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5 questions with Etienne Koo

07 April 2020
Etienne Koo founded, in 2016, twinster, a company that revolutionised the way people buy clothes with the Show my Size application. The entrepreneur aims to promote a more sustainable way of handling clothing, with fewer returns and waste in the industry. Her company has been repeatedly named best company in the A.I. and retail sector, and in 2019 Etienne was included in the Forbes "30 under 30" DACH (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) list.

What does digital transformation mean to you?

To me, digital transformation means that there are virtually no limits to what you can provide. It means integrating your organisation into a digital supply chain that ensures that your services and products are available anytime and anywhere.

What do you think is the state of digitisation in the fashion industry?

The fashion industry has an entrenched way of operating. It is still very traditional. Quite often, the single process steps are not well coordinated. There are still huge gaps and considerable potential for improvement. We have also noticed that, sometimes, organisations may only seem to focus on the Customer Journey, whereas, in fact, they pay more attention to all other processes than to the actual buyers.

Of course, like everywhere else, there are pioneers and companies that adopt innovative approaches and cooperate with first movers. For example, the widespread digitisation and visualisation of clothing items in 3D or the use of high-quality move effects in images are the first steps towards a digital world that is focused on the customers.

In your view, what are the latest trends in the fashion industry with regard to digital transformation?

I believe that communication between individual systems, as well as their security, are key aspects of digital transformation. High-quality, relevant data is the key to success. But you should be careful:

They say that "Data is the new oil". But simply stockpiling oil without knowing what you might do with it or where to find the next refinery won't get you anywhere. It is the same with data. Of course you can collect and hoard data. However, if you want to drive digital transformation, you need to interpret this data correctly and react accordingly (preferably by anticipating it).

What is the role of your companies twinster and ShowMySize in the digitisation process of the fashion industry?

To us, the fashion industry is a digital industry. We see people who buy fashion items (i.e. the end customers) as part of a completely digitised ecosystem. We work with our own 3D avatars and sizing profiles to help customers choose the right dress sizes and suggest the perfect style using A.I. image analysis. The combination of both is our USP. To stick with the metaphor of the previous question, we not only know how to produce oil but also how to store it properly, refine it and deliver it to our customers.

What would you recommend to organisations that are only just beginning to address the issue?

I would recommend to first try to identify the major challenges or pain points in their company and to analyse them step by step: "Where, which processes, when, why and what might help us?"

Afterwards, you have to do some research and ask your contacts. Who had similar issues, and how did they solve them? Are they satisfied with the results, or are they still undergoing radical change?

Furthermore, innovation (and I mean true innovation with first movers) should always be an issue to be addressed at the executive level. This is not something that can be outsourced. If you really want to be one step ahead of other companies in the industry, you have to be different. Also, it is always helpful to discuss the challenges you face with people from other industries.

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