New frontiers are opening up for the luxury fashion world today thanks to Virgo, a blockchain platform with the aim of tracing the authenticity of products for this sector. Virgo has been created thanks to the collaboration of 4 companies: Temera, PwC, Luxochain and Var Group:
What better occasion than the Fashion Global Summit in Milan, which opened today, October 21st, to discuss issues related to fashion and the ways in which new technologies can be used in this part of the supply chain?
In addition to the blockchain, Virgo also includes other technologies, such as RFID (Radio Frequency Identification), UHF (Ultra High Frequencies) and NFC (Near Field Communication).
Thanks to its open and modular solution, Virgo is well suited to be integrated with different technologies from IoT (Internet of Things) to blockchain: this allows the monitoring of the entire life cycle of luxury products. Virgo also integrates seamlessly with ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning), making it easy to use for companies.
Not only does this solution offer the possibility of integrating new technologies, especially the blockchain, in an ever-expanding sector, but it also allows the final customers, who are very attentive consumers in this sector and who always want to have an additional guarantee on the luxury products they buy, to control the product with their own eyes.
For the CEO of Temera, Arcangelo D’Onofrio, the current system is complex and expensive:
“The current certification systems are complex and expensive and the supplier monitoring system is inadequate to meet the ever-increasing need for transparency in the supply chain. Thanks to Virgo we are able to increase consumer confidence in the brand, clarifying all the elements of value, while respecting the principles of transparency, ethical and environmental sustainability, animal welfare and quality of raw materials and processes”.
The Var Group CEO, Francesca Moriani, explains that thanks to tracking, it is possible to achieve a direct link between the product and its final consumer:
“Transparency and sustainability are essential values that allow brands to gain reputation and trust. Every moment, every place, every processing becomes an element of value. Tracing a product along the supply chain creates a story, a set of transactions that anyone can read as proof of authenticity and certainty. With Virgo, we want to provide a clear and flexible process, where raw materials and production batches will be certified, making it possible to enhance the principles of sustainability, environmental responsibility, ethics and social responsibility”.
Virgo features a smartphone application where the consumer can check the luxury product in advance, prior to the purchase, said Davide Baldi, CEO of Luxochain:
“We are happy with this strategic initiative, Virgo’s goal is to protect the reputation of brands, creating fingerprints for each product, provide new analytics and insights related to the value chain, improving the process of loyalty and rewards between brands and final buyers. With our system, available for iOS and Android, any buyer can first verify, with their smartphone, the authenticity of each product online, in the physical store, or in the growing second-hand market, and receive the corresponding certificate of authenticity and ownership, registered on the blockchain, at the time of purchase”.
Stefano Spinello, Associate Partner of PwC, explained instead:
“This is a unique opportunity to integrate different skills and competencies and participate in the dissemination and implementation of a strategic platform that supports companies in tracking and validating supply chain processes. The adoption of Virgo will result in an improvement of sustainability and brand reputation for the benefit of companies in the sector, companies that we have been working with for some time together with professionals from our Consumer Markets practice, within the technology consulting division”.
In short, interest in the luxury sector does not seem to stop and, as a matter of fact, both Christian Dior and Louis Vuitton have opened up to this technology, demonstrating that even the famous fashion brands are closely following the blockchain.
