Wearables set new challenges for the retail supply chain process

  • Written by Peter Needle
  • Published on 27 August 2015
  • Blogs

Wearable technology is becoming incredibly popular in the UK. We take a look at what this new technology is bringing to the retail industry, and why a garment retailer’s supply chain processes may need to evolve.

UK spend £100m on wearables last Christmas

According to research by Samsung and the Centre for Retail Research (CRR) last year, wearable technology has started to make serious money. The UK wearables market was expected to reach a total value of £313.6 million during 2014, with retailers set to enjoy a major jump in sales around the Christmas period. 

Samsung and CRR predicted that over one million items of wearable technology would be given as gifts over Christmas around the UK, including 156,600 smartwatches. With this swiftly growing popularity, wearables could begin to revolutionise the retail industry!

How will wearable technology affect retail?

Firstly, wearables are most likely to make online shopping even more flexible and convenient. Last year, Amazon made changes to its Android app in order to support smartwatches - meaning that the owners of Android Wear Smartwatches can now shop directly from their wrist using voice commands. Once users have enabled one-click shopping, they can browse and then buy items directly from the watch without ever touching their phone.

New research from Gartner also predicts that wearable technologies will soon extend to items of clothing.The smart garment market is expected to grow from 10 million units in 2015 to over 25 million units in 2016. Smart technologies will initially be implanted in sportswear, but could also be used to track a wide array of health and leisure concerns – as long as sensors are durable enough to survive repeat washes.

Finally, wearables such as smart watches could be used in-store to access additional information on products, such as catwalk videos and data on current stock levels. House of Fraser recently implementedbluetooth beacon technology in mannequins at an Aberdeen store, enabling them to send offers to shoppers’ mobile phones as they pass. This interactive approach to high street retail could help bricks and mortar stores to compete with the increasingly popular online shopping trend.

An evolution in communication

We’ve discussed the Internet of Things before in relation to retail and the garment industry. Consumers now expect the retail supply chain process to offer a ‘connected’ approach, and stores need to meet these quickly evolving expectations.

“Wearables have a key part to play in the future of fashion retail,” William Kim, CEO for All Saints,explained to Internet Retailing. “The last decade has seen an evolution in verbal and written communication… The next decade will see an evolution of non-verbal communication – wearables and the internet of things will communicate information at a rate never before seen.”

In Shopatron’s Retailer eCommerce Study, 86% of retailers reported that customers used their phones while shopping in-store in 2013. Shoppers use their mobiles in-store to browse reviews, compare prices or even scan QR codes for additional product information. With the rising popularity of smartwatches, this investigative behaviour is likely to increase as customers look to access a wealth of additional information.

In order to make these interactive features possible, every innovative garment retailer will need to invest in its supply chain process model. For instance, the movement of products from stockroom to storefront could be tracked in real time to order for shoppers to be able to locate garments in-store. Supply chain process improvement also extends to the production line – the better a retailer’s visibility over its garment manufacturing processes, the richer the information on stock that can be fed through to customers.

Segura’s supply chain solution can provide complete transparency over the status of garment packaging and trim orders, helping retailers to pinpoint any delays in the secondary supply chain so that retailers can remain fully informed.

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