As per a report by Unicommerce and Kearney, India’s e-commerce order value and gross merchandize value grew by 36 per cent and 30 per cent in the last quarter of 2020. However, the average order value was 5 per cent during the quarter as compared to the same period last year.

Backbone of the retail industry

The last quarter of 2020 reflected the changing consumer behavior and traced the consumers shift from physical to online shopping. During this period, e-commerce emerged as the backbone of the retail industry, with its growth accelerating due to COVID-19 and subsequent lockdowns. The sector is currently growing at a CAGR of over 20 per cent annually. Sales volumes in these sectors have grown 95 per cent and 46 per cent Y-O-Y respectively.

F&H emerges as the fastest gsrowing sectors

With value growth of 94 per cent in Q4-20 compared to the same period last year, FMCG & healthcare (F&H) is one of the fastest-growing categories. Strong growth in the value of this sector is supported by 46 per cent order volume growth in Q4 2020.

The electronics segment witnessed 12 per cent YoY growth in AOV in addition to 27 per cent YOY growth in volumes and continues to drive the highest share of the e-commerce value. On the other hand, the fashion and accessories segment reported 37 per cent YOY volume growth. However, the sector’s AOV declined by 7 per cent YOY in Q4-2020 as compared to the same period last year. The growth of this sector is supported by the purchase of lower value products such as comfort wear and loungewear.

Growing contribution of Tier II and III cities

With e-commerce companies focusing on Tier II and III cities, the contribution of these cities to the overall e-commerce sector continues to increase gradually over the last few years. During the last quarter of FY2020, sales from smaller cities grew a whopping 90 per cent in both volume and value. As a result, the volume share of these cities grew to 46 per cent from 32 per cent and value share grew to 43 per cent from 26 per cent during the Q4 CY2020 as compared to the same period last year.This growth was supported by factors like the rising adoption of social commerce, faster and timely deliveries, vernacular content and greater internet penetration with growing adoption of digital payments.

Direct-to-consumer (D2C) strategies are also helping brands to develop a strong bond with consumers. These brands e recorded strong volume growth of 94 per cent which showcases their immense future potential.

MAS Holdings earned about 11 per cent of its revenues from innovative products. Since 2013, the company has been launching many innovative products that blur the lines between apparel, healthcare and technology, says a report by Economy Plus. In 2013, it launched the SPRYNG device, a battery operated, smaller and effective device that enables the wearer to move around freely.

World’s most influential innovator

Available online at spryungme.com, the SPRYNG device is a product manufactured at a Silicon Valley like startup located in a remodeled Colombo warehouse. MAS Holdings also bagged Clarivate’s most influential innovator award in South and South East Asia for this innovation. The award tracks scientific advances and patents around the world. MAS Holdings designs, manufactures and manages supply chain for some world leading apparel brands including Nike and Victoria’s Secret. It has launched many updated processes like the lean manufacturing apparels.

Though MAS has a vertically integrated R&D division, its products help athletes improve performance like the active compression device SPRYNG. The current wearable tech products developed at its group company Twinery in collaboration with universities and companies are exclusive. With Flex, MAS launched many products that address the challenge of mixing hard goods like motors and batteries on sports apparels with water.

Speeding athlete recovery by three times

The newly launched compression device can speed up recovery by almost three times. It wraps around the calf muscles and is secured with Velcro. Its Wavetec compression pattern of pneumatic powered messaging increases the rate at which blood is circulated to the heart. It isn’t an item of clothing at all, unlike most everything else MAS sells.

Most of MAS’ sales are generated from business to business operations. However, the company’s partnership vary as per innovations. It recently adopted the revenue and profit sharing model. Twinery also develops new products for its clients. Since the last five years, the company has been applying its knowledge of human acquired over the last 20 years to address health issues. A pioneer in this field, the company has now inspired many fashion and sports brands across the world.

E-commerce platform Fabric has announced a $43 million Series A funding round led by Norwest Venture Partners. Redpoint Ventures and Sierra Ventures will be the additional partners in this funding round. The investment will be used to accelerate product development of its headless commerce platform, expand the Fabric team and meet the growing demand for its commerce technology.

Fabric’s platform is an API-driven, modular system, built for how growing D2C and B2B brands, including ABC carpet & home, GNC, and Juicy Couture, need to scale. With Fabric, marketers and merchants can execute on creative decisions, without pulling in extensive engineering resources. Companies can utilize either the entire, extensive Fabric suite or incorporate specific tools into their existing system, including an Experience Manager (XM), Product Information Manager (PIM) and Order Management System (OMS). Unlike the traditional laborious processes required to modernize a brand’s e-commerce platform, Fabric takes only weeks to on-board, saving time and money, Fabric said in a media statement.

Following the successful launch of its cloud-native experience and commerce product suite in October 2020, with this latest round, Fabric is focused on expanding its product offerings, accelerating retailer on-boarding and workflow, continuing to meet the ever-changing needs of retailers and eliminating the need for re-platforming. The round will also go toward recruiting top talent, according to Fabric.

(PRGMEA) has sought the duty-free import of fabric along with yarn, as the cotton prices found no respite from an unabated spike with the industrial input trading at season’s highest rates because its muted local production continues to widen demand and supply gap.

As per a Daily Times report, Adeeb Iqbal Sheikh, Vice Chairman, PRGMEA said that a huge number of export orders are being received by the value-added garment industry, however, exporters are not accepting the orders for the calendar year 2021 due to skyrocketing price of fabrics in the country along with short availability, especially of the denim fabric. He urged the government to also abolish duties on the import of fabrics in line with the import relaxation provided on import of cotton yarn, as value-added garment sector is facing severe shortage of basic raw material of fabrics, which may lead to a drastic decline in value-added textile export. It is to be noted that price of cotton of Sindh were Rs10,000 to Rs10,700 per maund. Cotton of Punjab was sold at Rs10,200 to Rs11,000 per maund, while lint from Balochistan was sold at Rs10,500 per maund. Prices also increased in Brazil, Argentina, Central Asia and India.

Due to an increase in the prices of cotton yarn the rates of fabrics are also going up while brokers are also active to stock it maximum, the garments manufacturers appealed to government to get the yarn and fabrics export banned besides allowing duty-free import of them from all countries. Value-added exporters also demanded removal of all types of duties on import of fabrics and yarn.

Clandestine Moroccan textile companies that supply to renowned European brands, including Zara and Mango subject their workers to inhumane conditions, reports Morroco Daily News.

Spanish news outlet Cadenaser put a spotlight on the recent Tangier tragedy, an event that claimed 29 people. On February 8, floods stormed a residential villa that hosted an illegal sweatshop. A short circuit caused the death of 28 workers. Dozens of men and women worked at the clandestine textile factory.

The incident caused uproar among Moroccans, with the event making international headlines. The situation also brought attention to the lack of monitoring in textile factories.It also cited NGOs in Morocco denouncing exploitation and the inhumane working conditions in illegal textile factories across the country.

The organizations also called on Europe to push for a law that will end such tragedies. The textile industry makes up 54 per cent of Morocco’s informal sector.

The statistics indicate that more than one million textile workers in Morocco, including mostly women could be working in “secret” sweatshops.

Huntsman, the global manufacturer and marketer of differentiated chemicals, today announced the appointment of Gurmeet Kaur as the Head of Strategic Marketing for the Polyurethanes India sub-continent business, effective February 15, 2021. In her role, Gurmeet is responsible for the execution of Huntsman’s strategy for Polyurethanes division to achieve differentiated growth and create effective value proposition for customers through sustainable delivery of solutions based on evolving market trends.

Commenting on the occasion, Rahul Tikoo, Managing Director – India sub-continent, Huntsman, said “We are pleased to welcome Gurmeet to the Huntsman family. The India Sub-continent is an important market for Huntsman Corporation, and we are confident that Gurmeet’s expertise will enable us to further strengthen our innovation and solutions-driven customer-centric approach. With her rich understanding of the B2B landscape, we look forward to leading the Polyurethanes business to its next phase of growth and success.”

With over fifteen years of experience in marketing and strategy development, Gurmeet has worked with renowned organizations where she was responsible for driving the development and execution of business strategy and growth initiatives in India. Her most recent stint was with Honeywell as Marketing Director for Transportation Systems Business. Gurmeet is a Post-Graduate in Management from the Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad and Bachelor of Technology in Chemical Engineering from Harcourt Butler Technological Institute (HBTI), Kanpur. At Huntsman, Gurmeet will report to Rahul Tikoo, Managing Director – India sub-continent, Huntsman Corporation.

In 2019-20, export of woollen yarn, fabrics, made ups etc. reached $181.23 million. As per India Brand Equity Foundation report, export of woollen yarn, fabrics, made ups etc. export between April 2020 to October 2020 was $ 56.51 and for the month of October 2020 it was $9.83 million. The export of raw wool valued accounted for 2020 US$ 80,000 from April to October 2020.

US and EU are key export destinations for Indian wool and wool-blended products. Indian exporters are geographically diversifying their exports to other regions such as the Middle East, Latin America, South East Asia, and East Asia to increase their footprint globally.

Major importers of woollen yarn, fabrics and made-ups in FY19 were China, Italy, Japan Korea, UK and US.

India is the ninth-largest producer of wool in the world with a global production share of nearly 2 per cent. India’s wool consumption is expected to reach 260 million kgs by 2019-20. The wool industry is concentrated in Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat. Punjab accounts for about 35 percent of the wool production units in India, followed by Maharashtra and Rajasthan.

VDMA plans to organize a webtalk on ‘Technologies for fine-gauge fabrics in the circular knitting industry’ on February 17, 2021.As per Textile Today, circular knitted fabrics in fine gauges are used in sportswear, home wear as well as in underwear and lingerie. They offer an optimal combination of yarns, circular knitting machines, needles and dyeing.

Wolfgang Mueller, Mayer & Cie will discuss challenges in fine-gauge circular knitting at the webtalk. He will also present an optimal fine-gauge set-up for circular knitting machines. Yarn selection, yarn feeding, stitch formation and takedown are the four key factors for a premium product in the knitting process.

Roland Simmendinger, Groz-Beckert, will make a presentation on the high precision technology of circular knitting machine elements. The presentation will illustrate the challenges to knit a high-quality fine gauge fabric.

Ralf H Stange, will showcase solutions in dyeing fine gauge circular fabrics.

The Indian government is planning to promote MMF and Technical Textile under Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme. It is also forming the Focus Product Incentive Scheme (FPIS) under the ambit of Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Schemes. The scheme aims to create global champions in MMF apparel and technical textiles and capturing substantial share in global trade in these segments. The scheme will provide incentive from 3 to 15 per cent on stipulated incremental turnover for a period of five years after one year gestation period for brownfield investment and two years gestation period for Greenfield investment.

The Ministry of Textiles also plans to introduce a New Textile Policy. The new policy will thrust on enhancing export performance and creating better employment opportunities. The New Textile Policy is being formulated in consultation with various associations, industry bodies, State Governments and other stakeholders representing subsectors viz. Cotton, Silk, Jute Wool, Handloom, Handicrafts, Powerloom etc.

Budget 2021-22 also plans to launch a Mega Integrated Textile Regions and Parks scheme (MITRA) to attract large investment and employment generation in the sector to further boost domestic manufacturing and to create world class infrastructure at one place with plug & play facilities. This will enable textile industry to achieve size and scale to become globally competitive and also create global champions in exports. Under the scheme, the government will set up seven mega textile parks over  three  years.

Growing number of luxury fashion brands are choosing to distribute and trade via Farfetch, an online fashion marketplace founded by Portuguese entrepreneur José Neves. Farfetch recently secured $1.1billion investment from rivals Alibaba and Richemont, the Swiss watch and jewellery group, as well as €50 million personal investment from François-Henri Pinault, the billionaire founder of luxury group Kering.

As per Financial Times, Farfetch and its new financial backers intend to expand in China, the world’s second-largest and fastest-growing luxury market.  It connects consumers with brands, earning a commission of about 30 per cent on each sale, and has a sophisticated distribution system whose technology can match supply with demand.

Under a system that Neves calls ‘direct e-concessions’, brands decide what they sell on the Farfetch platform and set their own prices to avoid discounting that could damage their high-end image.

Neeves believes that the blurring of online and physical store shopping creates a big opportunity for both models of the fashion industry, especially in China.