Market intelligence is vital for the textile industry as it offers data on consumer buying habits, raw material prices, and competitor moves. This data helps textile businesses remain competitive in the market and aim for increased profitability.
For instance, awareness of, say, flax/linen price trends in Bangladesh can impact sourcing, pricing decisions, manufacturing strategies, as well as inventory control. Market intelligence also helps in spotting growth opportunities, reducing risks, and staying competitive in an extremely dynamic environment. Ultimately, it enables textile businesses to respond swiftly and make strategic, cost-efficient, and consumer-centric decisions.
Below we look at a number of market intelligence tools that businesses in the textile industry can rely upon.
TexPro
TexPro is Fibre2Fashion’s comprehensive solution for textile and apparel merchants. The tool covers raw material prices, import-export data, sustainability metrics of countries & companies, tariff rates & trade agreements, and so much more.
The tool is also useful to extract competitor information as well, presenting segmented financial information about some of the biggest names in the textile world. TexPro is hence regarded as one of the most advanced tools for textile industry names to gather data, formulate supply chain strategies, do competitive analysis, and more.
Tracking raw material price trends, evaluating global trade flows, and tracing demand & supply shifts, the capabilities of TexPro are numerous. TexPro updates data in real-time, making sure users have the latest information. Using this information users can assess competitor strategies, monitor sourcing destinations, and respond proactively to market fluctuations. Hence, textile market players can optimize procurement, reduce risks, and explore new growth opportunities.
Some of the unique features of the tool are:
- Access to a broad supplier network covering global countries.
- AI-powered summaries of pricing trends
- Comprehensive overview of trade agreements that affect the textile industry
- Available in French, German, Chinese, Spanish, and Turkish, aside from English
- Forecast prices forraw materials
NOW ERP Software
NOW ERP Software (from Datatex) focuses on data in the textile and apparel industry. Integrated with its Business Intelligence (BI) solution, the aim of the tool is to not only provide businesses with useful data but also to present it in a visually appealing manner.
The software has proficiency in both big and small data. Ultimately, thetool empowers businesses to make data-driven decisions and formulate informed strategies.
Some of the noted features of the product are:
- Interactive dashboards that help users visualize information better
- Actionable data to ease strategic decision-making and reporting compliance.
- Speedy updates of data, making sure users are not relying on outdated information
Retviews
Retviews (by Lectra) is an AI-powered platform that helps textile and apparel businesses gain insights from data. The objective of the tool is to enable fashion companies to plan out their future strategies and collections in an informed manner.
With strong inventory tracking capabilities, fashion businesses use the solution to avoid overstocking and understocking problems. The tool especially helps with competitor analysis, making sure fashion businesses have suitable industry relevant pricing.
Some notable features of the tool include:
- Real-time monitoring of competitor strategies, including pricing strategies
- Alerts for significant changes in pricing strategies of competitor
- Insights into competitors’ marketing strategies
- Real-time data from all sales channels, including ecommerce
TrackIT
TrackIT (by Triple Tree Solutions) is a platform that aims to increase confidence in an organization’s supply chain. The business solution makes communication between production teams and suppliers easier.
As the name suggests, the solution also lets textile businesses track purchase orders, giving increased autonomy over the supply chain. Hence, the solution helps apparel companies counter supply chain disruptions and take measures to prevent them before happening.
Some unique features of the solution include:
- Early detection of delays through real-time tracking
- Vendor comparison dashboards
- Prediction of delivery dates
- Real-time OTP scores and KPIs
IdeaApe
IdeaApe is an AI-powered platform that catalogues opinion on Reddit to give insights to businesses. Although not made exclusively for textile companies, fashion brands engage the tool to gauge public opinion and sentiment.
Opinion on social media websites like Reddit have the power to sway internet users’ choices. Hence, fashion brands monitor sites like Reddit closely. Posts and comments on the site help fashion brands pick out trends and preferences. IdeaApe makes the process simpler and the data more insightful.
Conclusion
It is clear that in the modern world, textile businesses are routinely in need of market intelligence to smooth out operations and prepare for supply chain discrepancies. Especially in the modern world of escalating trade wars and the accompanying tariffs, market intelligence plays a key role in safeguarding business operations.
A business intelligence platforms like TexPro provides all-round intelligence regarding the textile world, from raw material prices to competitor financials. It is the tool to have for textile companies to get a more complete outlook of the industry and make data-backed decisions.
For specific needs, there are platforms like TrackIT (for supply chain data and tracking) and IdeaApe (for predicting trends and measuring success through Reddit). But whether you want these specific solutions or an all-around one like TexPro, market intelligence is becoming more and more crucial for textile businesses.
