The global apparel retail sector is a highly dynamic and competitive market that requires fashion brands, manufacturers, and retailers to innovate faster, supply goods at competitive prices, and build brand equity. Styles are short-lived in the apparel sector, therefore apparel players need to produce new product options every season. For this reason, garment businesses need flexible, agile, user-friendly, and configurable technologies in order to stay profitable and competitive.
Find out more about how technologies like ERP and PLM are changing the fashion industry, and why you should choose ApparelMagic to propel your own apparel company into the future.
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How Will the Apparel Industry Change in the Near Future?
The garment market is divided into various categories and segments, from classic fashion to active apparel, some of which are worth billions of dollars. The global apparel market generated $1.5 trillion in revenue in 2021 and continues to grow. According to CB Insights, the fashion industry is one of the world’s largest, with a market share expected to reach about 2 trillion dollars by 2026 and $3 trillion by the end of this decade. As of 2020, the US and China have the largest clothing retail markets in the world.
The fashion apparel industry has always been a leader in innovation, from the invention of sewing machines and cotton gins to eCommerce and social shopping. Fashion is always forward-thinking, so it comes as no surprise that advanced technology plays a major role in reshaping the apparel industry.
Fashion technology is evolving at a faster rate than ever before. AI algorithms that predict style trends, robots that sew, VR clothes, 3D printing technology, powerful ERP, and smart PLM solutions — a wide range of innovations show how technology is personalizing, automating, and changing the fashion space.
ERP Solutions Propel Fashion Companies Into the Future
According to Gartner, global IT investment is projected to reach $4.4 trillion this year, an increase of 4% from 2021, primarily due to corporate software spending. In fact, the convergence of next-generation technology with the retail industry has proven to be a significant growth engine. Retail and Banking are the two industries that invest the most in artificial intelligence solutions, with retail investments growing at a slightly faster rate.
New solutions in the market can deliver far more than their predecessors ever promised. ApparelMagic and other ERP software solutions are the future of the garment sector. Having an integrated digital supply chain is critical if you want to keep up with changing customer behavior and increased demand, and enterprise resource planning is the backbone.
Apparel ERP software is a business process management system built and customized for manufacturers, wholesalers, and retailers in the apparel industry. It’s a sophisticated business solution that lets fashion brands manage and automate their business using modules or applications for sourcing, design and product development, supply chain and logistics, clothing production, business intelligence, etc.
Using ERP software has many advantages, including automating important activities, increasing productivity, and promoting effective communication among stakeholders along the apparel supply chains. Omnichannel business processes and workflows can be made simple with a contemporary ERP solution. It enables apparel companies to manage warehouses, retail stores, eCommerce inventory, and customer requests in real time from a single centralized location. By monitoring consumer activity in real time, ERP systems can generate analytics-based insights that can forecast and analyze buying trends and fluctuations in consumer preferences. According to the Aberdeen Group, ERP systems that deliver precise, real-time information about everyday operations help organizations cut administration costs by 22 percent and operational costs by 23 percent.
Today’s ERP systems include innovative planning capabilities and allocation engines, allowing businesses to provide their consumers with exactly what they want and when they want it – a key differentiator for fashion businesses.
PLM Software Apparel Revolutionizes Fashion Businesses
In 2018, the global product lifecycle management in the fashion industry was worth $ 644.1 million and is predicted to increase at a CAGR of 12.5% by 2027, to reach $1,825.3 million.
PLM (product life cycle management) controls all core product data, allowing users to reuse it to improve the speed of accurate and real-time information while maintaining total visibility of progress and any difficulties. PLM encompasses a wide range of complicated activities that are always changing and which need to be captured. These days, if an apparel company wants to stay competitive, people and departments can no longer do their jobs in isolation. A PLM system can assist businesses in achieving absolute transparency across the organization, resulting in significant cost and time savings that will help them gain a competitive advantage.
More PLM vendors are attempting to provide a complete PLM software solution for the apparel retail sectors, i.e. a broader PLM solution that covers more processes that are currently managed by other, separate systems, like trend research, advanced line planning, visual merchandising, storyboarding, virtual retail store planning, marketing data management, sourcing, design, distribution, 3D virtual modeling, and RFID.
PLM will become a vital part of companies looking to lower their carbon impact and negative environmental impact, as well as those pursuing sustainable business practices, apparel sustainability, and ethical trading. Smart businesses thrive on information, and while complete apparel supply chain control may be unattainable, investing in PLM is a step in the right direction. There is no better moment than now to begin refining development processes and devising new strategies for remaining competitive.
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Why Choose ApparelMagic?
With PLM, ERP, accounting, and outstanding training and support, ApparelMagic is powerful enough to handle the ERP/PLM side for some of the largest apparel companies, yet affordable and intuitive enough that a small business can get their team started quickly. Here are several reasons why you should choose ApparelMagic:
No installation is required. ApparelMagic’s operations are entirely cloud-based, which means no hardware installation is required. As a result, users can use their browsers on desktop and mobile devices to access the software from anywhere. Additionally, any time an update is done on one platform, the software displays it on your other logged in screens.
Style library. The ApparelMagic creators recognize the importance of organizing styles in the apparel industry. That’s why they gave users the ability to keep track of all product sizes, colors, and costs of production.
Visual dashboard. The software has a dashboard that may be customized with charts and graphs to provide a visual representation of data. In addition, there are built-in capabilities for direct communication with your team. ApparelMagic also includes an integrated help system allowing users to swiftly submit a ticket to the support center for help.
Accounting module. Accounting is usually delegated to a specialist or team specifically trained for the job. However, ApparelMagic allows consumers to be in charge of their own accounting and bookkeeping. The software offers an easy-to-use accounting interface that shows all relevant financial information, such as invoice reconciliation, accounts receivable, and accounts payable among other things.
Advanced sales management tool. ApparelMagic comes with advanced capabilities for recording sales and tracking each transaction. It also allows users real-time visibility over their inventory of materials and products, as well as their future availability. As a result, they will be better equipped to meet future customer expectations and demands and ensure high customer satisfaction levels.
Integration and open API support. There are many enterprises that require more than one piece of software to run smoothly. ApparelMagic allows you to mobilize your data through integrations with the fashion’s best service providers and apps, including Shopify, Big Commerce, Etsy, etc.
The Bottom Line
The fashion industry moves quickly, and fashion brands compete to be the first to market with innovative designs and materials in a highly competitive market. As fashion continues to change at a fast pace, apparel players have been making significant investments in artificial intelligence and digital supply chain transformation.
If you’ve been thinking about upgrading your business management software, now is the moment. In this new era of apparel, it’s sink or swim, so it’s crucial to do everything you can to stay competitive.
ApparelMagic was created with the fashion industry’s unique challenges in mind. Invest in a system that can withstand the ups and downs of the fast-paced garment industry, has a long-lasting positive business impact, and will ultimately contribute to more favorable business outcomes.
