The coronavirus is increasingly harming the fashion industry, especially, has escalated amid the fall 2020 fashion month season, causing brands and design houses to shutter their doors and postpone upcoming runway shows. Significant events, including the Met Gala and the CFDA Awards, have also been delayed indefinitely. Department stores across the globe, including Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus, Macy’s, Selfridges, and Saks Fifth Avenue, have closed their doors. Retailers around the world are shuttering their doors to contain the virus, including Neiman Marcus, Chanel, Ralph Lauren, Walmart, Apple, Urban Outfitters, Everlane, Lululemon, Abercrombie & Fitch, Glossier, and many more.
The rising health concerns were the primary reason for closing these stores. Not just the stores, the infected countries have shut down educational institutions, finance office, except the healthcare facilities. When celebrities like Tom Hanks, Idris Elba announced they had been tested positive, people became even more tensed and started taking the lockdown seriously. After all, things said, one thing that all fashion companies, irrespective of their scale, should keep in mind that the fashion economy is shrinking and not collapsing. Apart from this, its high time we move towards local marketers and not global. The virus outbroke in China, the source of raw material, but it impacted Italy the most. If you ask the reason, its simple that since we have become a global village, anything happens in a part of the world impacts others. People in northern Italy had business connections with the Chinese, and hence, Italy became the new epicenter of the virus.
Changing Fashion Norms After COVID-19
We can’t turn our backs from the past; instead, learn from our mistakes and embrace the future and see what it beholds. Several people have already started to look at the brighter picture and are involved in changing the patterns of the fashion industry.
As the world comes to grips with coronavirus, people are quarantined, and cities are being locked-down. During the time of social distancing, people need to engage in some activities to kill time. Thankfully, internet services have not been shut, thus giving some space to people to show creativity. As celebrities, influencers and fashionistas flocked to the French style capital; it was noticed one street style fashion trend standing out from the crowd: surgical face masks. But of course, these aren’t just your standard masks, which are theoretically worn to both help stop the spread of the virus and prevent you from catching it.
Here are some of the fashion trends that will help you to revamp your business models:
• Go Digital With the global outbreak of the coronavirus that started in Wuhan, the surgical mask has not only turned into the weapon of choice – along with antibacterial wipes and hand sanitizer – but is today’s most coveted accessory. A small Irish fashion company has suddenly found a surge in demand for its services as a result of the Covid-19 havoc. Skmmp is a virtual showroom that offers a solution for luxury fashion giants, now having to rethink how they operate without a digital wholesale sales strategy.
Skmmp’s virtual showroom centralizes wholesale order management, and it is now approached by big Italian brands, such as Tod’s, Bottega Veneta, and others. These companies are seeking help to digitize their collections to weather the crisis, allowing them to carry on trading without physical showrooms.
• Faster Processes
Earlier, most of the buying was done at intimate showroom appointments, which were scheduled months beforehand. The process involved a series of documents, confirmation invoices, terms and conditions, shipping details, and payment information. It used to take about 16 weeks to complete.
As the pandemic spread across the globe, Vogue Business reported that Covid- 19 could cause a $40 billion decline in luxury sales for 2020, with a loss of up to $10 billion in profits and little chance of a return to normal trading conditions. The statistics make it clear that organizations need to adapt faster processes that would help them to sell and produce quickly and at profitable rates.
• Smart Showrooms
The companies can layer artificial voice intelligence over the digital showroom and create the “smart showroom.” You can take the entire order using voice command. This is a great deal for investors as well as they can help the organizations to develop the technology even further. To sum it up, yes, the COVD-19 has hit the backbone of the fashion economy, and we couldn’t do anything about it. But we must learn from the past, work on the present so that our future is safe and secure. MTM Agency is an expert that understands these concerns and help the manufacturers and retailers to again find their missing ground with modern-day solutions.
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