The attraction of (online) fashion
Hot chicks, of course! What else can I say, as a guy? And really, I always wanted to start a blogpost with “Hot chicks!” 
No, truth be told, I’ve been looking at fashion for some time, during the writing of my, now retired, food and retail blog, and a little afterwards too. As I mentioned before, industry-research is an important part of my job-application process, online, preferably on location at similar businesses, and through my conversations with the management. I’ve visited a number of fashion-retailers also, Zara and a more very upper-class fashion-retailer, and had some thoughts about it, which I’ll share here.
Zara & H&M
Two of my “business-heroes” in this industry are Zara and H&M, who have dramatically different organisational structures, but similar objectives, and a very strong technological foundation for managing their logistical complexities, which also helped them in their online strategy, I imagine.
If fashion can be characterised by anything, it’s that intellectual property doesn’t matter. Rather it’s the company that combines creative (or creatively copied) designs together with a strong execution (across the value chain) that wins the game. Zara, a vertically and horizontally integrated fortress, is strong in constantly renewing its collections (and hardly does any marketing), while H&M, a company that’s similar to Nike or Apple, only really does the designing and the marketing, while outsourcing pretty much everything else.
You can read a few more thoughts about these two on my retail-blog.
The online fashion-game
When you think about it, a store doesn’t have to be that different from a commerce-website; you have the enticing outside part of things, which can be marketing and the shopping window, and you have the interactive inside part, which encourages you to mix and match, try and (impulse) buy. A good website will understand (or learn) the way customers think and appeal to the right drivers from the marketing and the interactive part of things.
Fashion is however a somewhat complex consumer-good. The way a piece of clothing is judged (based on my opinion) is on three levels:
- The visual: how does it look?
- The sensory: how does it feel?
- and The social: what reaction do I get?
The web is getting more creative every day about the visual, e.g. you have sites like Etsy that use elaborate colour-matching techniques, of which there are several different versions elsewhere.
On the sensory-side, this should kind of be approached like you’re convincing a very sceptical person of a risky project. Everybody has been burned by some bad-fitting clothes before! On the one hand, extensive information matters, e.g. Styleshake’s size guide. On the other hand, support matters very much, e.g. Zappos‘ customer service approach, which Fidji wrote about before.
The social dimension should be something that the web is good for. On the one hand, celebrity-marketing like H&M and many other stores do, is a good enticement to get people to buy your clothes. On the other hand, what matters more to people like me is what clothes will look like in my social circle, and not everybody has Tom Cruise’s body-type (I’m twice as tall 
). But you can definitely imagine a Hotornot- or Facebook-styled fashion-store, with some creative techniques.
To summarise
The attraction of fashion is still the hot models for me, but really, in the online domain it’s much more.
- Fashion is a global and dynamic industry, and technology is definitely an enabler in that business.
- The lack of IP makes the industry a somewhat easy one to enter, but also requires very strong executive skills.
- There is still plenty of smart innovation left in addressing the right visual, sensory, and social needs of customers.
From a job-perspective, I found out that the fashion-business is not that easy to get into. You need either a related degree and/or (preferably together) relevant experience. That said, if you got a fashion-business or are thinking of starting one, preferably online, and are in need of a creative business-guy, give me a buzz! I’m always up for some brainstorming!
For the commentators:
- what do you think are the drivers for fashion shopping?
- What innovative e-commerce sites have you come across?
- Where do you see fashion going, hybrid, more off-line, or more online?
Vincent
Related posts:
- Random thoughts on: Men's vs. Women's fashion statements, 'Virtual' Offices, and (corporate) Centres of Knowledge
- A very old economy business to new economy business action plan
- Entrepreneurial brainstorming session #15: an online payment feature for bloggers (eCommerce)
- Social media is dead (not a post about social media)
- Coolblue.nl – business structure, long tails, and growing in Europe
Tags: e-commerce, fashion, H&M, hotornot, Zappos, Zara
Architecture, Business Process Management, Business intelligence, Business strategy, Entrepreneurship, Facebook, Friends, Globalization, Internet, Organization, Supply Chain, Technology, innovation, marketing, media, operations, retail, user-generated content, web2.0, web3.0
Great perspective on this industry. Thanks for mentionning styleshake.com where we invested. Very little fashion brand have really innovated on the web beyond a simple distribution presence and sometimes original ad campaign. There are still many opportunities for fashion on the internet. Customization and DIY (do it yourself) is a strong trend right now
Thanks Ouriel! Mashups are indeed an exciting direction that fashion-commerce can take. And I loved Styleshake! Very well thought-out from start to finish, and best of luck in your investment!
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I love online fashion.. and I adore shopping at the Verso Online Store.. They have such an amazing collection, both for men and women! check it out on http://www.verso.be