Foursource, the first digital B2B platform that brings together manufacturers and buyers operating in the apparel and textile industry, offers its users an environment where they can find the best matching business partners to meet their requirements and achieve efficiency as they speed-up their processes. Mr. Godecke Wessel, CEO of Foursource answered our questions regarding the platform, which has already started to attract the attention in the fashion and apparel industry.
Can we have some information about Foursource? What are you offering to the textile and ready wear industry?
Foursource is the first digital B2B platform for fashion & apparel sourcing. With www.foursource.com all market players gain global transparency, find matching business partners and speed-up their processes. It all starts with detailed profiles – of both sides: Manufacturers and Buyers. Complete and comparable - for verified companies only. The unique matching logic of Foursource, not only considers hard criteria such as “production of shirts in a certain sourcing country” but also incorporates soft factors, such as “who fits to my quality or brand positioning”. Digital supplier showrooms and company updates help to qualify suppliers. They point out insights such as up-to-date supplier capabilities and create closeness with existing partners. To identify the right contact persons and to communicate without giving out personal e-mail addresses is now easily done. Further, market players can securely connect with each other and follow their updates and marketplace feeds. With our matching algorithm we go far beyond any type of yellow-pages that already exist in the industry. Foursource is the fastest growing sourcing platform and follows a global business strategy. The company is headquartered in Berlin and has its Technology & Development centre located in Portugal. For the Indian subcontinent (IN, PK, Sri Lanka, BG) Foursource operates a marketing & sales entity in India. In other countries and regions such as Turkey we operate with local sales partners and associations.
Which companies are using the platform now?
Foursource receives a very positive feedback from the market. After go-live in April 17 until now we acquired about 200 brands, e.g. S. Oliver, ESCADA, Marc Cain, New Yoker, Schöffel, Ahlers, ouí and many more that in total represent a 18 billion USD of retail value. On the manufacturers-side we currently see a 2-digit number of new sign-ups per day and have commitment from the first complete regions to digitize all of their factories with Foursource.
Which advantages does the platform provide to the buyers?
Foursource not only matches the right partners but creates closeness in a totally new way. The fashion industry undergoes a massive digital transformation. The consumer seeks and adapts to trends much faster than before, pure online players and vertically well-integrated companies are ahead of the race. To stay competitive, all market players need to permanently speed up their processes and make their existing development cycles more efficient. With Foursource not only buyers but also manufacturers have the opportunity to take up this digital challenge and to keep up the time.
