Lectra Event themed “Winning Over the New Fashion Consumer” kicked off in Bordeaux-Cestas, France yesterday. The 2-day event is being marked by over 120 visitors, which include Lectra’s customers, retail brands’ executives, technology strategists and media, from all across the world.
It’s worth telling that Apparel Resources is the only media that is invited from South Asia and South East Asia to cover the event.
The first day of the event started with a Keynote presentation given by Peter Jeavons, GM (Europe), First Insight.
Peter told the audience about why Hyper-Connected Consumers are rapidly increasing and how have they driven the market with their instant gratification. He also emphasised on the rising need of social media which is influencing the customers’ purchase decision. “About 37% of consumers search for online reviews of a product they are looking to purchase,” said Peter.
He also explained about why the apparel and textile industry doesn’t need new technology. Instead matured technology, which is already available in the market, needs to be adopted. Few of them are AI, Data Analytics Tools and IoT. He gave an example of Alibaba and Amazon and enlightened the audience that if these e-commerce giants can use AI and Data tools then others should also use it.
To conclude his presentation, Peter underlined that the era is of ‘Design-Sell-Make’ concept and so apparel brands and manufacturers need to give up ‘Design-Make-Sell’ strategy if they wanted to cater to hyper connected consumers. He also suggested the areas where retail brands need to digitally innovate their operations.
“Digital product creation, advanced analytics and insights, smart connected supply chain and foundational product technology are some areas where retailers should focus to cope with the changing trend.” – Peter Jeavons, GM (Europe), First Insight
The second keynote presentation was given by Craig Crawford, Founder, CrawfordIT who asked the attendees to work on a strategy “Stop Working, Start Thinking to create collaboration”. His focus was primarily on the customers’ need and he pointed out to make businesses customer centric which is only possible by introducing right kind of collaborative IT solutions to the retail businesses. He gave some real examples of retail brands those are using AI and AR to enhance customers’ experience both on online channels as well as in stores.
“Digital transformation is must for the retailers. Max Factor is using AR, Tommy Hilfiger is using Chatbots and are successfully achieving what they plan.” – Craig Crawford, Founder, CrawfordIT
The next in line was the interview with Celine Choussy, Chief Marketing & Communication Officer, Lectra. The interview was taken by the master of ceremony, Mark Antoine. During the 20 minutes long interaction, Celine disclosed that Hyper-Connected Consumers are driving Lectra to adopt strategies that work for the betterment of Lectra, its customers as well as end-consumers.
“We are what we wear and we wear what we are. Innovation is in our DNA. So, we give those solutions to the industry using which designers, pattern makers and product development teams work on single version of truth.” – Celine Choussy, Chief Marketing & Communication Officer, Lectra
Kubix Link, a data driven platform, demonstration was also given by Maximilien Abadie, Chief Strategy Officer, Lectra and Matthieu Griziaux, Business Development Director (Fashion), Lectra. Kubix Link incorporates PLM, DAM and PIM functionalities all together and unlocks greater agility in the existing platforms such as ERP, CMS, PCM, WMS and e-commerce.
“It’s time to rethink over enhancing product experience. Kubix Link is all about the way companies collaborate to give enriching experience to its customers,” asserted Matthieu. Lectra also asked its one of the customers Tecnica Group to be a part of this demo. Tecnica is a leading sportswear manufacturing group based in Italy. Tecnica Group brands include Tecnica, Nordica, Moon Boot, Rollerblade, Lowa, and Blizzard Sport. Another company which took part in this demo was Pomellato, an Italian luxury fashion jewellery brand.
Both the Lectra customers described how have they used Kubix Link to overcome challenges in terms of data collection and then take decision based on that data.
The last session of the day was based on Modaris, a 3D tool offered by Lectra. Session was themed “CAD enhanced by the power of the cloud”. Phillippine Saint-Pere, CEO and Founder of Eponymous Brand gave presentation on what’s her take on 3D. She discussed all the pros and cons of the available 3D tools for the designers and explained how Modaris stands out. Her presentation was followed by Lectra’s demo on “20 minutes from Pinterest to Production ready” where a team of Lectra gave live demonstration on the features of Modaris; Quick Estimates and Quick Nest. The demo talked about what a customer wants in this era of personalization and how a designer can help customers in providing a product of their choice using Modaris which suggests the best possible outfit in lowest cost possible.
The day was concluded with the voice of Lectra customer, Balenciaga. The company’s representative, Mariam Benissi, explained how has Lectra’s Modaris helped Balenciaga save enormous fabric cost using Quick Estimate.
Once the event got over, Lectra took all its guests to the countryside for a gala dinner. The 4 hours of this outing was filled with fun activities and the guests came to know why Bordeaux is known as Wine City.
Keep watching the space to know what’s in there on Day 2.
