Fashion and technology: transforming change into an opportunity for growth
After a six-step journey through the new trends and technologies that will characterize the future of Fashion, the 2021 edition of Stealth Day has come to an end
2020 was a year of disruption for the Fashion & Luxury world. In 2021, instead, the market found new momentum, speeding up towards new trends and giving us a foretaste of what the future of Fashion will look like. Over the last two years, consumers' needs and habits have been transformed, and therefore the customers' journey has changed. At the same time, the traditional value chain revealed its weaknesses. These challenges forced the Fashion industry to rethink its processes and dynamics to secure complete recovery.
Sustainability, digital, and supply chain have been the key drivers of change in the 2021 Fashion market and, according to the report "The state of Fashion in 2022" by McKinsey and the Business of Fashion (BoF), they are supposed to remain the industry's top priorities also in 2022. Indeed, the journey to reshape the Fashion & Luxury industry is still ongoing. It will have to face three main issues: supply chain disruption, patchy demand, and persistent pressure on the bottom line.
In this profound transformation, technology has proven to be a key ally for companies, helping them make change an opportunity for growth. On the one hand, technology helps brands respond to current customer priorities, such as sustainability and omnichannel. For instance, it enables traceable and transparent processes, which are the key factor for implementing sustainable strategies. It also helps design a new omnichannel customer journey by providing retailers with mobile and digital technologies to manage all the points of sales.
On the other hand, technology supports Fashion companies in their growth and internationalization process by giving them the power to govern the data they produce along the whole value chain. This allows brands to redesign their supply chain and implement accurate control management, thus minimizing risks and maintaining economic and financial balance.
The 2021 edition of Stealth Day, "Reshaping the Fashion industry through technology," has focused on all these themes, providing the Stealth community with instruments and approaches to face this moment of change and build together the future Fashion industry.
