Digitilisation
How IoT is Making A Sustainable Impact on Retail
Could IoT Be The Technology Solution That Drives More Fashion Businesses To Adopt A Circular Business Model?
ARTICLE BY MUCHANETA KAPFUNDE, FOUNDING EDITOR-IN-CHIEF FASHNERD.COM
Did you know that IoT, Internet of Things, is all around us? With more connected things than people globally, we live in an IoT-enabled world that has the potential to power, a circular future for fashion and retail businesses. Destined to make a quantifiable impact, the Internet of Things has been busy proving itself to be beyond the hype.
Described by experts as a service innovation tool, IoT has been touted as the solution that will help fashion businesses change how they operate when consuming resources and waste production. Designed to make businesses smarter and more responsive, retailers adopting IoT are not only managing to transform their entire value chain; but they are also reducing the impact their business has on the environment. How might you ask? Allow me to elaborate.
Harnessing the Power of IoT
Responsible for automating the world around us, IoT has been described as merging the digital and physical universes. No longer restricted to wearable devices, intelligent cars or smart homes, IoT is a technology solution that offers fashion retailers’ the opportunity to interact and connect with customers, manufacturers and other businesses.
As a solution that presents retailers with the opportunity to reduce their environmental impact, IoT has become vital in supporting the industry to push forward sustainable measures. Sustainably innovating the retail sector and moving fashion towards a new and exciting direction are game-changers, one of them is Eon. The NY based startup, which partnered with Microsoft last year, has developed an IoT software that connects and stores digital identities of connected apparel.
It is no secret that retailers are more adaptors of innovation than innovators themselves. This is why Eon’s IoT platform continues to play a more vital role in everyday business. Redefining fashion and helping the industry scale new circular business models such as rental, resale, digital wardrobing, peer-to-peer exchange, styling services, reuse and recycling, Eon plans to bring a connected and circular economy across fashion to the forefront, which is why in 2020, alongside Microsoft they pledged to have 400 million fashion products online by 2025.
In an interview at Munich Fabric Start’s Keyhouse, in September 2019, I sit down with CEO and found of Eon Group, Natascha Frank. Watch the interview here.
IoT, Playing a Pivotal Role in a New Retailing World
IoT is helping fashion businesses have it all; commercial growth and a strategic system that allows them to keep their environmental commitments. Through IoT sensors and IoT-enabled data analytics, unique opportunities are not only being brought to the forefront; they are also delivering change. Playing a pivotal role in a new retailing world, IoT solutions are positively impacting the fashion industry because they have created conditions that are instrumental in encouraging retailers to increase their sustainability initiatives. Introducing a new awareness, IoT is helping deliver sustainability breakthroughs that include reducing energy use and carbon footprint, optimizing supply chains, sourcing responsibly and minimizing waste.
So it should not come as a surprise that the World Economic Forum estimates that 84% of IoT systems in use have the potential to meet the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Even with the scepticism still being received, IoT is still considered to be one of the largest enablers pushing forward the rise of Internet-enabled retail. Not only has it been improving efficiency and transparency, but IoT’s impact has also helped create conditions that allow for specific shifts to happen in retail. With continuous noise coming from the IoT space it is not without its challenges. Read more on this here.
One of the setbacks arising from this nascent trend is the issue of security and privacy. It is a problem that is slowing down the benefits that the IoT revolution can add to the industry’s sustainability initiatives. With most retailers admitting to not being technology experts, it is this lack of IoT know-how when it comes to security and privacy problems that is hindering the widespread adoption of the solution. IoT brings to the table a different set of privacy issues, separate from the ones we already face with ‘regular’ internet. So what is needed is a realistic approach to privacy and security, that came put in place sooner rather than later.
Closing the Gap Between ‘Wanting to be Innovative’ and ‘Being Innovative’
Although not everyone expects IoT to become a universal tool, it does not take away from its tremendous potential to make a pervasive impact on fashion retailers’ sustainability goals. Still considered a relatively young complex technology, IoT has, with time, become a valued digital technology respected for its ability to offer retailers a unique opportunity to tackle some of the most pressing issues like running a greener fashion business.
Accelerated by COVID-19, the gap between ‘wanting to be innovative’ and ‘being innovative’ is growing smaller. It is a change that has come about, mainly due to more retailers starting to invest in IoT for sustainable purposes. As IoT technology goes through continuous improvement, retailers need to be open to playing the long game because I believe that when it comes to the merger of IoT, sustainability and retail, we haven’t seen anything yet.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Founding editor-in-chief of FashNerd.com, Muchaneta has worked in the fashion industry for over 14 years. She is currently one of the leading influencers speaking and writing about the merger of fashion with technology and wearable technology.
Muchaneta Kapfunde | editor@fashnerd.com
Why It's Time For A Digital Intervention
Why It's Time For A Digital Intervention
ARTICLE BY MUCHANETA KAPFUNDE, FOUNDING EDITOR-IN-CHIEF FASHNERD.COM
In an increasingly digitised world, the present-day landscape for fashion businesses is changing. The technology tinkerers and digital blacksmiths are challenging the traditional way of designing. Digital activity is no longer just focused on sales; instead, there is a new digital approach transforming existing design practices. Reimagining the process of designing, creating and showing garments, digital tools are arming designers and brands with technology created to eliminate the manual steps usually taken in the traditional fashion design cycle.
A Digital Approach To Garment Creation
With optimism towards technology growing, more brands are becoming open to adopting new business models and beginning to find their footing in the digital economy. As we enter 2021, more fashion designers are starting to understand why digitally managing the back end of their business is essential which has meant that we are hearing less of “We know digital is important, but…”. Through digital intervention, fashion businesses are not only altering how they operate day-to-day, they are also taking a step back and thinking about how digital tools could add value to their business.
Moving towards a more digital model presents exciting opportunities, especially for fashion houses, grappling with how to move forward post-pandemic. Created to enhance what we want to achieve long term, committing to the digital process will not only eliminate multiple rounds of pattern-making and model fittings; it will also allow fashion brands to identify and unlock opportunities. Yes, going digital can come with a few uncertainties, but with everything going on, there has never been a more perfect moment to change your internal mindset.
Be Inspired To Innovate and Push the Boundaries
Taking a visionary approach is founder of fashion magazine More or Less, Jaime Perlman. Last year the former Vogue UK creative director teamed up with Microsoft to launch ‘Augmented Atelier‘. The partnership was designed to advocate new tools for an alternative take on design. “It’s really about using technology as a form of imagination and how that reacts with the real world in a physical space. It’s about using technology to innovate and push the boundaries of what fashion can mean,” explained Jaime Perlman on the Microsoft.com blog.
Harnessing the capabilities of Microsoft Azure Spatial Anchors, Pearlman is not defying traditional methods independently; she has Bethany Williams, Phoebe English, Fredrik Tjærandsen, and Rottingdean Bazaar as part of her tribe. Working together, they have been busy bringing forward tools that offer the kind of solutions that bring sustainability, innovation and imagination to the forefront of the industry.
Defining Your Place In The Digital Economy
Streamlining the design process, pushing boundaries and reshaping attitudes, taking a digital approach to garment creation is not a radical choice but a necessary one. Although the digital journey can be challenging, more and more innovative tools are growing in prominence and being introduced to the industry. It is these tools that are giving fashion brands a better understanding of the opportunities that they present. Yes, digital technology is making it easier for fashion businesses to move towards a more digital model, but the question now is, are you, as a business, ready to embrace the change taking place in the industry?
With startup designers leading the way and defining their place in the digital economy, some still hesitate. If you are unsure if digital tools are the way forward, imagine this, having the ability to transfer real-life fabrics to your design. The good news is that you do not have to imagine anymore, thanks to The Scanatic™ Nuno3D Service. Digitally empowering fashion, the company offers a solution that allows for realistic fabric visualisation by rendering the fabric scan in the most true-to-life. It is an invention that enables designers to import different texture maps, like knitted fabrics, woven fabrics, synthetic fabrics etc.
Then there is CLO. Promising to revolutionise the design process by combating inefficiencies within the fashion industry, CLO is a software that can transform a brands workflow. With CLO, brands could bring their business presence to the next level. Offering true-to-life 3D garment simulation, CLO addresses today’s challenges by providing an efficient 3D design process. By guiding the fashion industry towards a future where designers can seamlessly integrate 3D into their operation, CLO makes it possible to virtualise a garment and transform a designer’s entire workflow.
A firm favourite is TUKATECH. The software company has two digital fashion products, TUKAcad and TUKA3D. Created for designers looking to streamline their production process, the software eliminates the need for physical samples and makes it possible to create life-like digital collections. One of the critical features of TUKA3D is that it includes 3D virtual sampling in 5 visual ways, real-life virtual fit sessions and fabric and trims library.
Last but not least is Virtuality.Fashion. Driven to bring your fashion ideas to life, the company has made sharing creations virtually without sending physical samples easy breezy. Powered by C-Design, the collaborative platform makes sharing and collaborating with potential buyers or internally much more straightforward.
Digital Tools, The Ultimate Must-Have?
Presenting new opportunities for an industry that needs to change – digital tools are becoming the ultimate must-have for fashion businesses ready to transform existing design practices. More affordable than ever before, the good news is that the adoption of full-fledged digital solutions has gone from pleasant to have, to need to have. As we enter 2021, the fashion brands that are taking this positive step in the chaotic upside-down world we are currently doing business in are most likely going to be around for the long run, and for those who are reluctant to adopt digital tools, some experts predict that soon it will be too late.