Technology and evolving consumer demand have undoubtedly transformed the shopping experience, while causing a shift from a product-centric market to a customer-centric one. As Giancarlo Giammetti, Valentino Garavani’s long-time partner said in a recent, much publicised Vanity Fair interview: “Women no longer need designers to decide what they want to wear! Before, they were waiting for Givenchy, Dior, or Valentino to decide the dress, the shoes, the bag, for them. But if they like the dress, they like the dress! I think it’s a good thing. It gives women a lot of freedom.”
Indeed, the rapid growth of online shopping demonstrates consumers’ ability to compare products, choose the best price, and refine their own style by mixing and matching.
Furthermore, a considerable effort has been made to raise ‘fashion awareness’ by ‘educating’ consumers and encouraging them to invest on their appearance. Brands, magazines, blogs and online shopping sites all cater to the specific needs of potential customers by offering styling and skincare tips and celebrity makeup or hairstyle tutorials, based on their budget, physical characteristics and taste – all data gathered mainly via social networks which serve as testing ground for new products, help observe consumer behaviour, spot rising trends, determine the success or flop of a particular style, colour or print and provide useful information about the body shape of the average customer and fit of an outfit – all these on a world wide scale.
As we all know, the studio days when both stars and their preferred designers were worshipped and packed crowds would line up on Friday night to watch their favourite Diva’s latest picture are long gone and the rise of celebrity culture with its love/hate, fabulous Oscar dress appearance to scandalous paparazzi shot sighting, has greatly contributed to a shift in our relationship to fashion and consumption. Collaborations between famous movie stars or top models with luxury labels and affordable brands both at once (for instance Scarlet Johansson and Gisele Bundchen with Dolce & Gabbana and Mango or H&M respectively), high-end designers and mass market brands (like Karl Lagerfeld or Versace for H&M) and also reality TV stars and Haute Couture houses (Kim Kardashian with Givenchy, Chanel and Stephane Rolland) have almost convinced us that celebrities are ‘just like us’. Paired with the celebrities’ involvement in social media and regular lifestyle, event and ‘self portrait’ outfit posts, ‘getting the look’ has never been made simpler. As for celebrities themselves, often enough, personal stylists, rather than designers, choose their outfit for a particular event.
Moreover, the integration of the web with mobile technology and brick and mortar retail is crucial to attracting new customers while helping brands adopt innovative strategies from merchandizing to inventory planning to pricing and marketing. Apart from the numerous fashion apps that offer to organize your wardrobe, provide styling advice, discounts and mobile boutique services, shoppers may now be greeted on their smart phones as they enter a store and receive personalized offers based on their purchase history and ‘likes’ or ‘shares’ on the label’s social networks. Department stores offer virtual mirror experiences, where fully dressed customers can try clothes on by standing in front of a screen, which superimposes the image of the garment over the person’s body.Even more impressive although not yet perfected, are the virtual fitting rooms that use augmented reality to enable the user to virtually try on clothes through his/her mobile device or computer, take pictures of him/herself wearing the outfit and share them on social networks. In addition, real 3D Simulation fitting rooms allow users to insert their measurements and create an avatar, which approximately matches their figure to see how an outfit would look on them. Although to many, virtual fitting rooms are still just a game, they are rapidly gaining ground and should soon enough become an indispensable shopping tool.
Louise Kissa