Real Time Fashion – The Newest Revolution in Fashion E-commerce
Fashion Trade is one of the most important and biggest sectors in e-commerce, therefore one of the first to come with the most radical changes and innovations. One of them being the concept called Real time Fashion, in this post we will dive deep into this concept and how this will revolutionise fashion in the years to come as it allows consumers to buy trends in real time.
What is Real Time Fashion?
Real time Fashion is the evolution if not revolution of the 70s concept called fast fashion, which was essentially to mass produce at low prices, trendy clothes to make them accessible to a broader audience, than the original designer labels. At the time looked like fashion could not be speedier, but with the arrival and explosion of social networks, Instagram influencers and tiktok, realtime fashion arrived and to prove this innovation path still has a long route ahead.
This concept is about to take fashion from fast, to instant. In this model collections, shows and magazines have zero impact. Its all about interpreting, planning and checking consumer buying patterns in real time, and producing small batches that can go in trend with this products. If the items sell out, the retailer can re order, if not they are quickly discontinued. Some E-commerce companies are already massively relying on this model which is exploding their business results.
For retailers that have adopted this model it started in Asia, as a result of the consumer to manufacturer revolution. Over the coming years it is expected to expand its influence to broader areas of the world. What this retailers understood is that collections were no longer required, because they didnt move as fast as social networks and didnt meet the criteria of immediacy. With the decentralisation of Media, anyone can influence buying patterns. So an example of this would be that an iflucer posts a dress that generates immense buz, the next day a brand makes that dress available to consumers at an affordable price. Which they are able to purchase easily and probably will sell out, as it’s as trendy as can get.
The impact of real time fashion – And how it helps sustainability
We all know the fast fashion model of the last century was severely outdated, causing sustainability issues as excessing waste and economic issues such as overstock.
With realtime fashion much of this issues are now avoided, by being able to produce small batches and entirely based on demand and consumer preferences, retailers only put to sale what is already sort of pre tested, reducing inventory risk and overstocking, in an almost on demand way.
The model also requires some sort of near shoring , because Far East suppliers who work on large volumes and not keen to make small batches with lots styles. Which means that by placing producing orders near the retail markets, makes sure that working conditions are much better and materials are also more sustainable, therefor brutally helping the environment.
How can this help Start-up Brands and SME brands?
When launching a new product line, or even a new brand, inventory allocation is of paramount importance. What we always recommend at ASBX is for clients to select products which will likely perform well in the market, which will make sure they are more likely to have higher stock sell rate. Thankfully to modern technologies is now possible to see in real time the best products to launch and predict consumer preferences much easier than before.
