Blue Cherry Report on technology priorities for 2024

What does 2024 have in store for retailers, brands, and their manufacturing partners, and how can your supply chain perform its best?

ECOMMERCE GROWTH

TREND

Online sales growth. Ten percent or greater online sales growth is forecasted for 2024, according to Insider Intelligence/eMarketer.

SUPPLY CHAIN CONSIDERATIONS

Advanced Omnichannel Merchandise Planning. The best merchandise plans anticipate customer demand at the regional, local and targeted demographic levels. In 2024, it will be a competitive advantage to drill deep into sales data and respond to customer cues. For brands and manufacturers serving retail stores, wholesale, catalog and eCommerce channels, advanced planning solutions make it easier and more efficient to create, review, manage, merge and adjust plans — connecting the dots between buying, merchandising, design, allocation, financial planning, costing and production.
Emerging Technologies. 3D visualization and generative artificial intelligence (AI) promise to play greater roles in retailing. Shoppers will see more 3D, augmented reality and virtual try-on tools. Product teams will experiment with CoPilot, Chat GPT and other AI assistants to summarize online product reviews and draft product descriptions. In addition to greater productivity, businesses can harvest valuable information to feed back into their supply chains. For example, if 3D dressing room sessions and product reviews expose fit and quality problems, teams have an opportunity to fix them. They can adjust designs, change materials, discuss issues with suppliers, update product specifications and revise operator instructions. All of this can be done digitally and rapidly with integrated product lifecycle management (PLM) and shop floor control (SFC) solutions.
eCommerce Connectors. Online shopping requires excellent customer service across both business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) relationships. Order management, available-to-sell inventory updates and logistics must run smoothly with unerring accuracy. The only way to achieve this is with automation. CGS BlueCherry® eCommerce Connectors provide seamless integration to online shopping sites and platforms. In addition, Applications Programming Interface (API), Third-Party Logistics Provider (3PL) and Extended Production/Logistics Modules automate and eliminate manual processes, manage orders, update products and inventory, and provide immediate shipping information to customers, plus frictionless, fast fulfillment.

PRODUCT PERSONALIZATION

TREND:

Hyper-personalization. It’s more than monogramming in the age of influencers and AI! This year retailers, brands and their suppliers will race to make products and collections tailored to very specific consumer groups.

SUPPLY CHAIN CONSIDERATIONS

Collaborative Planning. Retailers and brands have ever-larger collections of consumer data. They are tracking searches, views, shopping baskets, sales and returns. They want to use it to promote hyper-personalized product offerings to narrowly targeted shopper sets. Popular YouTubers and social media influencers are curating their favorite looks, brands and products. If their followers like what they see, they buy. How can companies hone supply chain processes to stay current with what’s trending? There is an opportunity to open style ideation and line development processes to greater collaboration with more stakeholders. For instance, why not invite a GenZ influencer to preview new concepts, welcoming feedback while it’s still early enough to finesse collections? At the same time, retail merchandising partners can weigh in on their product needs for different categories, and suppliers can offer their expertise on manufacturability. For example, what factories have capacity to make small lots of a niche collection? Technologies such as B2B eCommerce, digital product catalogs, PLM and SFC support deeper collaboration.

Connected Supply Chain. Hyper-personalized products require flexible supply chains. It takes alignment between design, product development, factories and fulfillment centers. Flexibility comes in many forms. Maybe manufacturers need to configure product elements, such as fabric print and embellishments, to individual consumer order choices? What if an online shopping basket includes a monogrammed towel set, cozy throw and matching PJs for customer and pet? Which suppliers can satisfy this consumer’s personal tastes? Who can produce special collections on-demand in direct response to incoming orders? Which vendors can scale up to make more, adapting styles to a broader consumer base? To be this flexible, it takes a digitalized supply chain with seamless workflow from concept to consumer.

CIRCULAR FASHION

TREND:

Sustainability and social responsibility - higher expectations. Consumers, retailers, brands and governments will be looking for greater supply chain transparency in 2024.

SUPPLY CHAIN CONSIDERATIONS

Digital Transformation. So much of fashion’s environmental impact is due to materials production and processing. This is why it’s so important to prioritize sustainability at the design and product development stages. Also, the closer to market businesses can work, the better their odds for successfully satisfying demand instead of overproducing and missing the mark. Garments in landfills are an unfortunate reflection of wasted water, materials and energy. Digital design and development processes reduce physical sampling rounds and related material consumption and transportation. Centralized data management makes it easier to maintain updated sustainable fabric libraries, vendor compliance scorecards and accurate production and operator pay records.

Supply Chain Visibility. Preferred suppliers are those with strong supply chain visibility and environmental, social and governance (ESG) processes and accountability. Connected supply chain technology streamlines and automates activities such as mapping supplier relationships/locations and generating accurate chain-of-custody documentation.

Refurbish, Resell. Recycle. Consumers and retailers are interested in opportunities to buy, sell, rent and trade used, upfitted and refurbished fashion, footwear and accessories. To do this efficiently, businesses need processes and technology solutions to adeptly manage returns, adjust available-to-sell inventory and update product descriptions and prices. A factory network able to perform quick repairs and modifications is another asset. SFC gives brands and their suppliers visibility to factories able to do this work. Another priority in 2024 is to devise efficient systems for recycling or repurposing garments, home fashions and other products at end of life.

Quality. When consumers are pleased with quality, fit and value, they are more likely to keep a product and enjoy it for its useful life. In this way, good quality reduces the environmental impact of returns, rework, packaging and transportation. Leading brands and retailers are leveraging integrated PLM and SFC for clearer communication of product specifications and operator instructions. They also can see potential quality problems earlier so they can address them well before goods ship.

Would you like to discuss eCommerce, product personalization or circular business processes and technology solutions? CGS BlueCherry® is committed to understanding your company’s objectives and partnering with your team to achieve your goals. Contact us to discuss your needs and priorities. We also welcome you to view our emerging tech trends webinar series.

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