For brands
Circulaid helps fashion brands to gain control over the return flow of their items.
The goal of Circulaid is to help fashion brands gain control over return flows. By making individual garments digitally identifiable, fashion brands can work more strategically in coordinating their (circular) business models. Additionally, it helps them execute their circular strategies more effectively. Most importantly, for every garment returned at a designated collection point, the fashion brand can guarantee that it will not end up in a landfill.
Circulaid for fashion brands
When a fashion brand wants to implement a deposit system, the following steps must be followed:
Preparing a deposit collection
Ordering deposit labels
Attaching deposit labels to products
Creating product passports
Linking deposit labels to product passports
Activating deposit labels
Delivering products to retailers
Deactivating deposit labels
1. Preparing a deposit collection
Preparing a deposit collection involves planning and coordination. The brand must determine within which collection the deposit will be introduced and how the deposit supports the marketing/communication campaign of the brand. Once the collection is defined and there is a marketing/communication plan for launching the products with deposits into the market, the brand can move on to step 2.
2. Ordering deposit labels
The next step is to order deposit labels. To improve consumer recognition and ease of use, Circulaid works with standard deposit labels. These also help to ensure continuity and further development of Circulaid. Labels can be ordered directly or through one of our partners at Candour.Digital.
3. Attaching deposit labels to products
Where and when deposit labels are attached to products depends on the production environment in which the garments are made. Each brand has its own production process. However, the easiest approach is to attach the labels along with other (care) labels during production. Linking the "empty" deposit labels to the correct product passports happens later.
4. Creating product passports
To link the correct product data to the correct deposit label, product passports are created. Each product passport refers to a unique item number in the deposit collection. The product data for the deposit collection must be submitted in an Excel template, which allows the data to be uploaded into Circulaid. Once the brand completes the template and submits the data, Candour.Digital will upload the data and create the product passports.
5. Linking deposit labels with product passports
Once the product data is uploaded and product passports are created for the entire deposit collection, these can be linked to the "empty" deposit labels. This gives each garment its own unique identification number. To link the passports, the brand logs into the Circulaid management app. From the app, a camera function can be opened to scan the deposit labels in bulk. For example, for the product passport "Black Hoodie size S," five unique deposit labels can be scanned, all of which will then be assigned the same product information.
6. Activating deposit labels
The final step before delivering the products to retailers is activating the deposit labels with their corresponding product passports. This works best if the brand prepares a packing slip and/or product overview for each retailer. Based on this overview, the correct deposit products can be activated, indicating to which retailer they are being shipped before activation.
7. Delivering products to retailers
Once the labels are linked and activated, the products can be shipped to the retailer. Upon receipt, the retailer checks the products into their inventory/cash register system as they would with any other products. However, it is essential that the retailer has the correct deposit amounts associated with the correct barcodes in their system. The full retailer guide can be found here.
8. Deactivating deposit labels
The final step in the lifecycle of a deposit product is to deactivate it when it is returned to the brand (or later to the recycler). To deactivate a product (also known as "tagging"), the brand must log into the Circulaid app. The brand can then scan the deposit label to deactivate it. In v1, this marks the end of the product's lifecycle, but in Circulaid v2, deactivation will (mandatorily) take place at a designated recycler.
The next section details how the system should be used by retailers.
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