The Resale Fashion business should be considered in relation to the landscape of Fashion as a Service (FaaS), or how experience is getting over product ownership. In previous posts, TFR already introduced subscription boxes model and rental clothing including success cases such as The Trunk Club or Rent the Runway. When describing Circular Fashion, reuse … More Resale Fashion
Continuing Fashion as a Service – subscription boxes model previous post, the following article comments on rental clothing. Millennials are prioritizing experiences over tangible products. They want to feel the adrenaline but without ties, and the sharing economy is helping them to satisfy wider needs like sustainability. Millennial, born-digital companies, are understanding the Experience Economy, creating business … More Fashion as a Service (2)
Fashion as a Service (1/2) – Fashion Subscribtion Model Last month, I brought my DVD collection to a recycling drop off point. I owned more than one hundred DVDs including Matrix, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Metropolis, Ben Hur, The Lord of The Rings… Sadly, my collection has become e-waste, like cassette tapes and VHS, in … More Fashion as a Service (1)
In previous articles, we saw how companies are transforming the fashion business into a more sustainable ecosystem as new generations demand for sustainable products, including recycling and upcycling: Circular Economy in Fashion Sustainable Fashion Brands 3D Knitting in Fashion H&M Conscious Collection, Inditex Join Life or Green to Wear + and Adidas collab with Parley for the Oceans (trainers made from recycled ocean plastic) … More Adidas, walking for sustainability
Total Retail announced the 2019 top 100 Omnichannel Retailers ranking that reveals the list of publicly traded retailers and brands at the forefront of delivering the seamless cross-channel shopping experiences that consumers have come to expect. The top performers according to the report were Department Stores, with an average score of 7.35 for the brands within … More 2019 Top 100 Omnichannel Retailers by Total Retail
A retail love story: Macy´s embraces ephemeral experiences as part of their value proposition According to Coresight Research, in the US, year-to-date announced closures have exceeded the total recorded for the full year 2018. So far this year, US retailers have announced 5,994 store closures and 2,641 store openings. This compares to 5,864 closures and 3,239 openings for the full year 2018. Even … More Macy´s to launch new Story concept stores across the US
See Rose Go founders, Erin Cavanaugh and Yi Zhou, have over 40 years combined global fashion industry experience including premium brands, Nordstrom, Nike, Converse and American Eagle. Our experience is rooted in customer service, quality product creation and an innovative design process. Erin most recently led global omni-channel apparel product marketing and insight strategies under Nike, … More A few words with See Rose Go founders
Reviewing a list of hot topics and trends from 2015 onwards, fashion technology and sustainability are amongst the most popular ones. As commented in The Fashtech Ecosystem: Blockchain, Artificial Intelligence, 3D Printing Augmented and Virtual Reality and Internet of Things are some of the technologies that are changing the way customers shop, interact with the product and brands. Sustainable and Meaningful Fashion Brands … More What if sustainability starts in your closet?
Millennials are driving companies to sustainable practices even if their business model is based on volume, low margins. New generations demand for sustainable products and a visible and transparent value chain: from “sheep to shop”, something that blockchain is already enabling. Another interesting trend to mention is nownership, or the end of ownership as repair and rental … More Circular Economy in Fashion
Joaquin Villalba is the CEO and co-founder of Nextail, a smart platform for retail merchandising. A retail industry veteran, Joaquin has almost two decades of experience in innovation, retail and operations. Prior to Nextail, Joaquin was Head of European Logistics for Zara-Inditex, the world’s largest fashion retailer. In that capacity, he oversaw more than a … More A few words with Nextail Founder and CEO
If you think about what retailers are “reinventing” the fashion retail business and also leading the omnichannel era, you will probably mention Zara, Nike, H&M… and a few niche players like Everlane, Bonobos, Goop or Rent the Runway. Some might mention Amazon, but Amazon Fashion has room for improvement yet… Those companies are going beyond … More Fashion Connect: Bonprix Omnichannel concept
Iván Abad Iglesias lives in Barcelona with his family, he is 40 years old and has more than 15 years of experience in retail. He has practically developed his entire career at Mango, where he became part of the Executive Committee, and a few months ago he began his career as an entrepreneur by launching … More A few words with a Retail expert and founder of Wemuse
The role of the store is evolving and going beyond sales transactions (See a list of stores with the best customer experience in New York). Physical stores can have different roles like flagship, brandship, showroom, fulfillment center, pop-up store. In fact, the biggest store is in our pocket and it´s a cell phone. Reinventing retail … More Nordstrom reinvents retail stores
What if the question “what is your size” doesn´t make sense any more? If people can scan their bodies, their size would be unique. Economies of scale don´t apply in this business model but customer trends (personalization, sustainability…) are taking a different path than the McDonaldization of fashion (or “one size fits all”). Technology is … More Zozosuit, 3D Sizing and AI to improve customization in Fashion
Global volatility is the new normal and companies in all industries have to adapt and track external factors such as weather or social media. Climate change is not only impacting retail sales (revenues) but also other phases across the value chain like wool or cotton production (costs). Managing supply chain assets like fabrics and textiles … More Apparel Sourcing Trends
When I decided to start this blog, a couple of years ago, the main objective was to link art and science, as fashion is art and retail is, probably, operations. Fashion experts differenciate fashion companies from apparel retailers, but the business complexity behind these two models is quite unkown. Traditionally (1980-Now), there used to coexist … More Fashion Lab, the creativity Mecca
Headquarters relocation and global competition for talent In The New Fashion Retail Paradigm, I introduced the latest trends impacting the fashion retail industry. Headquarters location is an important one that deserves a deepest approach. Amazon announced in november 2018, after a year-long competition, that New York City and Northern Virginia will host its second headquarters. This … More Headquarters, cities and talent
United colors of Benetton renews its store concept with a new flasghip store in Padua, Italy. With a completely revamped hi-tech and informal concept that goes beyond the traditional concept of a store to become an urban and contemporary showroom. During a design thinking workshop for a leading fashion retailer, we came up with the idea of including a … More Benetton revamps its store format and customer experience
H&M announced in March 2018, during its quarterly results, a huge problem: $4.3 Billion in unsold clothes. There are many causes of unsold inventory like a wrong collection/product, bad forecasting, wrong allocations, decrease in traffic, wrong prices… But, the trend has changed and the Swedish fashion retailer announced a 9% sales increase (VAT included), 32% … More H&M embraces Fashtech
Deep analysis of Amazon Fashion Business: performance insights and challenges to compete in the apparel industry When Amazon started selling high-end brands in 2012, Jeff Bezos said “company’s new effort is not about selling clothes at deep discounts but at prices that ensure that the designer brands are happy”. Nowadays, the online giant is selling … More Amazon Fashion: The Omnichannel Fashion Retail Revolution is on
Best customer experience in retail Customer Experience matters and today more than ever before. But many companies are too big to change, or too slow to adapt. The latest “Retail Apocalypse” news is about SEARS, the iconic American retailer, going bankruptcy. Retailers will shrink their physical footprints while transforming their stores in brandships. Many think … More Innovative Customer Experience in NYC
A few words with Greg Mercer, CEO and Founder of Jungle Scout: Amazon Product Finder & Research Tool. While writing a deep dive about Amazon Fashion that I will publish soon, I met Jungle Scout, which provided me with an interesting data report regarding Amazon’s private label fashion presence. Retail should embrace technology as I … More A few words with Jungle Scout´s Founder and CEO
“The King is dead, long live the King?” Large retailers are celebrating the new american retail market share redistribution but many of them are coming to an end. The traditional proclamation “the King is dead, long live the King” dates back to the XIII-XIV century in Europe and was used as a way to maintain the … More Sears Goes Bankrupt
A Few words with Alexander Yashin, Operations RFID expert at LPP Alexander Yashin is 31 years old, Russian, master degree in engineering of IT systems. He has joined fashion retail industry in 2007 as a cashier in a store. Since 2014 he has been working on RFID solutions in retail. The Fashion Retailer: What is … More A few words with LPP´s RFID Expert
The World is rapidly evolving and the new environment requirements (industry, economy, new business models, analytics, digital platforms, uberization…) oblige companies to adapt their operating model to survive. The future workforce will be a mix of bots, external and internal talent that will face new roles and new needed skills. Walmart, the retail behemoth from … More Virtual Training: building a Digital Workforce at Walmart
Uniqlo recently presented its latest innovation in manufacturing: 3D Knit. Some weeks ago, I posted 3D knitting or printing in fashion: benefits and success cases where you can find more details about this trend. With Uniqlo´s 3D Knit dresses and sweaters launch, it´s clear that this is not science fiction any more. As a fashion technology (fashtech) … More 3D Knitting by Uniqlo
Every industry has its main players, but also disruptors, innovators, niche players that find a different business model, innovate in fabrics, have a different approach to the customer… We can mention the value proposition of Warby Parker (Pure player, high quality, good price), Bonobos (Easy shopping, better fit), Rent the Runway (Fashion-as-a-service), Everlane (Radical Transparency), … More Retail Game Changers 2018
Fashtech, or Fashion Technology, is a reality. Businesses, enabled by technology, have changed the way fashion retailers design, source, move, stock, deliver and service products. Today, every Business is a Digital Business. Niche brands are joining the long tail of specialization under a clear objective: Stretch, breathability, comfort, sustainability… in short, customer-centricity. It´s not only about Artificial Intelligence, Augmented and … More Ministry of Supply, Technology Apparel
Liquidity, everything is getting liquid. Bauman described our modern life as “liquid modernity“, where change is happening faster than ever. Relations, connections, organizations are ephemeral, flexible, plastic. As Politics, Economy and the organization of Society, businesses are already including “liquidity” in their value chain, from defining processes to defining their resources and capabilities. In the … More Fashion Co-Creation: As-a-Service Liquid Design Model
This is the last post in a series about Fashion 4.0 in The Fashion Retailer blog: IoT and Fashion. In previous posts about Fashion Technology, we have reviewed how Artificial Intelligence, Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, 3D Printing and Blockchain are transforming the Fashion Retail industry. Those technologies are not hermetic and create synergies like the … More Internet of Things (IoT) in Fashion Retail
