The global fashion industry is estimated to be worth about $1.78 trillion and this represents a remarkable 14 percent in growth since 2018. One major factor responsible for the exponential growth of the sector has been digital innovation based on e-commerce.
The increase in e-commerce purchase in the fashion industry is because people have become more internet savvy, coupled with this peculiar coronavirus period which entails restricted movement and inadvertently shopping.
With huge growth comes significant challenges, and this has been a familiar story with the fashion industry as a parallel counterfeit market has been growing on unprecedented levels. Forward-thinking fashion brands are however not deterred by the growth in counterfeiting as they are also employing counter measures to nip this phenomenon in the bud.
Some innovative and anti-counterfeit measures being employed in the industry today are;
Sustainable Fashion
With a more sensitized world and the increasing push towards sustainable practices, fashion brands are making efforts to make their businesses more green as they aim to help reduce environmental pollution.
With increase in production due to higher consumer demand for “fast fashion,” comes the concerns of environment pollution and degradation caused by activities in the industry.
The Fashion industry is currently estimated to the second largest contributor to pollution after the oil industry. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climatic Change (IPCC), fashion companies account for as much as 10% of annual global carbon dioxide emissions, they also use up to 1.5 trillion litres of water in their processes, which is equal to 20% of the world’s water wastage.
These worrying trends have caused brands to start sourcing more sustainable materials and using less water in their production processes. The likes of Levi and Adidas have made conscious commitments to make use of recycled materials. Beyond large brands, smaller enterprises like BATOKO which have sustainability at their core make use of recycled materials in the production of swim wears which is their specialty.
Online Shopping and the War on Fashion Counterfeits
A recent survey shows that one in five consumers would much rather make their purchase of fashion products online, and this number is expected to increase in the near future.
The increase in use of online channels for purchases has seen a corresponding increase in fake websites which sell counterfeit fashion goods to unsuspecting buyers. To help curb this, many clothing and design companies are making use of artificial intelligence powered anti-counterfeit labelling solutions like Noise Print from Cypheme.
Fashion enterprises are beginning to see the importance of protecting their brands and trademarks thus the move for anti-counterfeit solutions.
With Cypheme’s solution for Fashion brands, companies are provided with top-notch technology without any significant increase in production cost. In fact, the use of the solution helps to increase companies’ profits as fake products are squeezed out of the market.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it is crystal clear that the fashion industry would keep growing in leaps and bounds and online shopping would be a catalyst for this.
As pointed out earlier, the growth of the fashion space would see a proportional increase in imitations of brands which would both cut into company profits and hurt consumers’ pockets as they would might end up purchasing low quality goods which won’t last long – this goes on to affect the image of the imitated brands.
The ability for counterfeiters to create fake and closely identical online sales platforms or even make use of popular digital marketplaces to ply their trade should not be lost on fashion brands. If there was ever a time when fashion labels needed to proactively safeguard their brands and products, it is now. In light of this, we at Cypheme are willing to avail our services and solutions available to companies who are looking to wage war on counterfeiters.
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