New Years Resolution: Fashion Brand Edition

Out with the old and in with the new, 2021 we’ve been waiting for you. The beginning of the year calls for new goals and opportunities to grow as we reflect on the past year’s accomplishments, challenges, and lessons. Despite 2020’s unique global challenges, it’s important to take time to acknowledge the positives and use them as a motivating factor to make this year better than the last. Forget dieting and exercising, it’s time to set resolutions to improve your fashion brand’s reputation and operations - and here’s how!

Set Your Brand’s Smart Goals for Production, Supply Chain, etc.

From the outside looking in:

• What were your company’s biggest successes?
• What steps did you take to get you there?
• What were your best and least selling products?
• On a scale from 1-10 with 10 being “absolutely ruined our earnings,” how did COVID-19 affect your company?
• What were your top challenges in 2020?
• How did you resolve them?

Write down the answers to these questions, and use them to visually understand how you can proceed improve as a business. Set SMART goal standards for your brand’s 2021 resolutions that are:

S - Specific
M - Measurable
A - Attainable
R - Relevant
T - Timely

Designing goals according to this format makes it easier to check each goal off the list one by one. In terms of time, setting both short and long term goals will benefit your operations. You can directly apply this approach to marketing, manufacturing, distribution, and sourcing to assure success.

Using Data To Grow Your Business

The key word for 2021 is growth. According to Sprout Social, 56% of marketers use social data to understand their target audience. Now more than ever does success heavily rely on the use of data analytics.

Despite being fast fashion, Zara is a prime example of a brand that fully embraced data analysis and used it to their advantage. From data-driven supply chain management to analyzing product performance, Zara used data to craft a better customer experience. Data can also be used to unearth geographic luxury markets and reveal tactics to better appeal to that market.

Fashion Industry Trends To Look For in 2021

In the ever changing industry that is fashion, it’s critical for brands to adapt quickly to new ideas and trends before the moment has passed. Let’s take a look at what 2021 has in store for the fashion industry in terms of logistics, and some examples of SMART goals you can use as benchmarks for your brand’s operations:

• The push for sustainable fashion from sourcing to distribution will continue.
  • Potential SMART Goal: Look into manufacturing certifications that closely align with your brand values, and set a short term goal to complete 2 by the end of the year.
    
• Stray away from fast fashion.
  • Potential SMART Goal: Reduce production in developing countries by 15%, and instead, focus on using high quality materials to create top tier products.
    
• Increase your reliance on crisis resistant technology.
  • Potential SMART Goal: Perform a series of cost benefit analyses to see how much you can integrate technology into your fashion brand. Evaluate artificial intelligence, automation, or robotics to see what tools will benefit your operations.
    
• Be ruthless on strategy.
  • Potential SMART Goal: Simplify your processes one by one, starting at the beginning: Sourcing Manufacturing Distribution Marketing

It’s time to shift your energy and start making bold changes to improve your fashion business. In this competitive industry, the right organizational tools can make all the difference for your brand’s growth and financial success.