Challenge

They face several challenges in their product development workflow that increase the cost of producing products while affecting their potential revenue from their large retail customers.

Product development

• The cost of up to 7 rounds of physical samples 
• The cost of purchasing and editing prints 
• Growing product lines and categories usually lead to headcount growth 
• An opportunity to create more with fewer resources through productivity tools 

Sales and revenue

• A 3-month lead time from tech-pack to the final sample affects time to market and customers
• The lead time of editing prints means products are slower to market, and customers
• Go-to-Market relies on a trunk show of physical samples, restricting the amount and variety of products shown 
• The sales team cannot react to customer feedback and configure the physical samples in real-time, affecting their adoption rate 
• Line-sheet presentations rely on flat CADs, affecting the collection adoption rate 

The development costs for one brand from sampling and print is $104,000 a year - 1.4% of brand revenue

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All these costs and wastage can be removed through Make the Dot’s design and visualization technology. 

Solution 

To address these challenges, the brand reached out to see if Make the Dot’s platform could assist in first lowering product development costs and then potentially increasing revenue.

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Initially partnering to create the Fall-Winter 2025 collection for one of it's brands, Make the Dot believed we could help in the following areas:

• Quicker and higher quality prototyping and configuration, leading to products going to market faster
• A reduction in physical samples required, reducing product development costs 
• A reduction in the cost of print editing, reducing product development costs
• Improved sales presentations, with the team able to quickly action customer feedback and update styles, leading to an increase in adoption
• A scalable sales process able to react to the market quickly, while sharing assets more widely  

Results 

We’ve seen the following results from integrating Make the Dot into the product development and sales process:

• Sample rounds reduced from 7 sounds to 2, resulting from initial prototyping and ideation done in Make the Dot
• Print editing was reduced by 100%, with all editing done in Make the Dot
• Customers received our prototypes 2 months early, enabling quicker decisions 
• Customers received editable prototypes, enabling actionable feedback and increased adoption 
• The productivity allowed the brand to grow categories without also growing headcount, resulting in lower cost per garment produced

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Reduced product development costs 10%, while revenue grew 1% across the collection - estimated benefit of $2.6 million