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The textile industry is one of the world’s oldest yet most flourishing sectors that contribute significantly to the economic, employment, and cultural trends in nearly every country worldwide. It is expected that the textile industry will contribute nearly USD 1.4 trillion in revenues globally by 2028 from a combination of physical and eCommerce store ecosystems that are dominating the world of fashion today.
Nearly every country has at least a dozen recognisable fashion brands that symbolise the diverse cultural growth story in their respective origin nations. While in the initial days, brands had total control over the distribution of products with their label, there is a massive challenge that brands must mitigate today as they aim to expand their sales – counterfeit products.
Studies indicate that the textile industry lost over USD 50 billion due to fake goods in 2020 alone! This is a worldwide phenomenon and is a severe challenge, especially for luxury brands that have a presence in hundreds of international markets. As more millennials take over the economy, so have a new set of preferences for their fashion needs.
Today it is no longer just about the style or colour that strikes a chord in the minds of customers, but also factors like ethical production practices, selection of quality raw materials from reputed sources, transparent pricing schemes, and so on. Counterfeit goods create problems across all these areas and brands are losing their market share. That apart, they are also losing their value proposition, as consumers may feel cheated when they purchase fake products unknowingly after being influenced by advertisements pushed out by the brand about their credentials.
So how can textile companies ensure brand protection by mitigating this huge challenge? The answer lies in ensuring end-to-end traceability for their production and sales channels.
Traceability, in its simplest definition, is the enablement of active monitoring and verification of their entire operational process beginning from sourcing of raw materials to processing, warehousing, packaging, transportation, and sale via store or eCommerce.
With end-to-end traceability, this data can be transparently shared with customers or partner stores or any stakeholder in the company’s value chain to verify the credentials of the asset being sold or distributed to them for sales.
By leveraging advanced identity verification techniques across different stages of apparel production and using state-of-the-art integrated digital applications that work in tandem with the identifiers, fashion houses can establish trust and confidence amongst consumers with transparent visibility into the specifications of their product.
Let us explore 4 ways in which textile companies can ensure brand protection with end-to-end traceability:
In the fashion world, sources of raw materials such as cotton or leather have a huge impact on the acceptance of the product. Customers prefer that the brand of clothing they chose has ensured that the raw materials used in its making are sourced from exquisite locations – for instance, authentic silk sourced from Kancheepuram or cotton from Egypt are often considered to be the best in the world. Fashion brands can stamp unique identifiers like a QR code which customers can verify by simply scanning the end product. A micro-website could be shown to them the unique IDs and from where the material is sourced. It will be impossible for fake brands and counterfeit makers to replicate this.
In addition to establishing the credibility of raw material sources, traceability solutions can help to ensure that every stage in the production of the apparel uses the designated raw material and its usage tracked and logged into the specifications digitally. The material form may be changed according to different processing stages, but unique identifiers ensure that the right material is used at the right stage and for the desired clothing label.
By leveraging unique identifiers implemented as part of the traceability solution, ERP entries across different stages of production or transportation can be automated by simply scanning the deliverables from each stage. Data inscribed on the identifier (like a QR code) can be entered automatically into the ERP system of the brand and further shared with different departments for end-to-end visibility.
Just as how end consumers can check for authenticity of the products by scanning unique identifiers on the product and validating it with the brand, the brand themselves can use traceability solutions to ensure that their partners source raw materials or assign sub-processes to certified or authentic and recognised parties in the value chain.
Traceability solutions enable easy identification and verification of even granular details of a consumer product be it apparel or any item. By offering customers and brands options to verify the authenticity of the product as well as components used and processes followed in its making, an extra layer of trust and credibility is added to the brand. This helps brands to defeat the challenges posed by counterfeit goods and avoid negative customer sentiments.
Get in touch with us to know more about leveraging customised traceability solutions for your textile business and drive better customer experiences always.
