Digital Transformation in the Purchase of Print and Pattern Designs in the Textile and Apparel Industry

This study aims to investigate the digital transformation on the print and pattern designs purchase process within the Textile and Apparel Industry. This sector is a fertile field for innovation, with the knowledge and prospection of new technologies intensified by connectivity and digital businesses, highly relevant for greater agility and efficiency in the chain. With an exploratory and qualitative methodological approach, this study is carried out through the understanding of the habits and processes of buying print and pattern designs by companies from three countries - Portugal, Brazil and Sweden, considering the globalized profile of this chain. In order to understand the company profiles and the means used in the researched action as well as to identify the digitization in this purchase process in the reality of the participants, interviews and questionnaires were applied. As a result, digital tools that complement or replace traditional ones were detected, which have been increasingly used. Digital transformation has been, therefore, recurrent in this type of operation, in order to bring agility, variety, ease and sustainability.