Supply chain transparency is crucial for fashion, apparel and footwear retailers, enabling them to ensure ethical practices, manage risks, and build consumer trust. In this article, Ed Austin summarises the problems retailers are trying to solve now and reveals how much more we can actually do for them.
What fashion retailers are asking for...
Of course, retailers know they require effective tools to map and manage complex supply chains and regulatory requirements. However, in conversations with prospects and onboarding new clients, they are often surprised to find how much supply chain transparency tools can do in 2025.
Let’s dive into what retailers are asking for, and what they’re surprised to discover!
Key Takeaways. What Retailers Really Want:
1. Supply Chain Mapping to N-tierThis is the foundation for all supply chain and regulatory compliance demands. Most retailers only have partial supply chain visibility upstream of Tier 1. They need an effective tech solution to map supply chains, and also experienced support to help them capture key data as efficiently as possible.
Most retailers I talk to are still working with Excel spreadsheets and manual communications to chase suppliers. And yet, today’s supply chain tools can manage compliance tasks, including building a central repository for supplier audit information, a supplier traffic light ranking system, alerts for non-compliance and automated chasing.
Third-party certificates authenticate products, materials and components, and these are generally captured as PDFs from suppliers. But most retailers don’t have a streamlined system to collect, manage and validate incoming certificates with the issuer. I’ll explain how Segura can help.
Retailers recruit skilled sustainability experts for their CSR teams, who then find themselves deep into administrative tasks, chasing suppliers, and managing documentation. It’s frustrating to say the least. But a good supply chain transparency tool should free team members to work at a deeper level of implementing sustainable change rather than chasing up emails.
A common request is for a DPP solution, but retailers are not necessarily aware that this isn’t just a question of a tech solution. The crucial point is you ALWAYS need the data first, otherwise you risk Greenwashing… which brings us back to point 1. I’ll look at how Segura ties the data and the tech solution together with our DPP offering.
Comprehensive Supply Chain Mapping
Common statement: We need help to map our supply chain past Tier 1
Retailers generally know their Tier 1 suppliers well and have strong, long-lasting relationships, but they want tools to help them accurately map their supply chains beyond Tier 1 suppliers, filling gaps in visibility in Tier 2 suppliers and then upstream to N-tier.
Improved transparency will allow them to monitor and address potential risks, manage supplier and regulatory requirements, make sustainability improvements, and ensure a responsible and ethical supply chain.
Crucially, the difference between supply chain mapping tools is how automated they are and how incentivised suppliers are to use them. This is why Segura’s system is linked to Purchase Orders, so that suppliers must be onboarded into the Supply Chain Mapping system to accept a PO. Once onboarded, automated systems help capture and chase up key points of data, share documentation, run reports, etc.
How long does it take to map your supply chain?
Retailers should not underestimate the time and effort it takes to map a complex multi-tier supply chain.
In our experience, below is a realistic timeline, totalling 30 months from onboarding and training to running a fully operational Supply chain mapping, traceability and compliance tool plus Digital Product Passport. It's also important to note that with each passing month, more data is captured, and as such, insights are gained along the way - it doesn't take 30 months to start realising the benefits, and some of these activities can be run in tandem; however, this is an ongoing engagement due to the supplier landscape changing and evolving.
With this in mind, if you’re looking at December 2027 to get a functional DPP in place, you need to start NOW!
That’s why it’s so important to get a shift on!
Supply Chain Mapping, Traceability, Compliance and DPP Timeline
| Duration | Task |
|---|---|
| 6 months | Identify and select a platform, map out your requirements and create a phased deployment plan aligned to your legislative requirements, targets and commitments |
| 6 months | Discover and map your upstream supply chain |
| 6 months | Collect missing ESG data and evidence & identify risks |
| 6 months | Take action to mitigate risks |
| 6 months | Prepare and implement a DPP solution. |
What about the suppliers? They have to provide a lot!
One point that is often raised is the concern around the burden placed on suppliers.
A centralised tool changes their experience, by giving suppliers a single, consistent location to provide all required information, you remove the confusion. They don’t have to wonder who to send what to – they simply upload it once, and it’s visible where it needs to be.
It’s also important to recognise that the need for this information is often regulatory, so it isn’t a matter of choice. Providing one place for suppliers to submit this information not only streamlines your compliance process – it makes life a little easier for them. And when suppliers find it easy to work with you, they are likely to be more responsive and more likely to provide accurate, timely information.
Efficient Management of Audit Documentation
Common Statement: Managing supplier audit documentation is cumbersome
An effective Supply Chain Mapping Tool should simplify managing external audit documents for Tier 1 and Tier 2 suppliers. By replacing manual Excel-based processes with a central repository, retailers can save time and resources while maintaining accurate records of supplier audits.
So, not only are you mapping your supply chain, but you can also connect the supplier records with their external audits in one place. Brilliant. Furthermore, you can create Corrective Action Plans (CAPs) to manage any remedial actions, which can be set up with alerts and reminders around due dates, unacceptable conditions, and unmet requirements.
It's worth highlighting again here that a centralised tool changes a supplier's experience, giving them a single, consistent location to provide all required information removes confusion and increases consistency.
Supplier Compliance Monitoring
Common Statement: We need to review suppliers based on their compliance performance
Retailers are pleasantly surprised to learn that they can also implement a Supplier Traffic Light System. This can be used to score and review suppliers based on key compliance criteria or any requirements that are important to them.
Note, this doesn’t have to be data coming from the Supplier or an Auditor; it can come from internal sources, such as Finance and Risk Management. This can help teams review where they should focus any efforts, it can highlight potential weaknesses that must be addressed to mitigate risks. It can also highlight compliant, consistent, well-performing suppliers, and it can inform other business teams, such as Buying and Sourcing, in their decision-making.
This is when we see the value of a Supply Chain Mapping Tool start to really benefit other teams outside of Compliance and CSR, helping to reduce supplier risks.
The Problem with 3rd Party Certifications
Common Statement: The collection and management of Certifications is manual and very time-consuming.
There’s another way your modern supply chain mapping tool can help ease administrative burdens, which is in the collection and validation of third-party certification.
Certification is critical for demonstrating compliance and responsible sourcing, but most retailers still rely on manual collection and validation.
For example, a supplier may state that they are sourcing ethical or sustainable materials for an order, such as Lenzing fibres, Responsible Cotton, or deforestation-free leather. To evidence this claim, in Segura, you can choose to mandate that they provide a certificate to validate the claim.
With Segura, suppliers can be required to upload the relevant certificate directly against a specific order, ensuring traceability. The system can also be configured with criteria, so it only requests certificates in line with expected timeframes (e.g. recognising when certification would be available in the production or sourcing process).
This avoids unnecessary admin and ensures that product and compliance teams have the data they need.
Streamlined Sustainability Roles
Common Statement: We want to free up our CSR and Sustainability teams to make measurable improvements...
Not just do compliance housekeeping, but we still need to do the housekeeping!
Right now, many sustainability professionals are stuck in the weeds of day-to-day administration. Instead of driving meaningful change. This isn’t what these highly skilled experts were hired for — and it’s frustrating for both the teams and the business.
A robust supply chain transparency tool changes that. By automating supplier chasing, providing a centralised repository for audits, introducing a traffic-light system for compliance monitoring, and enabling automatic certificate validation (see Efficient Management of Audit Documentation and The Problem with 3rd Party Certifications), the tool takes care of the “compliance housekeeping” behind the scenes.
This means CSR and sustainability teams are freed up to spend their time on what really matters:
- Identifying and mitigating risks across Tiers 2 and beyond (Comprehensive Supply Chain Mapping)
- Collaborating with Design and Buying teams to influence sustainable product development (Supplier Compliance Monitoring)
- Preparing for Digital Product Passport requirements, ensuring that accurate and reliable data flows into the DPP solution (A Digital Product Passport)
A Digital Product Passport
Common Statement: We need a DPP Solution ASAP
Retailers know that they need a Digital Product Passport, but often I find that they are keen on a tech solution before they’ve got to grips with capturing supply chain data, including material composition and other sustainability data.
In some ways, the tech part is the most straightforward part of the solution, but it will only work if you have your supply chain data in a usable digital format first. Your supply chain mapping tool has to be in place first – as demonstrated in the timeline above.
Once you’ve got a mapping tool in place, then you can feed that data into a Digital Product Passport tool, bearing in mind that you need to host this data for some years to come. For more information, visit our Digital Product Passport solution page, or take a look at our comprehensive guide, Eco-Design for Sustainable Products Regulation + DPP Factsheet.
And, of course, we'd be happy to take any questions about the Segura DPP directly info@segura.co.uk.
In summary
Clothing, apparel and footwear retailers need a supply chain transparency tool that answers their specific requirements, but also makes the work of their Compliance and CSR teams much more streamlined, efficient and effective. Furthermore, better supplier risk management, better design and buying decisions, and the ability to make robust marketing claims, backed up with evidence, all becomes possible!
In other words, the right tool doesn’t just help with compliance, it elevates the role of sustainability teams, enabling them to work strategically, build stronger supplier relationships, and deliver measurable improvements in line with ESG commitments.
By adopting advanced tools like Segura, retailers can stay ahead of the curve and build more ethical, responsible, and sustainable supply chains.
