SAP's recent introduction of a new offering called "RISE with SAP" has sparked even more speculation in the Apparel, Footwear, and Fashion industry.

Since the launch in 2017, we have helped customers adopt S/4HANA technology. But for many, the complexity of the migration has made them hesitant and uncertain about the business drivers and justifications.

The pressures facing the fashion industry point to digital transformation being necessary, rather than optional. Certainly, there is a good reason for the pandemic being called “fashion’s biggest reset”. It serves as an undeniable affirmation that e-commerce is not just a privilege brands can choose whether to partake in. It is an indisputable business model that retailers and luxury labels should adopt not only to survive but to emerge better positioned for the future.

How do you consolidate a central DC with the flexibility to handle unpredictable demand across all sales channels? Although the omnichannel model is now relatively well established, a challenge that retailers continued to grapple with is how to reconfigure their supply networks to achieve better alignment between delivery responsiveness, product variety, and convenience.

The transition of an existing version of SAP S/4HANA to a newer version must be done meticulously, depending on your business and industry's requirements.

The SAP Apparel and Footwear solution (SAP AFS) has been around since the early 2000s, and many of its users over the years have grown accustomed to certain functionality and processes that it offered.

Even before the pandemic and economic crisis, brick-and-mortar retailers had been fighting a fierce battle against e-commerce players. Those challenges have now accelerated at a staggering speed.

The digital channel was largely left unscathed and operational during the COVID-19 pandemic — a lifeline for fashion companies. While some players leveraged their digital muscles to grow revenue, scores of retailers scrambled to widen their online sales. These fashion companies are better equipped than others—largely due to their digitization efforts.

Today, with the pandemic remaining a challenge, the apparel industry is rebooting, and, while the most-basic technologies have kept businesses relevant during this time, they will again have to adopt advanced methods to remain agile, and accommodate a changed, post-pandemic consumer.

Brands, Retailers and Manufacturers implementing SAP S/4HANA for Fashion and Vertical Business recognize that a new Digital Core is an opportunity to unify systems and processes across their global operations, drive efficiencies (IT and business), improve visibility and introduce standards across geographies.

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.