Fashion retail has been able to adapt to the evolution of the times, thanks to the development of technology and the importance of mobility, and conditioned by its star target: millennials. Consequently, the sector has detected the need to transform its strategy and adapt it to the digital ecosystem. To achieve success and gain a foothold in this new context, it is necessary for the players in the sector to take some aspects into account.
First of all, you have to define a single brand strategy across all channels. Fashion retail has been able to align brand attributes and make them available at each point of contact. By defining the global strategy, an aspirational identity associated with a brand image is generated in a homogeneous way.
Monitoring the stock in all channels is the second aspect that must be taken into account. Technologies such as RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) have improved the location of items, from the factories to the point of sale. Stores know when and where to replenish items, saving time and looking after the store. With the online channel and webrooming, the customer is offered the possibility of acquiring any item, even if it is not available in a physical store, with a later delivery and tracking service. Thus, the size of the physical store does not limit the product offering.
The exchange of instant information with suppliers and the integration in the value chain and processes, meanwhile, allows increasing direct and indirect income from the sale of reports on customers of all kinds, the search for efficient inventory and the support of manufacturers in the cost of promotions. In the fashion sector, the supply chain is one of the essential parts of the process to have an updated assortment, since trends change in a short time. To control it, it is necessary to have a scalable digital platform that unifies the management of the different operational areas and that allows orders to be sent instantly and generate analytics.
In fourth place, we find the development of Customer Intelligence Journeys for the implementation of the appropriate technology. In this sense, it is necessary to put yourself in the shoes of the client and analyze the interactions with the brand. In the case of the online channel, there must be an investment in optimizing the user experience in online portals, without forgetting the rest of the areas that determine the Customer Experience (CX). Browsing data (frequency of visit, time spent, clicks, heat maps of the web) must be reused to continue optimizing the customer experience. In the case of a physical store, it has to be combined with the monitoring of customer activity in the store: generating heat maps, implementation of Wi-Fi mobile tracking technologies and smart digital signage.
Finally, we must take into account the development of aspirational communities. Creating your own community of users where brand followers participate and interact is the best way to strengthen relationships and bonds with customers. The fashion retail sector has managed to make the customer feel identified with a brand through an exhaustive sentiment analysis and analysis of trends. Positioning in the market through influencers on social networks such as Instagram, Snapchat or Facebook is proof of this.