Top Three Innovations Transforming the Global Textile Industry
Smartphones, smart TVs, smartwatches, electric cars, solar-driven vehicles, robots, automated machinery, and the list of new-age technology around us just keeps getting bigger and better.
Revolutionizing everything around us, scientists, engineers, and designers are creating an updated and user-friendly world giving people customizable options and business owners consumer data like never before.
Accessing people across the globe has never been this easy and trend-setting innovations are leaving readers, learners, and consumers star-struck. Technology has brought drastic and welcoming changes to every industry with its innovations and the textile industry is no stranger to the same.
Comparatively slower in adapting technology, the textile industry has majorly relied on low-cost manual labor to maintain cost-cutting and meet low market prices. As the consumer is getting
more and more educated, the concerns around fair wages, pollution, and sustainability are also
increasing.
The essentiality to adapt to the consumer needs, the textile industry has to adapt to the new age of the customer; demands. Millennials and Gen-Z are closely connected to brands through the internet.
From insta-shopping to the online availability of basically everything, the buyer has all the trends at their fingertips and wants access to the same at the earliest. To meet the shoppers’ needs, new textile innovations must be embraced by designers and brands across the globe.
Trade Uno has narrowed down three innovations in the textile industry that are transforming the
global industry.
1. Artificial intelligence
AI has gained popularity amongst many brands for its extremely effective impact on businesses
and their user experience. From collecting massive data, organizing, analyzing, and providing
valuable insights, Artificial Intelligence has strengthened a lot of areas that human error had
weakened.
Be it forecasting trends based on consumer behavior or assisting in inventory-related matters,
AI has fastened every process. Usually, designers had to depend on fashion shows and observing them, speculating, and relying on forecasters to assist in designing collections. Now, with the help of AI, brands can easily understand what consumers are buying the most and which designs are driving more customers in.
Not just with designing but also in every step of a garments design journey. From assisting in designing, production, inventory management, and assisting buyers, in boosting sales, AI helps fasten every process and is also cost-effective. When human labor is cutting fabrics and stitching clothes, they are required to meet targets on an everyday basis. Under immense work pressure and most of the time unhealthy work environments, humans will end up making an error in judgment and cutting the cloth wrong, prolonging the process. Whereas with AI, that error gets removed and the process gets smooth.
AI doesn’t get tired or feel pressure, it works seamlessly and smoothly.
In variable forms like chatboxes, the technology doesn’t just help the designer but also the consumer. From assisting in finding the right color and size for them to tracking a customer’s journey and matching them with the right product, Artificial Intelligence has a complete 360 effect on the journey.
2. 3D Printing
3D printing is a fascinating avenue for many brands and designers. The practice of it brings in the ability to create amazing designs that were never seen before. Creating a notable impact on the process of prototyping and production, 3D printing has given designers a sustainable option to test the viability of a design and how much material it would take without creating any waste in the process. With the freedom to create variations of a design, designers are now at liberty to experiment more and also take more risks without the limitation of diminishing their resources. Additionally, it helps in making the process comparatively quite sustainable. 3D printing invariably helps in understanding how much material a design is going to take and assists in cutting back on waste generation. With sustainability gaining momentum, many designers are using 3D printing to their benefit and creating a more seamless process with it.
Most importantly, this process gives brands the capacity to customize designs as per the consumers’ needs and create a more effective shopping experience for the buyer. To conclude, 3D printing comes into play from prototyping to end-user needs. The innovations of this technology are still unraveling and fascinating us in the process.
3. Mobile Commerce
With everything at our fingertips, accessing brands, textiles, and designers across the globe has
become easier and more convenient than ever. From insta-shopping, and buying online to using
applications to add styles to our cart, mobile commerce has created waves of impact on the
online sales and fashion industry.
With the ease of paying online through iOS and android pay apps, most millennials choose to shop online rather than in-store. Making eCommerce one of the fastest-growing sectors and revolutionalizing the way the new generations shop.
As the technology keeps getting better every day, from facial recognition to recognizing
thumbprints, they tend to become the preferred mode of shopping and payment. Whereas
through social media, designers and brands seamlessly get integrated into consumers' online feeds, staying visible and making sales through their entertainment channels.
Conclusion
All these combined and so many more, innovations are making huge impacts on the way the
textile, fashion, and furnishing industry now works. With innovations and technology coming in,
there's a lot for the industry to absorb and benefit from.