RETAILING THE FUTURE

Looking towards a new normal
As the world is coming to terms with the different health crises around the globe, what has become evident over the past year is that the Covid pandemic has acted as a catalyst, triggering and accelerating changes which would otherwise have taken years. From sanitised clothing to the overall predominance of digital technology, WindowsWear took a look at how retail stores and brands in the fashion industry are responding and adapting to a new normal.    
 
New beginnings in color
Following the lockdown in many countries and states, upon reopening stores all over the world were eager to welcome back clients and not afraid to nurture a sense of community. In New York, from Ralph Lauren to Harvey Nichols the new watchword was “togetherness”, Macy focused on “We Love NYC” and Saks 5th Avenue told customers how much they had missed them. In London, the iconic Selfridge’s had a makeover with its window displays paying homage to the National Health Service while French fashion house Louis Vuitton unveiled “The Rainbow project,” a new initiative that dresses its store windows all around the world in rainbow graphics.  Rainbows adorned stores in 5th Avenue, New York as well as Beverly Hills and Chicago but also further a field in Paris, Rome Milan, Madrid Frankfurt, Toronto and Mexico. The rainbows were submitted by locals and in many cases the graphics were drawn by children. Color has been a strong force for many to communicate the return to a normality, albeit different, and with a marked accent on the importance of supporting our communities.  

Ensuring safety
Store safety has become a primary issue, with owners clearly stating they have their customers’ wellbeing at heart. This entails rigorous and thorough cleaning and disinfecting of all store areas, the use of in-store signage, protective masks, gloves and hand-sanitizer as well as limiting access. Again, a normality we are quickly getting used to. Lacoste, while outlining guidelines observed, explained that it uses the Store Safety App for newly reopened stores so that customers can scan QR codes providing them with live updates on how many times and when the retail stores were professionally cleaned and sanitized. For those not wishing to enter stores, the solution adopted has been kerbside pickups.

Brands are also increasingly turning to Gamification, an accelerating trend in the fashion industry where it is seen as a way of encouraging customer loyalty turning shopping into a performance- oriented activity. The harvesting of user data not only aids production, inventory and sales but also creates communities by way of social networks established on the game’s own platform. The list of brands gamifying product is long and includes Burberry, Ferragamo, Valentino, Coach and Marc Jacobs. Gaming has exploded in its own right in fashion, inspiring commerce, social commentary and creating new types of celebrities. 

Virtual sampling
Similarly, the cometics segment has followed suit wiith  brands turning to technology to develop try-before-you-buy sampling. Mac has expanded Virtual Try-On to let customers test products on a live video of themselves and launched a video chat with store employess on Mac’s international websites. Through an internal study It Cometics had already found that virtual sampling  was more than twice as influential in driving purchases of their products and has moved to expand virtual try-ons and make consultants available via web and video chat to share product recommendations and guide cutomers through virtual try-ons.  Credo is also relying increasingly on its live chat function and the technology now accounts for  50% of the brand’s digital business according to COO Annie Jackson.