Digitization Is Everywhere, Even the Fashion Industry Is Not Spared

In every era, fashion witnessed a whole new change. Whether it is about geometric patterns in the year 1960 or earthy tones in the latter year. The further decades kept on observing gigantic shifts in fashion trends and no matter whatever be the reason of variance in trend, the upcoming years clearly found its reason none other than digital world influence.

Every change offered a handful of benefits to both consumers and fashion brands. Now when every hand has a mobile phone and social media presence, fashion got a whole new definition. From selling to advertising to predicting fashion trends.

It is estimated that $1.5 trillion per year is the enormous amount that is produced by this gigantic industry. This article is a little effort to bring in some surprising digital aspects that devastatingly influence this marketplace.

Digitization in the Fashion Realm

What it means to have digitization in the fashion industry is simply how the companies respond to organizational changes, control reputational threats, and manage to fill the gap between customer’s outspoken expectations and experience.

Digitization for fashion brands entails a new meaning of how shopping in a digitized world should develop instead of merely digitizing certain ways of shopping.

The Tech Changes That Took the Fashion Industry by Storm

The fashion industry is not limited to a specific arena. It has a myriad of areas covering from worldwide discount retailers to elite luxury bodies. These areas control a great proportion of the global economy and are often subjected to uncertainties by the fashion trend and industrial changes. To cope with this variability, the entire fashion marketplace has to put extraordinary pressure to balance the imbalanced economical fulcrum. However, the process of digitization comes forward as a rescuer and is proving to sustain the shaken economy with promising results.

So far, the technological disruptions in the sphere of fashion have been encapsulated as under.

AI in Fashion

Over the past years, the fashion industry has observed artificial Intelligence to improvise customer’s shopping experience, boost sales, data analysis, predict trends, and provide inventory-related instructions.

It is rare to not find AI Chatbot on websites that are planted to enhance the customer experience. Likewise, touchscreens and chatbots are now being employed to offer customized product suggestions. The technology is so genius that its algorithm which works behind the scene keeps a record of customer’s journeys to align them with the equitable product.

Some of the most profitable avenues where AI has marked its supremacies are trend prediction, supply chain management, and real-time inventory tracking.

Fashion brands could have a substantial competitive benefit if they combine inventory tracking with robust AI data prediction tools for the purpose of fashion trends forecasting. This whole process will require to have observations and data collection from trend spotters, influencers, and fashion designers.  The fast access to data will guarantee them a rapid grasp over the right planning strategies on time.

Fashion Has Also Embraced IoT (Internet of Things)

Internet of Things has set another benchmark for leveraging fashion. The past years have observed a myriad of IoT-enabled fashion gadgets including smart clothing, multi-functional designs, wearable spaces, and last but not least responsive sportswear.

Many brands are now busy pushing the limits of what wearing means in fashion, as soon as the real-life got mixed with the virtual ones.

IoT is most seen in wearable gadgets and apparel technology. In short, it has given a whole new meaning to life. The areas where IoT has shined include the enabling of data sharing, management of inventory, secured and elevated productivity, and efficiency. This disruptive field has drastically improved the customer experience by enabling them to hold the data and internet sharing every day.

Mobile Commerce

Mobile E-commerce has become one of the rapidly growing sectors in e-commerce. Furthermore, with every passing day, this technology is getting advanced. From smart wallets to shopping from Instagram, it has become the eventual tech tool. According to an estimate, mobile e-commerce will enjoy a sheer reach of almost $284 billion by 2021 which is nearly 45% of the total American E-commerce market.

This is because shopping through mobile phones is far easier than shopping from brick-and-mortar stores. With the advent of the digital wallet, there comes utmost ease for retail purchases due to the facility of fingerprints and facial recognition as payment methods.

On top of all, the mix of social media with E-commerce is a drastic fruitful shift for providing greater visibility to potential buyers.

Augmented and Virtual Reality Has Seized the Fashion Sphere

The exchange and return policy always give a hard time to retailers and brands. But due to the courtesy of VR, virtually trying on outfits has ignited the greatest boom in the fashion industry. This is certainly one of the most exciting applications in the world of digitization. The sheer accuracy and precise body measurements by the technology have made customers more loyal to the brand, as they are now feeling more valued and listened to.

The race to home and then to shop in case of the wrong fitting is now discarded with the use of VR. Doesn’t it sound so appealing?

3D Printing

As soon as the world witnessed the invention of 3D printers, all the business-minded prospects grasped this invention for their possible futuristic on-demand sales and production. The fashion industry didn’t remain behind the race, and the fashion brands whether big or small opted for 3D printing technology to create more avenues for sustainability, creativity, and customization.

Though the technology consumes extended hours to create, the result is worth shelling out enormous hours. Because it discards more human laboring and fabric waste. It is estimated that this technology prevents about 35% of fabric waste.  That is a huge milestone.

This extremely less waste approach has fostered industries to now think on valuable insights – of how to reshape the existing market state and align them with a sustainable environmental and social lucidity.

The areas where 3D printing enjoys being the most welcomed guest are conceptual art and 3D knitting. In short, this technology offers plentiful customization options.

Digitization in Fashion Is Futuristic Indeed

The technological disruption has devastatingly penetrated every aspect of life. Often technology comes with potential downsides, but in the realm of the fashion industry, digitization has been observed as the milestones achiever so far. It has directed new ways to capture a large market share of customers on a wider scale – by making them abreast of every inch of the latest circulating news on the brand podium. The customer’s knowledge regarding the brand has now filled all the voids of negligence that have equally benefited both the retailers and brands. Adaptation to digitization is crucial to remain one step ahead of the competitive edge in the fashion industry. Many brands like sisters are coming forward having digitization on their back. In a nutshell, fashion brands need to become digital-savvy to enjoy a more strong customer-brand relationship.