SAP’s commitment to help organisations take action in creating a circular economy is reflected in the several sustainability software solutions and programs it has launched in recent years.
Following the recently launched SAP Responsible Design and Production, a solution to help businesses design products sustainably, SAP has revealed another sustainability-centred solution dubbed Feather by SAP. A holistic recommerce solution, Feather by SAP is an employee-led venture that has received nearly US$3.5 million (EUR 3 million) funding from SAP.iO Venture Studio, a program that encourages SAP employees to embrace the entrepreneurial spirit in developing intelligent solutions to solve pressing enterprise challenges.
Embedding Circularity in Retail
Feather by SAP is an enterprise-ready, cloud solution that embeds circularity in fashion and retail businesses by implementing re-commerce in-house, enabling them to manage and resell pre-owned inventory. By leveraging SAP’s in-depth experience and expertise in circular business processes, the end-to-end recommerce solution empowers large premium apparel, fashion, and luxury brands as well as retailers to monitor their key performance indicators for finance, customer, and, most importantly, for sustainability.
Joanna Maryewska, General Manager and Founder of Feather by SAP, shared the rationale behind designing the recommerce solution. She stressed that today’s brands tap consignment marketplaces or outsource to white-label solution providers.
“In order to realise the full potential of recommerce and provide a great shopper experience, the ownership needs to come from in-house. We thought that as SAP, we are in a unique position to build a solution that helps brands fully tap into the opportunity of recommerce and control it on their own terms,” Maryewska explained.
Here are the three key features of the end-to-end recommerce solution Feather by SAP:
- The Recommerce Experience. The solution enables enterprises to manage recommerce activities in-house, including integrations and workflows for inventory management.
- Recommerce Manager. Feather offers analytics and performance tracking dashboards for enhanced business performance and growth.
- The Recommerce Take-back. The recommerce solution allows customers to retrieve items from their shoppers and manage store credit distribution seamlessly.
“The vision for Feather by SAP is to provide a seamless, one-checkout experience that shoppers enjoy,” Maryewska added. “To deliver on that promise, we use intelligent features and solutions that integrate with leading commerce and returns solutions, and in doing so, we’re supercharging our customers’ commerce businesses to become more sustainable and intelligent.”
SAP.iO Developing Sustainability Software Solutions
In line with SAP’s efforts to achieve a circular economy, SAP.iO, the startup accelerator by SAP, has also recently launched accelerator programs centred on developing solutions to help organisations achieve their sustainability goals.
- Future of Work Program, launched in September 2021 by the Foundry Singapore, is an equity-free program for startups that aim to increase the value of the workforce through engagement, people empowerment, and inclusivity.
- New Mobility Program is a startup program focussed on new mobility launched by Foundry Munich in partnership with MHP Management- und IT-Beratung GmbH. The program touches on multiple strategic areas such as transport connectivity, fleet management, battery charging, and autonomous driving.
- Sustainability in Retail & Consumer Program, kicked off in October by Foundry New York, is for startups innovating sustainability solutions for retail, consumer products, and fashion industries, embedding circularity in packaging, sourcing, design, and production.
- Sustainability in Energy & Natural Resources Program, launched in October by Foundry San Francisco, is centred on supporting startups that develop sustainability solutions that integrate compliance, tracking, and carbon trading for the utilities, energy, and natural resources industries.
- Circular Economic Program, launched in 2019 by Foundry Paris, supported startups focussed on GreenTech that helps companies in the service industries such as passenger and cargo travel as well as engineering construction enter the circular economy leveraging sustainability-centred solutions.
SAP’s sustainability initiatives within the organisation and the SAP ecosystem have been recognised by Terra Carta, a charter that provides the foundation of a recovery plan to 2030 embedding Nature, People, and Planet at the core of value creation.
