At Otto International, we believe that embracing digital tools can help to propel our strategic vision and enhance our service offering. We have implemented digital tools throughout every step of our supply chain, offering solutions that may even contact the end consumer.
featuring LIMITED, our 3D digital design competence centre, is an integral part of our Digital Product Creation (DPC) process, and AI has revolutionised how featuring LIMITED meets our customers’ needs. Simulation enables the creation of fully digital models in various poses and styles, offering a seamless process for designing and marketing on online platforms.
The integration of AI tools emerges as a pivotal strategy to elevate our service offering. By leveraging digital solutions, we refine customer interactions to reduce the financial burden and alleviate time restraints, while keeping our dedication to sustainability at the forefront of what we do. This is especially true in the realm of e-commerce and digital marketing, where costs can be halved, lead times reduced by weeks, and wasteful physical samples can be eliminated entirely.
Mitigating Time-Cost Constraints
Implementing AI tools into the digital design process has the potential to transform how we complete routine operations. A studio photoshoot, traditionally, involves a wide variety of tasks, such as securing a venue, hiring models and a photographer, as well as arranging for a series of product samples. The DPC process, utilising AI tools, helps us streamline this process onto a single platform, providing one tool that enables the designing, sampling, and capturing of marketing photos for any product created on them. The emergence of tools like Ecoshot by Tronog and Lalaland mark a shift towards a more time and cost-effective approach.
For example, featuring LIMITED was faced with the problem of creating a portfolio for a German catalogue with a set of specifications: the model had to be a 40-year-old European lady with light-mid brown skin and long wavy black-brown hair. The task was given with a two-week deadline, a difficult ask in the old way of working. However, featuring LIMITED employed Ecoshot, in which AI algorithms replicate human features with a high degree of accuracy and efficiency. The outcome was a portfolio of 17 realistic and dynamic poses fitting the customer’s needs in four days.
Otto International, through featuring LIMITED, plans to redefine the way in which e-commerce marketing photos are generated by making the entire process digital. Integrating AI into the DPC process helps reduce costs and alleviate time restraints on companies, freeing up marketing departments’ resources. Traditionally, producing a portfolio with 17 different photographs in various products and poses would take weeks. A significant amount of the timeline hinges on model availability. The time spent searching for a real-life model that meets a customer’s requirements becomes obsolete as a CGI model is always ready at a moment’s notice and at no additional cost. Therefore, the digitisation of this step can lead to a faster turnaround, as 3D images can be produced within minutes.
Additionally, eliminating the necessity for physical photoshoots enables a more flexible design process: the urgency and costs incurred during sample creation, shipping, and the need for physical samples at specific locations are gone. In turn, it opens the door for brands to pursue other marketing endeavours. Consequently, digital tools optimise the design process and open myriad possibilities for remote collaboration, faster iterations, and reduced overhead costs, leading to a more dynamic production cycle.
Our Dedication to Sustainability
Featuring LIMITED’s transition from physical samples to digital tools is about bringing change that extends further than maximising efficiency and quality for brands. As a member of the Otto Group, we conscientiously implement processes and technologies that contribute towards achieving the Group’s climate goals.
Annually, the textile industry produces 92 million tonnes of waste, making up for at least 7% of the total waste in landfills globally, as well as contributing to approximately 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions. It is therefore pertinent to find solutions that mitigate the industry’s impact on the environment.
Digital tools play a pivotal role by enabling e-commerce brands to conduct dry tests, where 3D technology is used to display styles and patterns without producing physical samples. By gathering consumer feedback during these tests, brands can refine and produce the most marketable designs, resulting in fewer physical samples. Photoshoot samples have a relatively short product lifecycle – rarely lasting past the shoot before going to landfills where they decompose and emit greenhouse gases. In their brief lifecycle, they also consume a plethora of resources, from their material sourcing and design to their shipping. By leveraging DPC and its AI interventions, brands can perfect styles digitally, slashing the need for physical samples that contribute to landfills.
Katharina Bobrowski, our featuring LIMITED General Manager, says: “The future of fashion development is undeniably digital. At featuring LIMITED, we are pioneering the integration of 3D technology to revolutionise the product development process. This not only accelerates design and production but also significantly reduces the need for physical samples, cutting down costs and our carbon footprint. By embracing digitalisation, we are not just enhancing efficiency and collaboration across teams but also driving sustainability objectives forward. Our commitment to digital product creation is a testament to our dedication to innovation, cost-effectiveness, and a more sustainable fashion industry.”
AI tools are a means to redefine how we navigate customer relationships and help companies maximise their resources and refine their operations. Integrating digital tools into our processes can fundamentally change how fashion companies and brands navigate the product design process to enhance a consumer’s shopping experience and minimise their environmental impact. Otto International and featuring LIMITED stand at the forefront of this transformation, implementing sourcing solutions for a better future.
Check out our LinkedIn, news channel, and featuring LTD’s website to learn more about our digital innovations and business updates.
