FOSTERING TRANSITION TO INDUSTRY 5.0 FOR HANDCRAFT FASHION SMEs: THE CASE OF FUTURE FASHION MADE TO ORDER SUITE

Industry 5.0 implements innovative processes to bring the human touch back to manufacturing and enhance customer satisfaction. An Industry 5.0 driver is growing demand for more personalized products and services. This paper studies the potential to adopt mass personalization as an e-commerce strategy for small-medium enterprises (SMEs) in the handcraft sector to move towards Industry 5.0. The handcraft sector can produce highly personalized products, and represents culture and tradition of the territory but have limited resources compared to industry manufacturers. Consequently, adoption of Industry 5.0 initiatives deserves special scrutiny. More specifically this paper analyses a specific Make To Order suite and online sales configurator implemented for the e-commerce of a SME selling personalized men’s shoes handcrafted in Italy, namely Design Italian Shoes. The considered suite is designed by Future Fashion (FF), as mass personalization strategy provider of software application solutions designed to implement e-commerce in the fashion sector, such as, virtual retail, 3D product configurators, and product representation in augmented reality. Thanks to FF software solutions and its 3D management asset the e-commerce of the considered SME is enhanced with a network of “digital handcrafters” co-creating and delivering each order worldwide within 10 days. Managerial implications from the present study advise that the implementation of the analyzed suite can be determinant in fostering digital transition for SMEs from handcraft sector while enhancing the sustainability of their strategy with digital technology. The reported case study contributes to ongoing debate on whether the adoption of online sales configurators can favor SMEs embracing the Industry 5.0.