Tag: Merchandising

assorted tops

Fashion Goes Tech: Digital Transformation in Fashion (4) – part 2/2

November 22, 2022

It seems Covid-19 pandemic is ending but uncertainty is the new norm and adapting to it is essential. Fashion, like other industries, is adapting to digital transformation by redefining customer engagement and optimizing operations across new business models with a new approach to product development where sustainability and traceability are mandatory. This article is the … More Fashion Goes Tech: Digital Transformation in Fashion (4) – part 2/2

photo of two teal and pink leather crossbody bags

Fashion Goes Tech: Digital Transformation in Fashion (4) – part 1/2

October 4, 2022

Following with Fashion business strategy and operations insights from Fashion Goes Tech, my latest book on how technology is empowering retail businesses. Today, we move forward across the value chain phases within the business of fashion: Planning. Charles Higgins Kepner said that successful merchandising incorporates the 5Bs: “the right product, in the right place, at … More Fashion Goes Tech: Digital Transformation in Fashion (4) – part 1/2

photo of woman wearing white sweater

Fashion Goes Tech: Digitization in Retail (3)

July 28, 2022

A few months ago, TFR commented about the merchandise lifecycle and how retailers, specially apparel ones, deal with stock managament. Following the value chain process, this article aims to describe one of the main areas within the business of fashion: Designing. Designing (part 1/2) The Design Department is probably the most creative area within the … More Fashion Goes Tech: Digitization in Retail (3)

A few words with Jérôme Cabanès, Director at Centric Software

November 29, 2021

I met Jérôme 8 years ago, when PLM solutions were not a usual piece in the fashion retail tech ecosystem. I was then in Accenture Strategy and Operations, working in a project to implement integrated planning processes for a fashion retailer. Since then, technology has changed retail for ever. Jérôme Cabanès is 42 years old, … More A few words with Jérôme Cabanès, Director at Centric Software

Fashion Goes Tech: Digitization in Retail (2)

November 22, 2021

The Merchandise Life Cycle In Fashion, products tend to have a short product lifecycle due to fast changes in trends and demand. Fast Fashion accelerated the traditional business model (e.g. usually 2 collection per year), creating a perceived obsolescence and making supply chains even more complex in a context of trade liberalization that started in … More Fashion Goes Tech: Digitization in Retail (2)

A few words with Maria Makarova, Co-Founder and Strategy Director of GFAIVE

September 13, 2021

TFR: What is GFAIVE? Maria Makarova: At its core, GFAIVE is a company focused on simplifying the life of fashion brands and retailers. We built an AI SaaS Platform that combines elements of assortment planning, demand forecasting, and new model sales performance predictions. With the help of our solution, companies can grow their revenue steadily, … More A few words with Maria Makarova, Co-Founder and Strategy Director of GFAIVE

How to deal with Planning Volatility in Fashion: New Marketing Merchandise Calendar

April 12, 2021

As described in Fashion Goes Tech, my latest book, retail hasn’t changed much in the last century but, over the last 20 years, digitization has drastically transformed the way companies do business and how customers shop. Retail was already facing the digital challenge when Covid-19 unexpectedly forced a shortening of the “adaption deadline” (Fashion Goes … More How to deal with Planning Volatility in Fashion: New Marketing Merchandise Calendar

Digital Fashion Platforms: Zara meets Netflix

February 15, 2021

Last week, Brooke Roberts-Islam wrote “Zara Meets Netflix” (Forbes). In others words, a business model based on “speed-to-market (fast-fashion), customer centricity and excellent operations” meets the “platform economy”. The article mentions FINESSE, a startup that replaces designers and buyers with data, describing itself as “Zara meets Netflix”. The startup, that raised $4.5 million for AI … More Digital Fashion Platforms: Zara meets Netflix

Influencer Brands

November 3, 2020

Digital era, the long tail, streetwear, social media, pure players, business platforms, influencers, liquid design… these are some of the ingredients for cooking this article… Global volatility, from geopolitics to social instability, is the new normal. Companies in all industries need to adapt the way they manage their businesses in an ever changing landscape. Agility … More Influencer Brands

COVID-19 Tracker for the Retail Industry

May 18, 2020

A few months ago, I interviewed AJ Mak, founder of Chain of Demand, a predictive analytics company that empowers the retail industry to maximize sales and minimize inventory waste with AI-driven sales predictions. Chain of Demand just launched COVID19 Retail Response Tracker that is meant to help businesses better prepare for the upcoming quarters. Retail … More COVID-19 Tracker for the Retail Industry

Tackling Fashion Industry’s Waste Problem

April 20, 2020

As mentioned in Fashion Retail Safari, New Retail is about new processes, new analytical capabilities, innovation, technology, new store formats, …, that respond to digital generation trends such as experience, sustainability and authenticity. We live in very volatile times – weather extremes, political distruptions (e.g. Brexit) and public health threats (e.g. COVID-19) – and today, … More Tackling Fashion Industry’s Waste Problem

Redefining the way we shop and consume

December 9, 2019

Looking back to the latest retail news regarding sustainability and Fashion as a Service, and putting together the pieces of the puzzle, we could conclude that New Retail is a result of product-brand experience mixed by the changing patterns of consumption. Fresh could be different from new. Fashion customers are expecting products to be trendy … More Redefining the way we shop and consume

Macy´s to launch new Story concept stores across the US

May 6, 2019

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

A few words with See Rose Go founders

April 29, 2019

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

A few words with Nextail Founder and CEO

March 25, 2019

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

A few words with a Retail expert and founder of Wemuse

February 25, 2019

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

Nike´s new retail approach: curated stores

October 16, 2018

Nike recently opened its first new concept store: Nike by Melrose, in Melrose Avenue (LA). The retail approach is brand new and takes into account the latest trends in fashion such are customization, localized assortment and omnichannel. In this store, product (footwear and apparel) mix is unique and exclusive, different from other Nike stores, and … More Nike´s new retail approach: curated stores

H&M uses Artificial Intelligence to optimize the assortment

May 17, 2018

Fashtech, phygital, omnichannel, hybrid retail…I´m sure that sociolinguistics are happy to think about new words to describe Fashion 4.0 and the omnichannel era. It´s seems creativity is everywhere.  But as a Sociologist, I can confirm that our society is evolving faster than wording, and we will see many other attributes to describe some of the … More H&M uses Artificial Intelligence to optimize the assortment

Le Tote, fashion based on customer data

June 22, 2017

Millennials are prioritizing experiences over tangible products. More than 75% of Millennials would choose to spend money on an experience over buying a product (Harris Group study – 2016). More than that, the experience is not based on onwnership, but on NOwnership.  They (we) want to feel the adrenaline but without ties, and sharing economy … More Le Tote, fashion based on customer data

Fast Fashion, the art of liquidity

June 19, 2017

The Fashion disruption Polish-born sociologist Zigmunt Bauman described our modern life as “liquid modernity“, where change is occurring more and more rapidly. Social entities are flexible, plastic. “Each new structure which replaces the previous one as soon as it is declared old-fashioned and past its use-by date is only another momentary settlement – acknowledged as temporary … More Fast Fashion, the art of liquidity

Diversification and Segmentation in Fashion retail

June 1, 2017

Many brands have evolved into groups that focus on different customer profiles. On the one hand, we have companies such as GAP, H&M, Inditex, Mango, Armani…that are focus on many segments in order to respond to different income, gender, style (e.g. COS vs H&M), size (e.g. Violeta by Mango) or categories (e.g. beauty, homewear) profiles. … More Diversification and Segmentation in Fashion retail