strategies for retail growth.
Covid-19 has been an accelerator for change within an industry now focusing its attention on inventory to make savings wherever possible.
The design and supply of core products relies on the data held within the sell through statistics. Utilizing data, the designer is freed to design products that are proven winners, creativity is restored, and risk averted. Data and design are complementary tools for successful sales.
The consumer is the ultimate decision maker, and increasingly personalization is in demand. Brands need to get closer to their customers to meet their expectations, and in doing so design the products they desire.
Technology allows the retailer to integrate the consumer into the design process, utilizing software to create virtual dressing rooms, enables the consumer to experience the retailer’s products in a digital visualization, this relationship will develop over time to facilitate mass customization of physical products at scale.
Digital visualization also reduces sampling, the cost of which is a heavy burden on the manufacturer, where samples can often run at a 40% conversion rate.
As software advances the buyer will have proven data to be able to accurately predict the order quantities required against customer data in order to meet demand.
Its unrealistic to assume that the entire fashion supply chain will switch to on demand manufacturing for core collections, however for capsule ranges, the benefits of digital production are viable for short production runs and offer new opportunities.
The carbon footprint of fashion production is often truncated and primed for disruption.
Near shore manufacturing offers both speed and environmental benefits to an industry that’s currently responsible for 10% of the world’s carbon emissions. Just as ecommerce has disrupted the retail sector, fashion innovators may very well reboot the traditional supply chain cycle.
Any investment for the fashion industry has a commercial impact, and whilst the industry has an appetite for change, it’s clear that without a reset, the traditional practices of the past will result in more consolidation within the sector. Brands must innovate or disappear. Covid has created a tipping point for the fashion industry, but not all companies can adapt. Burdened with heavy debts raising capital can be troublesome, changing corporate culture a challenge and restructuring a low-tech supply chain problematic.
The crisis has also shown that omni-channel sales are important. Brands most affected by the crisis are those that are strictly bricks and mortar.
An online presence also connects the retailer to the consumer, and as such enables AI and data capture alongside increased consumer engagement. Fashion has become a hyper capitalist machine and has lost its way. Post Covid retail offers new opportunities for the fashion sector, the market is saturated, its ripe for innovation.
The industry may well switch to non-seasonal cycle where consumers are given what they want, when they want it. The dynamics of fashion must change in favour of the consumers demand for sustainability, transparency and traceability, which are all growing requirements within the sector and must become inherent in the product story. Circularity is also a growing demand, the lifecycle of the product no longer ends with landfill, contemporary brands are engineering end of life into their brand philosophy’s.
Collaboration is key to the future of fashion, a brand cannot create a 360 sustainable workflow alone, partnership is essential.
Steve Browns vision for the future of fashion is a streamlined, digital version that facilitates real-time design, increases creativity and communication, and accurately quantified production.
