Pimkie x Trace For Good

Introduction

Pimkie, a French omnichannel brand with a strong retail presence, caters to all young women aged 18 to 25. Accessible and inclusive, the brand draws inspiration from new generations to envision the collections of tomorrow.

With its Pimkie Positive program, the brand is committed to reducing its environmental impact, demonstrating increased transparency, and ensuring the traceability of its products.

Among its initiatives, a notable focus is placed on the traceability of its products, adhering to specifications more stringent than the REACH regulations regarding chemical substances, rigorous quality controls, and the growing use of fibers with reduced impact (e.g., 25% recycled fibers as of now compared to 13% in 2021).

Pimkie's Traceability Needs: Managing Complexity Across a Vast Volume of Data

Pimkie aimed to implement a traceability tool to rapidly collect a large amount of data on all its Purchase Orders (POs).

The objective? Industrializing compliance with the AGEC law (previously managed via an Excel file) and providing more transparency and information to the consumer, including displaying Clear Fashion's Fashion Score on its products. This score is calculated from the data collected throughout its production chain.

However, several brand-specific complexity factors need consideration when automating Pimkie's traceability:

• A complex supplier network spread across multiple countries, with purchasing offices acting as intermediaries with factories.
• Hybrid production: both made-to-order and finished products.
• A substantial amount of data to manage: 1500 references per collection, a rapid restocking pace (up to 3 weeks). Traceability at the order level (to collect transaction certificates and account for multisourcing) increases the traceability queries to over 3000 for a collection.
• Advanced precision in the data to be collected, especially those enabling Clear Fashion to calculate the Fashion Scores of products (e.g., concrete measures implemented by a production site to reduce water pollution).

The Solution: Automation and Active Involvement of Purchasing Offices in the Project

The success of our collaboration with Pimkie relies on three essential pillars:

1. The automation capability of Trace For Good.
2. Adaptation to business constraints co-constructed with the client.
3. The ability to onboard the entire supplier network of the brand to collect precise data points on products and production sites.

Firstly, the significant automation capability of the Trace For Good tool is crucial in handling the vast volume of data and certificates. This includes ingesting data via SFTP from Kubix, sending traceability queries and follow-ups, as well as ensuring the reliability and centralization of data and documents.

Simultaneously, adapting to Pimkie's business constraints and production specifics is a key element of success:

• Traceability at the Purchase Order (PO) level enables the collection of transaction certificates (TC) and managing multisourcing.
• The tool is tailored to Pimkie's hybrid production mode (finished products and made-to-order): for made-to-order production, material suppliers are onboarded on the platform before traceability queries are initiated, saving time for the suppliers.
• Business rules regarding social audits linked to Pimkie's supplier engagement charter have also been integrated into the document management module.

Lastly, purchasing offices play an active role as natural intermediaries with manufacturers, bringing their in-depth knowledge of suppliers. Their facilitating role is a significant asset for quickly engaging suppliers on large data volumes, especially those located in Asia.

They have a dedicated platform for this purpose, and their onboarding has been carefully orchestrated: educational sessions have been organized in China and Europe to align stakeholders on a common vision and strengthen commitment to the traceability project.

Results

Over 30 customized data points are collected, processed by the platform, and transmitted to our partner Clear Fashion for their team to calculate Fashion Scores on 1200 product references. These data points include traceability data and social and environmental data specific to factories, finished products, components, and fibers.

Document management is now automated: certificates and social audits specific to Pimkie's commitment charter are collected, documented, and kept up to date by the Trace For Good tool.

Purchasing offices play a significant role in the process, and manufacturers complete traceability requests in an average of 10 days. The tool's simplicity and quick learning curve are largely facilitated by the close relationship with suppliers through Trace For Good, allowing for the incorporation of their feedback into a continuous improvement approach for the platform's usability.

This continuous improvement process is also made possible by the close collaboration with the brand's teams and the co-construction of features - in Pimkie's case, accommodating a hybrid production mode, both made-to-order and finished products.

Next Steps

Thanks to its automated traceability process, Pimkie can confidently prepare for compliance with upcoming French and European laws (environmental labeling, digital product passport, etc.). Trace For Good is a strategic partner to support them in these upcoming stages.

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