I would be curious to hear from any merchandisers or sellers out there, what your companies are planning for showing the Spring 21 season.
I am in menswear and if fashion is not the last technological dinosaur then we are certainly one of the last.
With the interruptions of the merchandising calendar and production delays in China (the entire far east really) and Italy we are going to have late and limited fabrics to make the traditional selling lines with.
Our management’s answer is to create a virtual showroom where our customers can peruse digital images of the line.
My customers, arguably of a “certain age”-I admit, but still customers-have pushed back on this. They say they cannot make a decision on selecting clothing based on a pic.
Certainly the beauty and luxury of Italian fabric is compromised and many cheaper fabrics actually look better.
Is anyone experiencing this and if so, how are you scaling the push back? Is this the new reality?
Hi, I’m in women’s European fashion but we are moving forward with virtual showrooms for SS21.
We have a mix of customers from more technologically adept to older who don’t even have an email address… there are obviously going to be challenges but I think figuring them out as you enter into the season is going to be the best way to deal with it as so much is changing every day & all over at different paces. Depending on where you are if in person is an option there is always the possibility to try and work out an incentive for in person shopping (discount, travel voucher, gift card, promotion, etc) or if you won’t be having in person appointments in the showroom you can always overnight samples to a customer and have them review with curated line sheets you include and send them back to you the same day or next day. Lastly (something I did back when I first started) you can always get color swatches or extra color books and send those out along with printed line sheets so they can feel fabrics/yarns and see colors to compare the images to… time to get creative! More work, more hours for less sales and less salary is the situation we are all in now I think… good luck!