Kimberly Carney is the Founder and CEO of Fashwire Inc. which includes two product offerings: the popular shopping marketplace Fashwire and the recently-launched GlossWire. Both are innovative, two-sided global marketplaces delivering real-time data and actionable consumer insights for their respective industries. With over 20 years of experience in marketing for wireless and tech companies and more than 15 years owning a multi-brand contemporary fashion retail store, Carney offers the perfect intersection of fashion, beauty, tech and commerce landscape. She shares her insights on how and why the fashion industry must elevate their digital experiences and leverage digital trends.
How has COVID-19 Impacted the global fashion landscape?
The COVID-19 pandemic set in motion an unprecedented disruption for the fashion industry. Retailers and brands had to shift immediately with health and safety, supply chain, consumer demand and digital. Brands and retailers have had limited channels of communication to their customers which accelerated their need for digital tools to incorporate into their brand strategies. Brands and retailers have and continue to use digital innovations such as livestreaming, customer video chat and their social platforms to engage their consumer. These digital platforms have provided an opportunity during the pandemic to retain the storytelling of brands and scale this globally to capitalize on increased exposure and revenue opportunities. Now and in the future, digitization is a critical path forward for retail leaders.
What does ‘Digitization’ for the fashion industry mean to you?
To me, digitization provides actionable real-time data and creates end-to-end transparency across the entire retail supply chain. This increased lucidity converts into higher levels of trust between buyers and sellers for improved efficiency, reduced operating costs and a need for face-to-face contact. It also translates to accelerated growth and those that do not embrace digitization will be left behind.
For the fashion industry to survive today’s digital evolution means brands and retailers need to elevate every aspect of their fashion business to interactively involve the consumer, from the development of new apparel collections, to the marketing of those products, throughout the entire purchase journey, and even beyond into promotions and offers that ensure repeat sales. Agility, the ability to better understand your end customer, is more important than ever.
What are the key digital trends you are seeing in the fashion industry?
(a) Artificial intelligence (AI)
More consumers are choosing to purchase from brands and retailers that align with their values. Personalization and authenticity are key trends. Putting the customer at the heart of all business decisions has fashion brands and online retailers increasingly turning to AI. Successful AI requires strong interaction between business needs and technology.
(b) Personalization
Turning customer data into intelligent and actionable insights is more important than ever. Curated recommendations, customized products and storytelling is key to connecting with the consumer. Consumers are willing to share their personal data to ensure they get a more personalized experience.
(c) Social Commerce & Shoppable Posts
Brands and retailers are maximizing their opportunities for sales with Instagram shoppable posts. Selling via social channels leverages the influence and reach of social interactions, which converts to new customers and sales.
(d) Interactive Content
Dynamic and engaging content that offers users an immersive and seamless experience is key to making the consumer feel more connected to brands and in turn, more involved in the buying process.
(e) Visual Search
Visual search takes the user experience to a new level with the ability to take retailing anywhere increasing brand discovery and revenue opportunities.
(f) Convergence
All of the above work in concert and leaders need to be able to leverage multiple technologies concurrently for maximum benefit. That’s why integrated platforms such as Fashwire are so important.
How do brands and retailers need to adapt to these digital trends?
Fashion brands and retailers need to deliver a much improved digital experience if they want to better connect with their end consumers. Brands and retailers that cannot successfully leverage product recommendations and an integrated “product experience” will find themselves outside the channel of purchase. Not only will they lose existing customers; they will have a hard time attracting new customers.
What does the 2021 retail landscape look like to you?
Ever-changing. In order to survive, brands and retailers will need to embrace digital with a sense of urgency. The retailer’s ability to acquire, interpret, analyze and use data will be key in converting it into customer insights and translating those insights into action and sales. Becoming familiar with and understanding the advantages of artificial intelligence is the key to better understanding consumer behavior.
Key Takeaways
Brands and retailers need to have a digital offering that focuses on frictionless ecommerce and providing consumers with an engaging and more targeted shopping experience. The consumer wants more personalization and brands and retailers want loyal, happy and repeat customers. The tools are available for both B2C and B2B ecommerce solutions so brands and retailers can stay current on their digital strategies.
Brands and retailers need to become more data-driven with their decision-making processes. Collecting, integrating and analyzing data from a variety of sources will enable brands and retailers to respond more quickly to the ever-changing fashion landscape and make more informed and timely decisions.
Fashwire’s high-growth app and web-based shopping platform provides its portfolio of 350+ designers from 40+ countries real-time data and actionable insights into consumer shopping behavior patterns. A two-sided global marketplace, Fashwire is a B2B data hub to navigate consumer demand and increase profitability. For consumers, Fashwire’s B2C shopping platform creates a compelling interactive experience by combining fun, immersive swipe voting with the ability to influence the designer instantly. Fashwire recently expanded into the multi-billion dollar beauty industry with its launch of GlossWire.
For more information, visit: www.fashwire.com or connect with us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest and TikTok. You can download the Fashwire app by visiting the App Store or Google Play. The Fashwire app is available on iOS and Android.
