The *Real* Use Cases for Connected Fashion

It's about a lot more than supply chain transparency and sustainability

Tod’s is one of the many luxury brands that have started incorporating NFC Chips into their products and getting “Connected”.

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Connected Fashion is Headed in the Wrong Direction

Connected Fashion (FKA Phygital)

noun

    1. A physical fashion (or beauty) good connected to its digital twin via an NFC Chip or QR code.

I have long been struggling with the feeling that the Connected fashion space is heading in the wrong direction, and focused on the wrong future. This sense was particularly emphasized at NFT Paris a few weeks ago, which I found to be … disappointing, to say the least.

NFT Paris, for those who don’t have the distinct pleasure of flying around the world every 2 weeks to attend some unnecessary crypto conference held in an equally unnecessary location (yes, I am looking at you, ETHDenver), is usually my favourite event of the year.

This year, however, conversations about a Connected future that, at NFT Paris’ past have been full of optimism and inspiration, were instead marred by industry ‘thought leaders’ pouting and stomping their feet because ‘it hasn’t worked yet and no one wants to play with us’. :(

Well, Charlie Munger said it best — show me an incentive and I’ll show you the outcome. I believe the present incentives are are all wrong.

So, What Has Gone Wrong?

My gripes with the space can be neatly summed up as such:

1. Inaccessible Tags: Connected products currently boast QR codes located on the clothing tag. No one wants to scan a QR code. We know this from restaurant menu fatigue. This becomes even less appealing when said QR code is located in such an inconvenient spot. No wonder no one is using them.
   
   We need to do better as an industry to push NFC technology as the primary solution in this space if we want it to become a mainstay.
   

2. Poor Incentives: Every discussion about Connected fashion today focuses on supply-chain transparency and sustainability. I’m just going to come out and say it, since apparently no one else will — No one actually cares about sustainability. At least, not enough to adopt this new technology.
   
   If we are going to create a compelling product, we are going to have to come up with more enticing use-cases that can convince a consumer to jump over the hurdle and tap the NFC chip in their sweater.

What Incentives Can Drive a Connected Future?

The way I see it, Connected products offer three main value propositions:

1. Provenance and Supply-Chain Transparency (Boring, Table-Stakes)

2. Better Brand-Community Engagement

3. A New Era of Social Commerce

To highlight the difference between an unconnected past, and a Connected future, I’m using a tried and true Twitter format: Tired and Wired.

Provenance & Supply-Chain Transparency

Yes, we are starting here despite my mini-rant, simply because this use case is being mandated by the European Commission. I still think it’s the least exciting, but we love a regulatory tailwind.

Provenance & Authenticity

Tired: Manually posting your Gucci bag on Vestiaire Collective, shipping it to Vestiaire for manual authentication (costly & ineffective), waiting weeks for the bag to be sent on to the buyer and thus receive your payment.

Wired: A single tap posts the digital twin to Vestiaire Collective, and another tap of the NFC chip proves authenticity. Ship it directly to the buyer, and the payment hits your bank account next day.

Supply Chain Transparency

Tired: Not knowing where your goods from, and if they were ethically made — or if the brand is just participating in ‘green-washing’

Wired: One tap of the NFC chip unlocks all supply-chain data: From the materials to the labour. You know exactly who made your new Corporate Fetish look from Reformation.

Circular Economy

Tired: Brands disincentivizing secondary sales of their goods, as they lose access to the product and owner, as well as potential future revenue from primary sales.

Wired: Brands incentivize secondary sales, as they can now connect with new owners and bring them further into the brand ecosystem, as well as collect royalties on secondary sales, thereby driving revenue.

Hello to a circular economy :)

As it stands, these are the only use cases that are being offered (in part) to consumers via Connected products. If we truly want to get Connected — we need to think much bigger.

BETTER BRAND-COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

Tired: Ganni asks their “Ganni Girls” to post an IG photo, thereby receiving promotional UGC for free. The creators receive no reward other than a quick repost on Ganni’s IG Story (yawn).

Wired: Ganni sends a mobile notification to all Ganni Girls: “Wear a Ganni piece today, receive 10% off your next purchase!”. The Ganni Girl wears, and taps, their Connected products, and receive 10% off for being a walking billboard.

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Tired: Staud hosts an event in their SoHo, NY store. They don’t know who was committed enough to trek through the rain to attend their event or, frankly, which of their customers even live in NY.

Wired: Staud blasts out an invite to their New York community: Attend our event in SoHo today *wearing a Staud accessory*, and receive a gift upon arrival! Girls arrive wearing their Connected Staud bag, and ‘tap’ in as a Proof of Attendance. The next week, all attendees get dropped an invite to the next VIP-only party.

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Tired: Ceremonia knows they need their community to use their new Guava Leave-In Conditioner nearly every day for the first month for that product to become a mainstay on their beauty shelf thereafter. But they have no way to incentivize (or track) this.

Wired: Ceremonia sends a notification to all owners of the Guava Leave-In Conditioner: “User your product (and ‘tap’ as proof!) every day for 30 days, receive a complimentary Guava Rescue Spray. Ta da — A streak they can actually track.

If you’re going to make a comment about consumers gaming the system by tapping and not using, you’re not getting the point. Just prompting the consumer to think about, and touch, your product and your brand compared to the hundreds of others in their closet or on the shelf is a win. And, once the product is in their hands, it’s likely they actually will wear or use it.

A NEW ERA OF SOCIAL COMMERCE

Tired: Seeing a girl on the street wearing a cute coat, asking her where it’s from, and having to find it on Net-a-Porter later

Wired: Seeing a girl on the street wearing a cute coat, tapping her NFC chip, buying it on the spot and she gets a 5% revenue share for having influenced you.

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Tired: You, a micro-influencer with 2K followers, post a photo in a cute dress, and get flooded with DMs from friends asking where it’s from. You tell them its from Gimaguas, and they’re left to find (and buy) it themselves.

Wired: You, a micro-influencer with 2K followers, have a mini-shop on the “IG of the future”, curated with the products you own and love. You wear a cute dress, and your followers know to purchase it directly from your shop. You get a 5% revenue share for having influenced them.

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Tired: You stare at your physical closet, wondering what you even own, and what to pack for your upcoming trip to Paris. You hate everything. You wish you were Bella Hadid so Elizabeth Sulcer (celebrity stylist) could just style you too.

Wired: Your digital closet makes it easier to see all your products, but you’re still uninspired. So you pay $5 to get Elizabeth Sulcer — or rather, the AI model trained on her taste and aesthetic — to curate a weekend Paris wardrobe for you right from what you own (with a new purchase recommendation thrown in here or there).

All of this and so much more is possible in a Connected world. This is what we’re building at TATA Bazaar — call me/beep me if you want to learn more. :)

Next week, I’ll talk about the consumer trends that are driving the adoption of Connected products in the first place, so stay tuned!