The Dark Side of Black Friday

When Garments
are Piling Up and The Inventory is Out of Control, it’s Time to Take Stock of
How Your Supply Chain Runs.

Overstocked shelves both in stores
and warehouses with unsold inventory, this is the Achilles heel for retailers
participating in black Friday. The unpredictability of trends is leaving many
retailers high and dry with stock that needs to be flogged off at rock bottom
prices.  The irony is that while e-commerce
platforms are the most common ground used to get rid of “dead inventory”
it is that very same platform that holds the answer to avoiding this dark
situation in the first place.

In order to better understand that
statement, let’s scroll back a bit:

E-commerce is driving consumer habits
with the sales cycle speeding up, trends coming and going and consumers
expecting new goods to be available and delivered in no time.

According to
market research companies that specialize in market trends for the apparel
industry online apparel sale have been growing steadily – from 11% in 2011 to
19% in 2016 in the US. (@The NPD Group). Additionally, online sales accounted
for about $90 billion of the $218.7 billion in total sales of men’s, women’s
and children’s apparel in 2016. Because of the growing demand for customized
and personalized apparel, industry analysts expect the global demand for
decorated apparel to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10.92%
from 2016 to 2021.

The apparel
industry is being turned on its head. Fashion is speeding out of control but
the supply chain is desperately lagging behind clinging to the traditional
“supply and demand” model.

The solution? A new way of managing
the entire supply chain. Off-shored production means at least 12 weeks to get garments
on shelves.  But what if there were a way
to only produce what is needed – to produce on demand? Digital printing is
enabling manufacturers not only to cut down on production times, but to bring
production processes closer to the consumer.

In this ‘want everything yesterday’
world, digital can provide an efficient garment printing solution. Digital Printing allows you to print
quickly and accurately from a high resolution image without the need to cut
individual screens for each of the colors, perfect for detailed, multi-color
graphics.

It also brings a massive saving as
there are no origination or setup costs.

The key benefits of direct-to-garment
printing are:

·
No setup costs

·
Eco-friendly, water based inks, suitable also for babies

·
Faster turnaround than screen printing

·
Profitable short or medium runs

·
One-offs

Direct to
Garment digital printing means that manufacturers can keep plain, undecorated
garments in stock such as t-shirts and hoodies (but not only), and decorate them
exactly when and how they are needed – either as short runs or even as
individual items.  This keeps inventories
to a minimum and also enables garments to be printed locally exactly when they
are needed. It means that goods never go out of fashion, and your ability to produce
the next fad is only a few minutes away.

What to
look for in a digital direct-to-garment printer?

A – A
printer that is compact enough to be installed at your logistics center, or
very, very close to it.

B – A clean
printing process that does not require any pre or post-treatments.  The closer you go to urban areas the less
space you have. Keeping a single line, all in a one process is ideal. It means
that you save on space and time.

C – A
one-operator setup.  A printer that
allows a single-step, in line process means that it can be handled by one person
at any given time.

A, B & C
– all of the above to ensure a clean, fast and compact process.

Learn more at www.kornit.com