California Apparel News

Technology providers that cater to fashion industry clientele are tapping into the iPad’s functionality to provide tech on the go.

“We see there are certain communities that love to use a mobile device, and the design world and apparel world love iPads,” said James Horne, senior director of marketing and business development for the product lifecycle management and software solution company Centric.

The ability for iPad users to easily zoom in on pictures and swipe between pages by touching the screen lends itself well to fashion and design, he added.

Centric recently developed a collection-book iPad application that enables wholesalers and retailers to share their entire catalog digitally with more ease and less expense than a traditional paper catalog.

The app allows brands to create custom catalogs tailored to specific retailers so sales reps can target retailers by showing them only the items they would be interested in.

“It makes them more efficient,” Horne said.

“They can efficiently get to items that are saleable, and they can present a subset of items that will resonate with that customer.”

In addition to creating catalogs, sales reps can create “looks” within the catalog to better showcase the merchandise. The looks allow users to view an outfit as a whole, as well as each individual item shown in an image strip across the bottom of the screen. This “infinite navigation” highlights inter-relationships between colorways, fabrics and items grouped together.

“You can tap on a style and see the style, then you can look at the fabric and tap on it and say, ‘Find me everything in Goretex’ or ‘Find all SUV-protection fabrics,’” Horne said.

The app was designed as one component of the Centric 8 PLM system, and by syncing to the brand’s PLM system, it allows sales reps to stay on top of changes with items or colorways as well as when pieces have sold out.

“PLM is keeping track of all of the orders of all the sales guys, and the app basically accesses that info,” he said.

The app also helps highlight designs through illustrations, photos and information boxes that take the place of informational hangtags and helps cut down on the amount of samples that need to be shown and produced.

The collection-book app was first developed for the international technical gear and hunting-apparel retailer Beretta, which needs to produce two catalogs a season in multiple languages and currencies.

“You can have as many catalogs as you want,” Horne explained. “You can arm the German sales reps with one catalog and arm the French guys with the French version.”

Rapid time to market is another bonus, said Luisa Achino, a spokeswoman for Beretta.

“We now have the chance to publish accurate product information to catalogs in real time,” she said. “Beretta can provide all customers and buyers with the most recent, justupdated, real-time information. Previously, it took nine weeks to produce buyer catalogs, including all the time needed for photo shoots, layout, production, printing and shipping.

Now, it takes about two weeks. This obviously means much faster time to market for every new collection—and savings.”

It also helps the company stay current, Achino said.

“We used to print 9,000 copies of paper catalogs twice a year. … By the time we sent a catalog to print, it was already out of date.

Plus, garments were still changing, and some were being cancelled. With the integrated PLM system, we can change information at any time within the PLM system, and the sales force immediately receives that information in their digital catalogs.”

The digital collection book also aids in “enhancing the brand experience” with multimedia content, she said. Additionally, the company is able to track usage and click-through traffic for the app through Google Analytics.

Currently, the app is only available for the iPad and not for PC products, and it is just one out of “a stable of apps” that are soon to be released by Centric, Horne said. While the app is free, there is a monthly connection fee for the client that varies with each company’s software package.

The Los Angeles–based apparel-software provider AIMS 360 has also looked to the iPad to expand its solutions. Its AIMS RemoteLink iPad app is an order- and production-processing system for manufacturers, wholesalers and distributors, and it is the only native iPad orderentry system for the apparel industry, according to Chris Walia, the marketing director for the company.

“It means you’re not going through a Web browser, so you don’t have to be online to take orders,” he explained.

The app helps with making digital sales presentations, taking orders, tracking inventory and managing customer lists. It also helps sales reps show more of their showroom digitally and saves them from lugging hundreds of different samples around to trade shows, Walia said.

Exhibitors can also use the credit card swiper to collect credit card information at the show, and the app includes a bar code scanner that uses the iPad’s camera to photograph bar codes, which are then translated to style details and put on the buyer’s order sheet while the buyer is pulling samples.

To avoid errors, the information is quarantined and saved before being sent to the ERP (enterprise resource planning) system, and it will only be sent once the user chooses to send it, Walia explained.

In addition to providing note-taking areas and pre-populating with a buyer’s information once it’s been recognized, the app can collect electronic signatures for buyers to sign off on orders, and “air print” the order to email or send it to any Wi-Fi–connected printer.

“Most people that are into technology and budget-conscious realize the savings in using it because there’s less data entry, fewer errors, and it increases efficiencies and processes,” Walia said.

The app itself is free, but there is a monthly charge that starts at $150 per month, depending on which ERP package a company has.

AIMS has also released AIMS Analytics for iPad to aid in reporting sales.

“We’re a very green company, and we want to get away from wasting paper,” Walia said.