How to determine the best strategy for your Fashion Supply Chain

How to determine the best strategy for your Fashion Supply Chain

Fashion Supply Chain

Supply chains and value chains in the fashion industry are changing rapidly.

Like many other things, the supply and value chains of the fashion industry are subject to constant and currently rapid change. Whereas years ago the primary focus was on globalisation, today other aspects dominate the discussion in industry and trade: for example, we discuss integration, disintegration or virtual integration of a supply chain. Other strategic topics are aspects such as omnichannel supply chains, sustainable supply chains or supply chain transparency.

Many of these dimensions are highly relevant for the strategic positioning of a company. At the same time, these aspects have a massive impact on processes as well as on infrastructure and systems or applications.

Omnichannel and digital pure players

The challenges for companies are growing daily. In the fashion industry, companies are coming under increasing global competitive pressure combined with advancing digitalisation. So-called digital pure players are becoming increasingly important and setting new trends. In addition, vertical suppliers are almost omnipresent - they are simply omnipresent on all available channels.

Application areas

In which application areas do companies need to make rapid progress?

Time-to-market systematisch beschleunigen durch weitgehende Integration von Prozessen

Accelerate time to market

Systematically accelerate time-to-market through extensive integration of processes.
ALLE verfügbaren Automatisierungspotenziale nutzen

Use automation

Use ALL available automation potentials to secure processes, accelerate and increase efficiency.
Wertschöpfung und Nachhaltigkeit

Value creation and sustainability

Take a global and holistic view of value creation based on division of labour and relevant sustainability issues, such as social compliance, carbon footprint or waste reduction.
Datengetriebene Merchandizing- und Planungsprozesse optimieren

Merchandising and planning processes

Optimise data-driven merchandising and planning processes.
Individualisierung

Individualisation

Reaction to increasing individualisation and the resulting ever smaller batch sizes. A new idea comes into play here: scaling is required in both directions.
Time-to-market systematisch beschleunigen durch weitgehende Integration von Prozessen

Accelerate time to market

Systematically accelerate time-to-market through extensive integration of processes.
ALLE verfügbaren Automatisierungspotenziale nutzen

Use automation

Use ALL available automation potentials to secure processes, accelerate and increase efficiency.
Wertschöpfung und Nachhaltigkeit

Value creation and sustainability

Take a global and holistic view of value creation based on division of labour and relevant sustainability issues, such as social compliance, carbon footprint or waste reduction.
Datengetriebene Merchandizing- und Planungsprozesse optimieren

Merchandising and planning processes

Optimise data-driven merchandising and planning processes.
Individualisierung

Individualisation

Reaction to increasing individualisation and the resulting ever smaller batch sizes. A new idea comes into play here: scaling is required in both directions.

Timing the realignment as early as possible

The timing of the realignment in the company plays a key role: a relatively early realignment of the internal and external flows of goods and values (supply chain and value chain) results in numerous opportunities. With effects on the internal organisation, a completely new view of processes and system architecture, the rethinking of integration and collaboration as well as adaptation of strategic action patterns of the "digital natives". A clear IT architecture, for example, enables targeted analyses and thus promotes decision-making processes in the specialist departments and in management.

We are therefore entering a phase of supply chain development in which the established players in industry and stationary-driven trade must learn from the online pure players how to optimise data-driven processes! Conversely, the online pure players need to learn how to gain increasing control over a globally fragmented supply chain and orchestrate it through an appropriate internal organisation.

In the context of a major transformation initiative of a well-known retail company, it became apparent to me early on that not only a systemic realignment was needed, but also an organisational one. The "traditional" purchasing organisation, which consisted of separate procurement units for stationary and distance selling, was transformed into an omnichannel organisation. Not without challenges for the employees, who now had to approach topics such as assortment, timing or replenishment with a significantly broader perspective. And what was remarkable for me was that the impetus for this courageous step even came from the employees themselves, who had a very clear view of future market requirements.

Requirements

For companies, the following requirements for action can be derived from this:

1. Review strategy

Supply chain and omnichannel

Review and optimise your strategy with regard to supply chain and omnichannel approaches!
Supply Chain und Omnichannel Strategie

1. Question solution architecture

Long-term competitiveness

Question your current process and solution architecture with regard to long-term competitiveness and do not be too optimistic about the time you have to transform.
Lösungsarchitektur hinterfragen

1. Develop target vision

Risk-controlled to the target state

Develop target vision and transformation scenarios to get to the target state quickly, risk-controlled and efficiently.
Zielvision entwickeln

1. Review strategy

Supply chain and omnichannel

Review and optimise your strategy with regard to supply chain and omnichannel approaches!
Supply Chain und Omnichannel Strategie

1. Question solution architecture

Long-term competitiveness

Question your current process and solution architecture with regard to long-term competitiveness and do not be too optimistic about the time you have to transform.
Lösungsarchitektur hinterfragen

1. Develop target vision

Risk-controlled to the target state

Develop target vision and transformation scenarios to get to the target state quickly, risk-controlled and efficiently.
Zielvision entwickeln

Conclusion: Time pressure makes holistic solutions necessary

Time pressure is indeed necessary in order not to lose touch: As part of my teaching activities at the Niederrhein University of Applied Sciences, I deal with many of the above-mentioned topics, especially concerning the consequences for future global supply chains. Here, too, we can perceive an increasing global pressure to act with regard to the realignment of supply chains. Last but not least, the pandemic has clearly shown us how quickly consumer habits can change and, on the other hand, how vulnerable our global supply network has become.

For us, this was an additional trigger that accelerated the development of industry-specific Instant Platforms and made them urgent as a customer offering. A state-of-the-art architecture of processes and solutions that are fully delivered for industries such as "Fashion, Luxury Goods and Lifestyle". Simplifying and accelerating transformation is at the heart of what we do.

Within the framework of this blog series, we want to take up various topics that are currently moving the fashion industry and fashion retail and also discuss them with you. In the next episode, we want to look at the triggers and options for a transformation journey and explore the question of what contemporary transformation must look like tomorrow.

More Insights

You may also be interested in...

Instant Platform for Fashion, Luxury & Lifestyle Brands

KPS/style

KPS Instant Platform for Fashion, Luxury & Lifestyle Brands

KPS/style is a ready-to-use omnichannel platform for wholesalers and retailers covering items like clothing, shoes, accessories, jewellery, watches, eyewear, sporting goods, sports equipment, lingerie or licensed articles. Over 40 business scenarios and use cases from pre-season to past-season are available on the platform, ready to use.
Lean conversion to S/4 Hana

Introduction to S/4 HANA

Lean conversion to S/4 HANA

With defined modules, calculable services and sustainable innovations. We have 20 years of experience in the retail and consumer goods sector and bring 1000+ best practice processes to the table. Especially for this industry, we have put together a package that enables a fast conversion in 6 - 9 months.
Ein Lager mit Robotern und ein Mann im Hafen

Deliver growth

Logistics & Supply Chain

Digitalisation and significant trends, such as personalised products, demographic change, environmental and sustainability features, changes in mobility and a growing service sector, are all radically changing the opportunities and challenges in supply chain management.

The individual competencies will play an essential role in a company’s competitiveness in the future.

Privacy settings

We use cookies on our website. Some of them are essential, while others help us to improve this website and your experience. With your consent, we use cookies to analyse the usage of our website.

We also use cookies for marketing to help us measure the success of our marketing efforts. In the settings you will find detailed information about the individual cookies, and you can refuse the use of cookies.

You can change or revoke your selection at any time on any KPS.com page in the footer under Privacy Settings.

Essential Cookies

Essential cookies enable basic functions and are necessary for the proper functioning of the website.

Cookie Banner

  • Cookie Name: kps-privacy-settings
    Value: PrivacyLevel_0#a
    Storage Duration: 4 weeks
    Description: This cookie is required to save cookie settings. It is a purely technical cookie.

HubSpot:

  • Cookie Name: __hs_opt_out
    Storage Duration: 6 months
    Description: This cookie is used by the opt-in privacy policy to prompt the visitor to accept cookies again. It is set when you allow visitors to disable cookies. It contains the string "Yes" or "No."

  • Cookie Name: __hs_d_not_tracking
    Storage Duration: 6 months
    Description: This cookie can be set to prevent the tracking code from sending information to HubSpot. It contains the string "Yes."

  • Cookie Name: _hs_initial_opt
    Storage Duration: 7 days
    Description: This cookie is used to prevent banners from being displayed every time visitors access your website in strict mode. It contains the string "Yes" or "No."

  • Cookie Name: __hs_cookie_cat_pref
    Storage Duration: 6 months
    Description: This cookie is used to capture the categories a visitor has consented to. It contains data about those categories.

  • Cookie Name: __hs_gpc_banner_dismiss
    Storage Duration: 3 months
    Description: This cookie is used when the Global Privacy Control banner is dismissed.

  • Cookie Name: hs_ab_test
    Storage Duration: Until the end of the session
    Description: This cookie is used to ensure that visitors see the same version of an A/B test page they were shown previously. It contains the ID of the A/B test page and the ID of the variant selected for the visitor.

  • Cookie Name: __cfruid
    Storage Duration: Until the end of the session
    Description: This cookie is set by HubSpot's CDN provider in accordance with its rate-limiting policies.

  • Cookie Name: ___cfuvid
    Storage Duration: Until the end of the session
    Description: This cookie is set by HubSpot's CDN provider in accordance with its rate-limiting policies.

  • Cookie Name: ___cf_bm
    Storage Duration: Until the end of the session
    Description: This cookie is set by HubSpot's CDN provider in accordance with its rate-limiting policies.

Functional cookies

Functional cookies are used by third parties or publishers to display personalised advertisements. They do this by tracking visitors across websites.

Google Analytics

Cookie Name: _ga
Storage Duration: 2 years
Description: Used to distinguish between users.

Cookie Name: _gid
Storage Duration: 24 months
Description: Used to distinguish between users.

Cookie Name: _gat
Storage Duration: 1 minute
Description: Used to throttle the request rate. If Google Analytics is provided via Google Tag Manager, this cookie is named dc_gtm<property-ID>.

Cookie Name: hide-cookieinfo
Storage Duration: 30 days
Description: Cookie set for querying the cookies.

HubSpot

Cookie Name: __hstc
Storage Duration: 6 months
Description: The main cookie for visitor tracking. It contains the domain, the user token (hubspotutk), the first timestamp (of the first visit), the last timestamp (of the last visit), the current timestamp (for this visit), and the session count (increases with each subsequent session).

Cookie Name: hubspotutk
Storage Duration: 6 months
Description: This cookie tracks the identity of a visitor. This cookie is passed to the HubSpot software when submitting a form and is used for deduplicating contacts. It contains an opaque GUID to represent the current visitor.

Cookie Name: __hssc
Storage Duration: 30 minutes
Description: This cookie tracks sessions. It is used to determine whether the HubSpot software needs to increment the session count and timestamps in the __hstc cookie. It contains the domain, the number of page views (viewCount, increases with each page view in a session), and the session start timestamp.

Cookie Name: __hssrc
Storage Duration: End of session
Description: Whenever the HubSpot software changes the session cookie, this cookie is also set. It determines whether the visitor has restarted the browser. If this cookie is not present when HubSpot manages cookies, it is considered a new session. It contains the value "1" if present.

External media

Content from video platforms and social media platforms is blocked by default. If cookies from external media are accepted, access to this content no longer requires manual consent.

LinkedIn Tag

Cookie Name: bcookie
Storage Duration: 365 days
Description: Browser Identifier cookie to uniquely identify devices accessing LinkedIn to detect abuse on the platform and for diagnostic purposes.

Cookie Name: bscookie
Storage Duration: 365 days
Description: Used for remembering that a logged-in user is verified by two-factor authentication and has previously logged in.

Cookie Name: JSESSIONID
Storage Duration: Session
Description: Used for Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) protection and URL signature validation.

Cookie Name: lang
Storage Duration: Session
Description: Used to remember a user's language setting to ensure LinkedIn.com displays in the language selected by the user in their settings.

Cookie Name: lidc
Storage Duration: 1 day
Description: To facilitate data center selection.

Cookie Name: sdsc
Storage Duration: Session
Description: Signed data service context cookie used for database routing to ensure consistency across all databases when a change is made. Used to ensure that user-inputted content is immediately available to the submitting user upon submission.

Cookie Name: li_gc
Storage Duration: 180 days
Description: Used to store consent of guests regarding the use of cookies for non-essential purposes.

Cookie Name: li_mc
Storage Duration: 180 days
Description: Used as a temporary cache to avoid database lookups for a member's consent for use of non-essential cookies and used for having consent information on the client side to enforce consent on the client side.

Cookie Name: UID
Storage Duration: 720 days
Description: Cookie used for market and user research.

Cookie Name: UserMatchHistory
Storage Duration: 30 days
Description: LinkedIn Ads ID syncing.

Cookie Name: AnalyticsSyncHistory
Storage Duration: 30 days
Description: Used to store information about the time a sync took place with the lms_analytics cookie.

Cookie Name: lms_ads
Storage Duration: 30 days
Description: Used to identify LinkedIn Members off LinkedIn for advertising.

Cookie Name: lms_analytics
Storage Duration: 30 days
Description: Used to identify LinkedIn Members off LinkedIn for analytics.

Cookie Name: li_fat_id
Storage Duration: 30 days
Description: Member indirect identifier for Members for conversion tracking, retargeting, and analytics.

Cookie Name: li_sugr
Storage Duration: 90 days
Description: Used to make a probabilistic match of a user's identity.

Cookie Name: _guid
Storage Duration: 90 days
Description: Used to identify a LinkedIn Member for advertising through Google Ads.

Cookie Name: BizographicsOptOut
Storage Duration: 10 years
Description: Used to determine opt-out status for non-members.

Cookie Name: li_giant
Storage Duration: 7 days
Description: Indirect identifier for groups of LinkedIn Members used for conversion tracking.

Cookie Name: oribi_cookie_test
Storage Duration: Session
Description: To determine if tracking can be enabled on the current domain.

Cookie Name: oribili_user_guid
Storage Duration: 365 days
Description: Used to count unique visitors to a website.

Cookie Name: ln_or
Storage Duration: 1 day
Description: Used to determine if Oribi analytics can be carried out on a specific domain.

Cookie Name: ar_debug
Storage Duration: Session
Description: Supports Google attribution reporting API integration to mitigate signal loss.

Lead Forensics

Cookie Name: __lfluuid
Storage Duration: 10 years
Description: The _lfuuid cookie allows a website to track visitor behavior on the sites on which the cookie is installed. Tracking is performed anonymously until a user identifies himself by submitting a form.

Changing privacy settings

Imprint

Data protection statement