Virtual Fashion Revolution: Crucial Digital Strategies Driving The Post-Pandemic Fashion Industry
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By Haus of Jaeger
COVID-19 has presented numerous challenges for the luxury fashion industry. Fashion industry revenues are on pace to contract by nearly 30% worldwide in 2020. Despite the current situation, growth opportunities are attainable. Haus of Jaeger advises brands to focus on sustainability, E-Commerce, digital and virtual fashion. We believe these emerging strategies will position brands for success in the post-pandemic fashion industry.
Fashion Industry Reform
The delay of 2020 Fall and Summer collection deliveries, resulting from COVID-19, put a spotlight on vulnerable aspects of the fashion industry and drove improvement efforts by top industry leaders. Launched May 12th and 14th, 2020, two initiatives called for large-scale changes to the fashion calendar, a re-thinking of fashion shows, and different discounting practices. The proposals hope to align seasonal collections with their actual corresponding seasons, in addition to creating “greener” supply chains. The plan aimed to make fashion shows more customer-centric in order to boost demand for collections. Finally, mid-season sales were to be eradicated with discounting only occurring at season’s end. Nastasia Nikitina (Cornell University), from our Marketing Strategy team at Haus of Jaeger, is optimistic of the proposals,claiming “I believe these initiatives will soften the blow and make the industry more productive in its recovery period.” Nastasia offered more detailed insights on post-pandemic strategies for the fashion industry in a recent episode of our weekly Jaeger Show.
The Online Fashion Revolution
We see a shift, accelerated by the pandemic, from brick and mortar stores to online platforms. According to BCG, E-commerce is growing three times quicker than in-person shopping and expected to comprise a quarter of all Western Europe fashion sales by 2020. Most fashion brands are far from achieving digital marketing excellence and missing a key ingredient for post- pandemic growth. An expanded and strengthened online presence can earn fashion brands anexpected 15% increase in revenues. “The pandemic has proven how brands adapted to digital channels are more likely to thrive under extreme circumstances like the one this year” noted Andrew Mah (The Wharton School), from our Marketing Strategy team at Haus of Jaeger.
Digital and virtual fashion will become commonplace in a substantially redefined fashion industry. Digitalization will be implemented through the entire fashion cycle from the supply chain to the showcasing and retailing processes. Online fashion weeks and shows, new collections showcasing on social media, and live-streams and videos exhibiting new looks are beginning to be utilized by brands. Digital platforms are quickly becoming the main marketing battleground for fashion brands. In 2019, money spent on digital ads has surpassed that of non- digital ads. We understand the potential of digital fashion at Haus of Jaeger and urge brands to utilize it as a strategy.
The Rise of Virtual Technologies
Technologies seemingly fit for Sci-Fi movies are now on the verge of an industry-disrupting breakthrough. Augmented and virtual reality technologies will allow retailers to create innovative and futuristic store concepts. Through filters, consumers now can see how clothing products look on them through their smartphones before making the purchasing decision. 3D designs and virtual showrooms also are in their infancy and have enormous growth potential. Customers can create and view products digitally and will have the ability to spend more time with designs, in greater detail, as images of models can be rotated 360 degrees. Virtual runways and fashion shows could be performed live on any smartphone through augmented reality or presented by brands to large audiences in multiple venues simultaneously through holograms.
We offer branding, digital and viral growth strategy consulting expertise in the fashion/luxury industry, helping businesses achieve higher performance. For post-pandemic success, you can schedule an informational meeting with us at http://hausofjaeger.com/covid19-strategies/. For more leading information, content, and insights on the luxury fashion industry, follow us on Instagram: @HausofJaeger.
