The fashion industry is at the cusp of transformative change and leading this change is Microsoft Dynamics 365 for fashion and cloud technology. Industry cloud for fashion is a breakthrough approach as it will enable fashion businesses to adopt an agile and modern infrastructure that is powered by a resilient supply chain, a compact connected commerce framework, digital sourcing, and intelligent planning.
Consumers today expect apparel and fashion retailers to meet their demands swiftly and at the most affordable prices. More importantly, they also seek flexible shipping and a consistent omnichannel contextual experience which can be possible with fashion ERP software and an industry cloud tailored for the needs of fashion businesses.
Building omnichannel experiences
According to McKinsey's Apparel Omnichannel Survey, the average omnichannel customer spends more than $2,000 per year on apparel and purchases, 70% more frequently than an offline-only shopper. This represents a 34% increase over a shopper who exclusively shops in person.
In this blog, we'll look at how consumer preferences are shifting across channels in these changing times and how the fashion industry can better deliver on what customers value most by mastering supply chain excellence with one-of-a-kind customer experience through Dynamics 365 for fashion.
Win Omnichannel Retail with Microsoft Dynamics 365 for fashion and Visionet Industry Cloud
Before you proceed with your supply chain management journey, it is essential to understand the scope of your present e-commerce capabilities and whether these align with your goal of delivering an exceptional customer experience and meeting them where they are in the customer journey. To clear off some uncertainties, fashion retailers should assess their current process and strategy proficiencies by answering the following questions:
Assess your current process
- What touchpoints do you generate throughout your customer's buying cycle?
- Do all employees in the company understand the attributes and significance of omnichannel buyers? Do they have strategies and initiatives in place to satisfy their expectations? Is this reflected in the organization's values and initiatives?
- Are you connecting your customers' cross-channel enagagements and making them seamless? What are the most crucial points of interaction, and how do they help or hinder the omnichannel shopping experience?
- What distinguished your omnichannel experience from that of your competitors?
Reimagine your Fashion Supply Chain to create seamless omnichannel shopping experiences
When it comes to customer experience, seamless integration of the entire fashion supply chain systems and processes is essential — both for customers and decision makers. For instance, consumers feel more confident in your service when they can access real-time product availability and shipping time information. Similarly, apparel businesses need to integrate their supply chain technologies with real-time simulation capabilities for effective omnichannel decision-making.
Incremental improvements in operational channels will not be sufficient to deliver the desired outcomes, and executing a complete overhaul can become exhausting for fashion retailers. However, incorporating a modular fashion management solution with assistance with solutions such as HauteLogic can ease the transformation journey for you.
HauteLogic provides an end-to-end transformative supply chain solution that can assist fashion and apparel retailers by using our HauteLogic module which includes connected commerce, digital sourcing, intelligent planning and a resilient supply chain.
Let’s focus on a few other aspects and how Dynamics 365 for fashion and HauteLogic can help you:
Dynamics 365 for fashion and omnichannel supply chain ecosystems
When it comes to delivering seasonal goods to a wholesaler's digital channels, e-commerce consumers expect exceedingly short lead times, while cost takes precedence over speed. A supply chain solution designed specifically for omnichannel experiences will account for the various channel considerations. In this context, warehouse automation is a viable alternative that can help fashion retailers elevate their service quality, increase speed, and ensure process efficiency.
With CommerceLink, HauteLogic enables such ease for retailers. It allows you to seamlessly integrate your existing e-commerce platform by leveraging our disruptive technology designed around the Dynamics 365 platform for fashion on the Azure Cloud, Big Data, AI, chatbots, and IoT capabilities. Using our unified supply chain solution, we help you optimize and automate your internal business processes encompassing order fulfillment, 360-degree customer view, order deliveries, and payments, all in real-time.
Digitizing Product Design with the PLM Light Solution
Fashion retailers that have automated their design and manufacturing workflows are outperforming their competitors in terms of time to market, sales, and customer satisfaction. Manage your seasonal product design and development with HauteLogic’s PLM Light solution, or leverage HauteLogic’s preconfigured integration for more powerful 3rd-party Product Life Cycle Management (PLM) technologies.
Personalizing CRM & Loyalty with Dynamics 365 for fashion
Meeting customer needs across all channels and grounding all decisions on consumer insights is optimal but difficult to achieve. Retailers need to identify their core target segments as a one-size-fits-all supply chain leads to a lack of differentiation of services and is highly costly. For instance, fashion retailers can charge premiums from prestigious segments for services like fast delivery and early access to new products, while for consumers living in rural areas, efficiency is the most desired service, even if it means two or three days of deliveries.
HauteLogic offers a unified view of customers with cross-channel transactions, enabling you to personalize offers for every market segment and reinforce loyalty with customer-specific offerings and product recommendations.
Fulfilling Omnichannel Excellence in Logistics
Omnichannel excellence is incomplete without smooth shipping, better sourcing decisions, and inventory management. Our supply chain collaboration portal and EDI solution allow seamless communication across all supply chain stakeholders, providing you with a consistent, reliable, and dependable logistics network — and access to planning, scheduling, and controlling logistics without any hassle. Additionally, ASN tracking, carrier integration, and shipment tracking all help enhance store performance while minimizing costs.
Expedite Your Omnichannel Journey with HauteLogic
Source: McKinsey
Digitizing supply chain management can get exhausting and costly for retailers, especially in the fashion and apparel industries. However, the rewards for establishing solid foundations with the right basics, adopting appropriate practices, and mastering omnichannel system integration are highly lucrative. HauteLogic leverages world-class cloud technologies coupled with the Dynamics 365 platform, chatbots, AI, Big Data, and IoT capabilities that seamlessly enhance your omnichannel fashion supply chain interactions and supply chain optimization and help expedite your omnichannel excellence journey. Get in touch with our experts to grow your customer base with Microsoft Dynamics 365 and industry cloud for fashion.