Retail Concepts and Fashion Logistics Performance for Customized Knitted Fashion Products

Mass customization exists today in a variety of areas including automobiles, furniture, food, and clothing. Complete garment knitting is a method of producing knitted fashion garments, ready-made directly in the knitting machine without additional operations such as cutting and sewing. This paper aims first to outline how these concepts can be applied in a retail concept for customized garments, and second evaluate the fashion logistics effects of combining mass customization with complete garment knitting. Research was conducted by a retail concept simulation and two case studies presented in three journal articles and concluded in a doctoral thesis. This paper is based on the results of the thesis. The main findings are a description of two kinds of retail concepts for knitted customized fashion products and how this affects the retail performance ratios. A knitted garment can be customized, produced, and delivered to the customer in three to five hours. Sell-through percentage, lost-sales, and stock-turnover were affected positively, confirming that lead time is an important factor for success in the fashion industry.