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This week’s corporate start-up, PVH’s Hatch, is reinventing the value chain for fashion brands. Their digital showroom solution enables companies to boost wholesale experiences, improve their time to market, gather valuable insights and operate more sustainably.
Most fashion brands have successfully transformed their customer journey to include a heightened and intuitive online experience. Considerably less has been done in the area of B2B. The backend work is still done manually, and there is a heavy reliance on physical samples.
This old approach requires face-face meetings and filling showrooms with outdated merchandise; it’s extremely time-consuming. Add the pandemic to the mix, and you’ve got some serious value chain challenges.
A little bit about PVH.
PVH Corp. is a fashion and lifestyle company with an impressive portfolio of fashion forward brands, like Calvin Klein, TOMMY HILFIGER, Van Heusen, IZOD and their digital-centric True&Co intimates brand (among others). They also license internationally known brands like Kenneth Cole New York, and Michael Kors.
With almost 40,000 associates operating in over 40 countries, PVH generates about $9,9Bn in yearly revenue.
A big part of PVH’s success stems from its focus on continually improving its operations and expanding its areas of expertise. They test new concepts to see what works and apply successful strategies from each of their brands to the entire business—case in point, Tommy Hilfiger’s digital showroom concept.
How it all started.
In 2014, Tommy Hilfiger developed a digital solution to help reduce their dependency on sample production to sell their garments. Although the idea of working with fewer samples seemed unthinkable at the time, they moved forward with the project, using a change management approach to get everyone on board.
The development team was given first-hand exposure to some of the typical pain points and bottlenecks in traditional showrooms. After a few weeks of observation, they were ready to validate their first prototype with the sales team. The result was a cutting-edge digital showroom, which not only reduced the company’s need for samples but ended up transforming the way sales are made till this day.
The project was so successful that PVH decided to turn it into a startup, and that’s how Hatch was born.
Meet Hatch.
Hatch has come a long way since its Tommy Hilfiger days, offering software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions to help brands completely re-invent their value chains. The offering combines both hardware and software to help fashion brands streamline their operations and move effortlessly between their “in-showroom” and “remote selling” efforts.
Hatch tailors its software to each brand’s needs and profile, enabling different sales teams to engage their buyers, tell their own unique story and elevate the sales experience. The approach is especially handy for remote selling because it enables buyers who aren’t physically in the showroom to really experience the brand.
Digital workstations within each showroom enable sales teams to showcase products digitally, without the need for samples. This saves a considerable amount of space, facilitates on-the-spot ordering and allows companies to work more sustainably.
How it works.
Simply put, Hatch solutions enable fashion brands to transition smoothly from traditional sales to a digital wholesale approach. They use a cloud-based software licensing model, provided on a subscription basis.
Additional services include:
- Masterclasses to help boost digital sales.
- Onboarding to help facilitate the adoption of the new technology within the company.
- Sample deep-dives to explore different ways to reduce the need for samples.
- Showroom transformations to create high-impact showroom set-ups.
- Content deep-dives to improve brand messaging.
Customers can choose between the Onboard, Onboard + and Onboard ++ packages, each offering a different customisation level. In addition, Hatch provides various “power-up” classes and services to help companies make the most of their services.
The benefits.
Like most great corporate startups, Hatch was created through the smart use of corporate assets. Tommy Hilfiger leveraged its expertise, talent and industry know-how to develop an innovative digital showroom and PVH was quick to invest and scale the concept.
Today, Hatch is an essential part of the wholesale process for three PVH brands, including Tommy Hilfiger (where it originated), Calvin Klein and IZOD. The solution has helped the companies:
- Boost their digital transformation with intuitive technology.
- Speed up their time to market by not having to depend on sample production.
- Facilitate sales during the pandemic.
Investing in Hatch has also enabled PVH to diversify its expertise to include digital services. If the startup continues to grow, it can turn into an important revenue source in the future.
Hatch for its part, was able to grow and thrive thanks to the resources provided by Tommy Hilfiger and PVH:
- Access to industry experts and pain points helped them design the solution.
- Funding and access to resources enabled them to make the concept a reality.
- Networks within the PVH family enabled Hatch to gain its first customers.
- PVH’s reputation will make it easier for Hatch to gain customers outside the PVH family.
What’s next.
The increased demand for remote sales, digital facilities and sustainability in the fashion industry will undoubtedly increase the demand for Hatch services in the future.
In October of 2020, flip flop brand HAVAIANAS signed on as Hatch’s first customer outside the PVH family. Their Marketing Director, Merel Werners, gave the startup a rave review:
“Working with HATCH has been an exciting and transformative experience. We have been very impressed by the combination of technology and the human touch, and how HATCH puts the brand first in a digital way so that the Digital Showroom feels completely HAVAIANAS.”
Adding new brands to the Hatch portfolio will bring a plethora of valuable insights, enabling the team to iterate and improve their offering even more. We’re looking forward to seeing what the next innovation will be. Good luck Hatch team!
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