Point of View by Balaji Santhanam, Industry Principal, attune

Firstly, wish everyone a very happy new year. May the new year 2021 be a lot better than the troublesome 2020 we just got rid of.

Historically, analysts see the Fashion and Lifestyle industry as being laggards when it comes to technology adoption. But the pandemic has definitely pushed the retailers to adapt & innovate or perish.

For the Fashion and Retail industry, 2021 will continue to be a defining moment to showcase resilience and adapt and enable future growth through innovation. It is indeed remarkable to see the resilient retail industry in a year of COVID which has managed to not just ‘not lose ground’ (based on projections of a decline of around 10% for the year as of June 2020), but turnaround and grow 0.8% YoY is incredible to say the least. The stimulus, lack of travel & activities and the rise in overall personal savings for consumers in 2020 helped redirect some of that spend to retail.

Retail’s non-decline notwithstanding, there definitely were a few losers and unfortunately Clothing sector had to deal with a dismal -27% decline in growth YoY due to the pandemic, though there were a few winners like Nike, Lulu, Crocs etc. Word on the street is that the retail pundits are forecasting a resurgence for clothing in 2021, but in my opinion, it might just take a couple of years before the apparel sector gets back its mojo.

When the crisis hit, did it seem like you were fighting a losing battle trying to get critical supply chain insights? This is a scenario most companies can relate to; digital process gaps that lead to massive delays and frustration when it comes to getting critical supply chain insights.

For existing SAP customers, it is no longer a question of whether to move to SAP S/4HANA but rather a question of when they should move. While many customers are eager to implement S/4HANA for Fashion, making the move can be complex. 

As machines have become more sophisticated at understanding and responding in natural language, we’ve seen a massive growth in conversational application. These dedicated apps are enabled with natural language processing that helps them understand casual speech input by text or voice.

As we move from the digital era to the intelligent era, enterprises need to turn to the tools of the future. But for companies with very specific business problems, customizing their existing ERP system is not a viable solution as custom applications and integrations within the core ERP system often result in:

• Difficulty performing updates and upgrades
• Higher costs to maintain
• Slow and challenging innovation
  

While SAP S/4HANA for Fashion delivers many benefits, it is important to remember that making the move is a large-scale project which requires an entire system to be moved. Most companies face difficulty during their move because they are unaware of which migration strategy is best for their current IT landscape.

Fashion brands are often challenged with sustaining momentum in today’s digital economy. This is especially true for small-to-medium sized fashion companies that do not have the luxury of investing in a digital-core ERP solution that is capable of scaling as the company grows. In such situations, cracks start to appear within a company’s operational processes and platforms.

It's safe to say that many fashion companies are battling supply chain issues during this period. Fashion companies must take action now to navigate the impacts of the disruption, or they’ll be in for an even more challenged future. Here's what fashion companies can expect:

The actual cost of poor quality can be staggering. Brands and apparel manufacturers continue to grapple with quality issues due to human errors under extremely tight deadlines as well as the lack of right tools to help Quality Controllers (QCs) perform audits and systematically derive results.

With the right quality management system, fashion brands and manufacturers can ensure the maintenance of quality - improving processes, reducing waste, lowering costs and cultivating a more productive team by eliminating manual, repetitive tasks.

Sluggish store traffic, intense competition from online retailers, dynamic pricing strategy and evolving consumer spending patterns are the headwinds plaguing the retail sector. But some brands are continuing to take the leap by investing in their growth plans despite the challenges faced by the retail industry. From understanding the core customer to keeping up with the latest trends, what's driving them to make the decision and why now?