Fashion at the Click of a Button
The speed at which consumers can order fashion items online is in great contrast with speed at which they are produced. Any garment is only few clicks away. However, the truth behind the actual apparel production process is miles away from being a fast process.
Textile production is a complex and energy consuming process. In addition large quantities must be produced in order to make production cycles financially worthwhile and ensure low prices per item. If we look at the industry that serves the fashion industry – it’s one of the most polluting industries around. 20% of the world’s water pollution is caused by the textile industry.
Fashion changes yearly, monthly and in this day and age, even faster than that. Changes are happening all the time. To cope with such changes, retailers will have to adopt a leaner approach to ask to how they handle their stock. Large stock is always at risk and with the changing face of retail, the pace of fast fashion, holding large quantities is riskier than ever. Traditional production methods make this complicated as turn-around times for a collection is at best 20 weeks for production once the item has been ordered. With such a long wait from ordering of goods to delivery to shops, once the goods arrive they may no longer even be relevant.
With digital printing, this gap between ecommerce and production can now be closed. The benefits of which are numerous.
These changes impact both online and in store retailers. The apparel industry in particular is at the forefront of a breakthrough, in which both online and instore retailers can take advantage of the fact that smaller stocks and customization are now real and commercially viable options.
Digital fashion (#Digitalfashion) will enable the fashion world to turn on its head.
Online retailers will now be able to reverse their production cycle. Retailers will be able to identify the demand for a certain item, market it, get orders, sell it and then go ahead and produce it.
Whereas if until now retailers had to order goods, wait 20 weeks for them to arrive and then find buyers, the sales cycle can now be reversed. With digital printing the minimum order quantity is 1 piece.
There are several factors that are facilitating this change.
People care more about the environment than ever before, and there are a growing number of consumers that purchase from companies whom they know are environmentally responsible. People will respond positively to methods that reduce pollution.
Also, people like to express themselves through what they wear. Personalization is a growing trend, and production methods that support personalization will be favored.
There is a need for instant gratification. Perhaps not the most positive trend of our time, but it’s a reality. People want to get items quickly. We are seeing this growth ourselves as consumers - with the extensiveness with which people purchase online. Amazon Prime’s growth rate shows this in 2015, which grew from 25 to 54 million.
Digital textile printing (#digitaltextile) will bring the decorating of garments closer to the consumer. Whereas the actual fabric or plain t-shirt will still be produced in a developing country, digital printing will enable printing on garments and fabrics locally, which can then be fulfilled in a very short period of time.
Kornit digital produces two types of digital textile printers - Machines that print directly on ready-made garments (Direct-to-Garment – DTG) , as well as printers that print directly on fabric (Direct-to-Fabric) or what can also be referred to as roll to roll printers, which print directly onto fabric rolls.
Perhaps the greatest advantage is the flexibility that comes with digital printing. Retailers can control exactly what and how much they produce. But more than that they can enter into completely new market offerings – Customization and Personalization. Perhaps the biggest advantage of the digital fashion industry as opposed to traditional production methods, digital printing provides the platform for personalization. People have always wanted to find the balance between being trendy and being unique. With digital fashion, each piece can be unique, and with it each Fashionista can be unique too.
