Aug 31, 2021EON Group has formed a partnership with brand identification and RFID solutions provider SML Group to create item-level identification data and link its inventory data captured from item-level technology with EON's own digital ID for fashion items. The partnership, according to the companies, is intended to extend the story of a garment from initial supply chain to first sale, and then through reselling, renting, recycling or disposal. That means each item being tracked by brands and retailers, through events created during the life of the item with SML's Clarity software, can be engaged with by consumers.
In that way, shoppers can understand such information as sustainable manufacturing, materials used, servicing options and other products that could be purchased to accessorize. Founded in Manhattan in 2017, EON Group offers solutions that connect products and their brand owners with consumers. Its cloud-based service consists of a digital ID or passport for each uniquely identified product, to enable authentication and other features, and thus provide a garment's history and recycling information via software and apps.
Natasha Franck
EON enables brands to continue engaging with customers, the company reports, as part of circular business models—such as product rentals, returns or resales—and ultimately to enable the circular economy of fashion. Consumers can access the digital ID via a QR code scan or by going directly to EON's cloud-based website to input information.
With the EON system, brand owners can allow consumers to access details regarding the origins of a product, ethical practices in the supply chain, care instructions, recycling information and resale resources. The digital identity creates what EON calls a two-way information channel between the brand and customer, enabling brands to take on a more service-based relationship with shoppers, rather than simply focusing on a maximum number of one-time sales, explains Natasha Franck, EON Group's founder and CEO.
According to Franck, consumers have been driving a trend toward a more circular sales economy that involves purchasing, renting or selling garments, all through omnichannel models, and they have been seeking access to more information about the products they buy or sell. At EON, she says, "We've been inspired by the mission to drive a sustainable business model transformation across the fashion industry."
That transformation has, until recently, been largely impossible, Franck says, because fashion retail has been fully focused on production and single sales of more products. Through the digitization of products, she explains, "Brands can maintain and monetize the value of products across the entire life cycle," even after they are sold. That means knowing when goods were purchased, returned, sold or recycled, and enabling the retailer or brand to upsell to consumers based on a product purchase or engagement.
Although RFID tags on garments can help brands and retailers track a single item's movement through the supply chain and stores, a product's visibility typically stops at the point of sale. This, Franck explains, fails to address today's customer, who has expectations around resale, cross-sale, rentals and services. With its partnership with SML, EON expects to access a product's entire lifetime of information, which can then be managed and delivered to specific parties, including consumers, as needed.
"It's very synergistic with extending what we're currently seeing in the retail space with the transformation to item-level RFID," says Dean Frew, SML Group's chief technology officer and senior VP of RFID solutions. SML's Clarity software, as well as RFID or non-RFID tags affixed to every item that moves through a supply chain and store, creates a history of each product that includes when and where it was made, the logistics details and sales information.
Brands have built an infrastructure of RFID readers at points throughout the supply chain and in stores, which is collecting that data for visibility and inventory purposes. "Where EON and SML meet, we can extend the value for each digital ID," Frew says. According to SML, the company captures 250 million RFID read events every week. With the partnership, some of those events could feed into the EON system. "They're building out the second life of the garment from a digital ID perspective."
Typically, each product is tracked through SML's Clarity platform via its EPC unique ID number, which is linked to an EON ID or digital profile, something Franck calls the product's passport. Those two IDs are completely integrated in EON's software, she says, and the data can be shared as needed, according to a brand's or retailer's use case. "We associate that data with our EON ID," Franck states, "and create a data-rich profile, digital passport of that product."
For instance, the system could provide key manufacturing and logistics details to consumers, enable engagement for brands with customers who have purchased their products, and provide reseller information if a product goes to a second owner. "The synergy was pretty obvious," Frew says, "and we're excited about it, for sure." The two companies are working together on pilot preparations.
In the future, the EON system could open up use cases for further RFID infrastructure deployments, such as tracking goods that are recycled or resold. That might mean the deployment of RFID readers to automate the capture of tag data as products move through processes long after items are sold. Although the circular economy is growing, Franck says, automated identification technology has not yet reached this part of a garment's lifespan.
"The recycling infrastructure or ability to sort products based on RFID is not yet in place," Franck says. "There's no intelligence in a circular economy," which means that RFID infrastructure beyond the point of sale may provide greater intelligence in such an economy. "We've already seen the first wave of the future of retail," Frew says, with RFID data collection transitioning from tracking products at the stock-keeping unit level to the item level, throughout the supply chain. "Now we have to deal with the second life of these garments."
According to Frew, EON's solution addresses innovation for an untapped market, "and we want to be a part of that in a supportive role." He adds that consumers are driving this extension by expecting the retailer to be involved in providing information and services after the initial sale. Within a digital ID, retailers are losing out on connectivity and resales. The concept of a digital ID for each garment is powerful, Franck says, "but getting the data capture and aligning with existing systems is a whole other endeavor. Our partnership with SML helps with a boots-on-the-ground implementation."
