4 Ways to optimize your sublimated sportswear & teamwear business

The global sportswear market was worth USD $239.78 billion in 2018 and is expected to register a CAGR of 10.4% between 2019 to 2025. Although there was a dip in sports participation due to the covid-19 pandemic, as schools and leagues open back up and outdoor activities are encouraged, the custom team uniform segment is expected to make a healthy rebound. With more and more brands and manufacturers offering the service either directly to consumers or through other businesses, it is time to explore effective ways of optimizing the custom sublimated sportswear and teamwear business. 

Put Some of the Design Work in the Hands of Your Customers

Typically a customer works with a sales representative who works with a designer to create an initial design that then goes through rounds of telephone or email iterations before the design is finalized, accepted and ready to go to production.

Understandably, this back and forth process is time consuming and expensive. It may also be frustrating for your customer when your designer don’t get it “right” the first time.  By offering templates and giving your customer the ability to design themselves or collaborating directly with them in real time, you ensure customer satisfaction and higher order volumes. 

Grow Your Business with Team Stores

If chasing down customers for payment and tracking complex orders for the same team isn’t your idea of a good time, consider expanding your reach and customer satisfaction with personalized team stores. 

By offering customized goods through a personalized storefront, you simultaneously drive sales and upsell opportunities while simplifying your order collection process and eliminating the need for manual or paper order forms. 

With vPersonalize, you only have to design once to automatically generate a team storefront with team designs across your product line. Orders can be placed and fulfilled individually, collected over a selected period of time and then made all at once, or ordered in bulk. Create team catalogs available for purchase directly from your existing e-commerce.

Don’t Get Bogged Down with Rosters and Variable Data

The task of collecting roster information, or team variable data (like names and numbers) and translating that information in to actual print files can be a time-consuming process. Designers have to go through lists of names and numbers and the corresponding sizes ordered to first manually enter the correct information and then grade it to the appropriate size. Even the quickest of designers likely take a considerable amount of time to do this, which especially adds up when doing large team orders. 

vPersonalize is the only manufacturing-aware design and production automation platform that offers full print-ready variable data automation: Simply upload a spreadsheet with team information to have it automatically generated into production-ready files, graded to size and ready for print, cut and sew using our advanced Artificial Intelligence based grading system. Don’t take our word for it: before committing to any solution, do a test run to make sure everything works as intended and you can go directly to print!

Avoid Re-designing Mock-ups into Print Files & Take Directly to Production 

The back and forth associated with creating mock-ups can be an expensive and time-consuming. This snowballs further when, post-approval, mockups need to be converted into actual production files, with nesting, markers, fabric optimization, yield management, laser cutter, barcodes, etc. 

Design and production automation allows you to go straight from purchase to the production line in minutes without any manual work. When you purchase a solution, do a test run of multiple sizes and rosters, test end-end for print colors, fabric yield, cutter compatibility and make sure everything works as intended.

We are here to help

Key technology decisions can affect your business for many years to come and it is important to take a long term view and choose the right technology that can keep you ahead of your competition. Equally important, choose a partner that truly understands your business – both manufacturing and technology.

We are the industry leading provider of software for mass customization and on-demand manufacturing at scale. Our technology helps apparel brands and their manufacturers bring designs to market significantly faster, expand product lines and make those products on demand.

For more information, visit www.vPersonalize.com or email us at hello@vpersonalize.com

Online commerce may now be a survival necessity

Brick & mortars across the country are amidst an unprecedented closure due to the coronavirus. With hundreds of thousands of employees furloughed, companies are facing vast decreases in revenues and are bracing for the impact that coronavirus will have on them. The harsh reality is that some might not make it to the other side. According to Coresight, an estimated 630,000 outlets have already been forced to close and the National Retail Federation estimates that $430 billion in revenues will disappear over the next three months.

During this time of mass social distancing, consumer purchasing behavior is changing rapidly, perhaps permanently, barreling towards e-commerce and abandoning physical spaces for fear of contagion. While Amazon and Nike are seeing historic numbers, other companies are seeing sharp drop in revenue and scrambling to pivot to digital commerce.

It is believed that covid-19 will have long lasting effects on consumer habits. “When a lot of people are self-quarantined or staying in their homes and being in a lot less public places, we’re going to see a shift in behavior,” says Shelley Kohan, founder of Shelmark Consulting. “We’ve talked about how e-commerce is supposed to grow over the next few years, but this is something that’s going to happen in our first quarter and that is going to change behavior in quarters two, three and four.”

Andrew Lipsman described this phenomenon in Kohan’s article for Forbes, calling it a “step-change,” a short-term change in reaction to a specific event that creates a new, higher plateau for a certain behavior. Lipsman continued, “during the holiday, a time with more concentrated buying activity, consumers spend more online, creating a step-change, meaning the consumer may not return to past behavior. We may see this type of similar behavior unfold over the future.”

Businesses big and small must act now to create a solid digital strategy and align their business models to this new normal.

 

Focus on online sales

If you don’t have a digital strategy, the time to act is now! Even if you already have a fairly sophisticated online presence, prepare to run a large part of your business digitally. Make it easy for customers to purchase your product and services online. Prepare for a low-touch future.

 

Foster good relationships with your customers

Make sure to communicate with your customers clearly and consistently. Let your customers know you are open for business online. Create rewards and incentives. Use your social media presence to keep your customers up to date and connected.

 

Retool key processes for virtualization and automation

As more companies start working remotely and with smaller teams, the move to virtual product development and small batch production will accelerate. Use this time effectively to retool your processes and make changes to facilitate remote communication and less on-site staff.

 

We are here to help

If you are in the apparel space, we can help. We continue to focus on technologies that can support our customers during a period of social distancing and beyond, using tools that reduce the need for in-person contact like virtual product development, design-to-manufacturing accuracy, automation and online commerce.

As you use this time to focus on making your business resilient, we’re here to serve you with technology for a digital future – mass customization, on-demand production and online commerce.

 

Connect with us to learn more: 

www.vPersonalize.com

hello@vpersonalize.com