New Technology Looks Good on the Fashion Industry
As trend spotters and fans of the way that different industries are using technology, we report on interesting ways businesses are using technology to build sales and improve customer relations.
Every part of our lives and businesses are revolutionized by technology, and the fashion industry is no exception. Innovative clothing companies are harnessing the power of computers to serve customers a more personalized experience of shopping and buying clothes online and in-store. From the visual search function in mobile apps to personalized digital fit models on e-commerce clothing shopping sites the digital revolution is altering the fashion business forever.
Clothing is still sewn with needle and thread, but its distribution and marketing are unrecognizable from the prior generations of fashion businesses.
Emerging technology in use by the clothing industry:
- Artificial Intelligence– AI is being used for messaging by such top retailers as Nordstrom, Sephora and American Eagle with chatbots, such as Facebook Messenger and the Android app Kik. Macy’s, a particularly tech-savvy retailer has AI power built into their mobile app called Macy’s On Call.
- Virtual Digital Reality – Built upon the wildly successful Pokemon Go phenomenon, digital realities are helping shoppers to try on products, such as makeup products and also visit Macy’s stores via virtual reality from anywhere.
- Blockchain – Currently focused on the supply chain for retailers it is being tested as a storytelling and branding tool in Asia. Tech experts tout its superior security as a way to verify the authenticity of often counterfeited luxury fashion goods.
- Visual and Voice Search – Experts predict that searches using images, either snapped on customers mobile phones or from websites will grow along to over half of all searches by 2020. Currently, Pinterest offers visual search for consumers looking for a particular item of clothing of which they can find buyable pins for purchasing.
- Online and Brick and Morter as One – Millennial’s view a physical store and its online website as one entity and expects to be able to shop at both seamlessly. One of the trends we see is the easy payment system such as Amazon Go, the free supermarket checkout system. The Internet of Things is responsible for this impact on consumers demands for greater convenience in 2017.
- Live Video – Facebook Live launched in 2016, and soon after Twitter and Instagram followed with their video streams. These three second live videos are helping businesses gain competitive advantages in the crowded social media field. The brands that are focusing on quality over quantity are gaining the largest market shares, such as Benefit Cosmetics.
- Anti-Tech – High Touch – The flip side of advanced technology is the backlash to crave highly emotional and physical touch experiences. Engaging customers senses will become a major marketing differentiating factor for retailers in 2017. Think engagement, entertainment, and community for your brand and store. Apple was one of the 1st companies to create this multi-sensual experience of their products and retail environment. Retailers know that hat the longer amount of time a person spends in their store the more merchandise they buy. The use of this emotional, sensual community building process works to increase in-store time and thus sales.
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By Marsha Kelly Business Blogger – Serial entrepreneur, after doing Time in corporate America, who has learned about what products and services really work well in business today. You can learn from my experience and my associates as we shop from the internet for tools, supplies, and information to build our businesses and improve the lives of our family and ourselves on our site http://best4businesses.com/
My strongest belief is that the safest, most secure and most lucrative job you can have is owning your own business. I learned this valuable lesson the hard way by investing time, energy and emotion into a corporate career only to be fired unceremoniously –when I dared think creatively outside the box. My entrepreneurial journey to starting my own business was first by necessity but then turned into a great blessing of prosperity and freedom. Graduating from the school of business hard knocks and learning how to start, manage, and then sell my business for over $1,000,000. Learned more about real life business this way that I learned in my four years at the NYU School of Business.
