Why Do You Need Digital Sourcing Solution For Your Textile Needs?

The global market for Ready-to-wear apparel is valued at around $800 billion. Hundreds of thousands of brands, garment factories, design companies, and fashion designers keep the industry highly competitive and innovative. 

However, there is a huge gap between suppliers, manufacturers, and designers because most of the communication is via email, excel sheets and FedEx; resulting in overproduction and frequent product claims. Even with the advancements in technology, the best digital solution offered is an online marketplace that serves like yellow pages.

The disorganized, confusing, and cumbersome method for supply chain management calls for a collaborative platform that allows brands to interact with their supply chain more effectively. This is where Frontier comes into the picture with its large textile database contributed by suppliers who value digital transformation as much as old-school productivity.

Here are reasons to convince you that using a digital textile solution like Frontier is the best for your business:

1. MORE CREATIVE OPTIONS
   
   As a fashion designer, you may be limited to the textile design that can be sourced locally. If your area mostly produces floral designs, you’ll probably be limited to base your output on this theme unless you’re willing to import more fabric styles from other regions.
   
   What if you can tap into more textile products here and abroad? Access to a wider range of textile design will free you from design constraints, enabling your creativity to run its course. You’ll be able to create unique and more artistic products that can tap into a deeper market.
   
   Frontier is a digital textile solution that lets you connect with fabric mills and garment factories worldwide. It lets you tap into a vast array of textile designs you can use for your next fashion idea.
   
   Sometimes, you may have a certain textile pattern in mind, but find it difficult to locate a merchandiser that offers the exact piece within your area. Frontier offers a ‘Search by image’ function that can help you in this scenario. Using AI and proprietary digital textile innovations, we can locate member suppliers that can provide you with the fabric pattern you’re looking for.
   
   
2. BETTER SUPPLY CHAIN CONSOLIDATION
   
   For garment factories manufacturing apparel in bulk, production can be hindered by the lack of textile supply. A sudden decrease in supply can make prices skyrocket while limiting your ability to recover expenses simultaneously. Worse, you might have to decline new clients because you don’t have any other supplier that can provide you with the raw materials needed.
   
   Being dependent on a few suppliers have benefits and disadvantages. One advantage is that you can build a strong, long-term partnership with them for being a loyal client. On the downside, you may encounter problems when they’re having trouble with their production.
   
   Finding a different supplier that offers the same exact fabric can be difficult, especially if you have limited contacts within your area. With Frontier, you can get in touch with a vast number of suppliers that can give you the textile you’re looking for, with the same, or even better quality.
   
   
   
3. CONVENIENT COMMUNICATION
   
   Back then, you either go to the office of the supplier to see their swatches or have it delivered to you, both of which are expensive to do. Now, suppliers can email digital copies of samples, although this can still get lost in the conversation thread and the details about each sample may be incomplete.
   
   Within the Frontier platform, you can chat with your team or suppliers to get a more constructive interaction that will give you the desired results. You can clip your comments over the swatch’s image, giving a better context on which areas of the fabric you want to alter.
   
   If you’ve decided to purchase a textile, you can communicate with the supplier directly on the Frontier platform, no need to switch back and forth between email and other tools. Frontier is not a middlemen that connects buyers and suppliers, we want to the push the industry forward by providing a socially interactive work space in the cloud.
   
   
   
4. FASTER SAMPLING
   
   The introduction of a digital textile solution like Frontier has made it easier to view all the available swatches a supplier has, complete with details about each kind of fabric. You can also search for similar patterns you find interesting with the help of the platform’s AI-enhanced algorithm.
   
   A faster search ability translates to quicker production, giving you the first-mover advantage in the business. You’ll churn
   out new designs earlier before competitors even notice that there’s a new fashion trend in play.
   
   On the side of textile suppliers, the diminishing need to produce fabric samples encourages sustainable operations. On-demand manufacturing reduces the production of excess materials that don’t have a sure buyer.
   
   The use of digital textile innovations like Frontier, where textile samples can be uploaded and sourced, eliminates dead inventory that costs businesses millions of dollars every year. Producing smaller batches and customized orders make operations more cost-effective and environment-friendly.
   
   
   
5. EASIER ACCESSIBILITY TO SWATCHES
   
   Keeping catalogs of swatches from suppliers can be impractical, especially when you’re stashing hundreds of them in your file cabinet. Additionally, some of the textiles you have samples of may be out of stock, outdated or have been completely removed from the supplier’s inventory.
   
   With a digital textile solution like Frontier, you can upload and store all your favorite swatches online. You can also bookmark swatches offered by other suppliers that you haven’t contacted yet. 
   
   The digital database can be accessed anytime and anywhere; no software downloads needed. You don’t have to bring along physical fabric samples whenever you need a reference for your designs. The centralized platform also allows the team to get simultaneous access to reference swatches for a more efficient workflow.
   
   You don’t need to worry about using an unavailable fabric for your designs. The Frontier platform will indicate whether a bookmarked textile sample is currently out of stock. Fabric availability is also indicated so you can set expectations on the number of garments you can produce with the obtainable supply.
   
   
   
6. ENHANCED PROTOTYPING WITH 3D SOFTWARE
   
   Creating apparel samples can now be made more realistic and cost-effective through 3D garment visualizations. You don’t have to produce the actual clothing to get a good perspective on how it will look like when worn.
   
   Frequent adjustments are normal during the sampling process. However, this may result in the creation of hundreds of sample apparel that will be trashed when the final piece has been approved for production. Did you know that 3D garment visualization can be outsourced?
   
   Frontier is a digital textile solution that can be connected to a 3D application. You can source the available swatches on the platform and import them directly to the 3D software, so you can get a digital representation of the design you want to produce. This saves you the cost and trouble of creating countless garments before you get things right.
   
   

Final Thoughts on Our Digital Sourcing Solutions

Digital textile innovations like Frontier make it easier for you to connect with both local and international suppliers. The online platform provides a central database that links clients to suppliers in a faster and more convenient way. With the enhancements brought about by AI, Frontier encourages more cost-effective production among textile manufacturers and fosters a faster sampling process for designers.

If you want to expand your network by tapping into a wider list of suppliers, register your business with us now. If you still need some clarifications regarding the platform, you can easily get in touch with us and request a personalized demo.