Fashion Forward: How the promise of A.I. will disrupt the apparel industry

The rise of ‘faster fashion’

The fashion supply chain has been picking up speed for decades and is now at an all-time high. What used to be an industry with four seasons has become a machine in which fast fashion brands produce 12 to 24 collections per year.

“The characteristics of the fashion industry have also changed dramatically,” Christensen said, recalling when the industry used to change four times a year. “Now, these fashion houses change the collection on a monthly basis,” he said, “putting additional pressure on logistics providers. The speed of the requirements of logistics in fashion has changed a lot. Obviously, our customers in fashion prefer to move via ocean freight because it’s cheaper, but that requires a decent skill set on our side.”

This trend has only been exaggerated by the growing prominence of e-commerce that gives consumers the option to purchase goods from their desktops or smartphones.

Rising star e-tailers like Boohoo.com, Zara and Missguided, that have their fingers on the pulse of trends are outpacing the original trailblazers of the fast-fashion game, with faster concept-to-sale cycles, targeting younger markets that increasingly shop online.

Manchester-based Boohoo.com has been known to turn product around in as little as a week, from concept to sale, staying cutting-edge on trends with the help of IT firm EDITED, which helps clients like Boohoo utilize A.I. in its data analysis to forecast trends more quickly and accurately.

But while these fledgling e-tailers have been gaining ground, H&M, the once-fabled phenom of the fast-fashion world, made headlines for reporting the biggest dip in profits it’s seen in years at the end of 2017. In Q1 2018, the company had $4.3 billion worth of unsold inventory in storage.

There is no mystery as to why the retailer is struggling. Jason Ruhmann, a supply consultant who has worked with fashion retail leaders, such as Nike and Columbia Sportswear, boiled it down. “Consumers will buy anything if it will be there tomorrow,” but if you miss a trend, you may as well throw in the towel, because a new trend will be in rotation.