The difficulties faced by the fashion industry have made supply chain traceability an essential requirement to protect the integrity of textile companies. Do you know the journey that your brand’s products experience? What about your end customers? Are they aware of which countries and processes the items they buy have gone through? In this post, we will explore the relevance of traceability in fashion, the challenges in sharing this information with your community and how BCome’s innovative solutions can help close this gap.

The complexity of supply chains presents a double challenge for fashion companies: on the one hand, the need to understand the journey of products to detect and correct risks, and on the other hand, the obligation to communicate this journey to end customers transparently and accurately.

Without traceability there is no transparency

The relocation of current supply chains means that items travel from one corner of the world to another, passing through multiple hands, factories and processes. This fragmentation entails high environmental and social risks in the industry, also causing the loss of trust among consumers. We are facing a clear turning point where transparency and knowledge of the supply chain have become a priority for the sector.

In this context, thanks to BCome’s PLM, textile companies can identify valuable information at each stage of their supply chain, ensuring total transparency and control over their business operations. This tool offers access to traceability data, providing a comprehensive view of the items assessed, suppliers involved, materials and the logistics of your company.

Thanks to the transparency that BCome offers, brands like SAYE have managed to achieve 81% traceability in their supply chain.

Having the visibility of our supply chain has allowed us to see that all the extra effort that is made to look for a better material, a better supplier, a better quality and to be up to date with any innovation, is worth it

Patricia Bori, Product & Sustainability Specialist at SAYE

The relevance of communicating the product journey

However, to ensure brand authenticity and encourage transparency, it’s essential that as a fashion company you not only gain complete knowledge of the traceability of your products, but also be able to effectively communicate this journey to your customers.

It’s important to support your messages with information that supports your communication. By providing data related to each of the stages of your supply chain, you will improve the accuracy and transparency of your messages, guaranteeing the credibility of your claims and thus avoiding greenwashing.

The goal is to tell honest stories that inspire your end consumer, that add value to your product and strengthen the public’s trust in the brand.

Closing the misinformation gap through technology

Fortunately, sharing these valuable insights is easier with the right technology and tools.

BCome’s PLM, together with customized e-commerce data integration, offers the perfect solution to translate the journey of your products into easy to understand information for your end customers.

BCome has allowed us to communicate interesting and easy-to-understand data and also helps us to anticipate the legislative changes that are happening in the sector

Loreto Ros, Sustainability Manager Coordinator at Ecoalf

The e-commerce integration offered by BCome allows you to automatically share relevant information with your consumers to support the storytelling of each of your products, including the location of the following stages of your supply chain:

• Manufacturing. Where the assembly of all the materials processed into each of your products takes place.
• Finishing. The country where the material is treated to improve its appearance, handling and functionality.
• Processing. The location where the transformation of your raw materials into specific materials happens.

In a few simple steps, thanks to the customized integration of information, you will be able to display more than 30 sustainability insights in the description of each of your products.

Legislative pressure to guarantee transparency

Beyond consumer demand, this level of transparency has stopped being a nice-to-have and has become essential when it comes to complying with regulations such as AGEC. This law, applicable to all businesses operating in France, seeks to offer clear, understandable and accurate information on the characteristics of products that generate waste, including requirements such as disclosure of the location of the processing, finishing and manufacturing stages.

However, AGEC is not the only legislation pressuring the fashion industry to share information related to its products and manufacturing processes. Similar regulations have been implemented in multiple countries and regions, with special emphasis on the European Union, where the adoption of stricter regulations is already on the roadmap to promote sustainability in the short/medium term.

Having an end-to-end solution such as the BCome platform gives you the ability to take control over your supply chain, communicate the journey of your products effectively and comply with regulations. Sharing data in an automated and customized way empowers you as a fashion company to regain your consumer’s trust, increase transparency and stand out from the competitors.

We invite you to speak with our sustainability experts to analyze your business needs and discover what our technology can do for you. Together, we can raise your company’s level of transparency and sustainability to build a stronger relationship with your customers. Let’s talk!