JOOR CEO Kristin Savilia joined the leading wholesale platform for fashion in 2017 with a resume that included leadership positions at Local Marketplace at XO Group Inc., which owns The Knot, and, prior, Macy’s and Linens N’ Things.

At JOOR, she oversees a global platform that daily connects over 8,600 brands and over 200,000 curated fashion retailers across 144 countries. Its goal is to advance and grow brands and retailers – all via a virtual showroom and collaborative tools such as JOOR Passport, which centralizes the trade show experience.

We connected with Savilia to discuss the JOOR ethos, how wholesale has changed, American fashion, and more.

Thank you for taking the time to speak with CFDA. Please describe how JOOR was launched and what its key elements are.

JOOR as a fashion platform is 10 years old. In the three years since I became CEO, the company has made significant investment in technology and created a platform that truly digitizes the entire wholesale buying and selling process. We’re lucky to count as customers over 8,600 brands across 55 categories and more than 200,000 retailers in 144 countries. This means that the JOOR data set represents the fashion industry overall and contains valuable insights. During the pandemic, brands and retailers have become increasingly reliant on JOOR because it offers industry leading virtual showroom capabilities. However, JOOR is much more than a showroom – its advanced wholesale management features like bulk order management and customizable reporting are unmatched in the industry. Finally, JOOR is a global company with 10 offices across the major global regions.

How has the wholesale business changed in the last decade?

Prior to the pandemic – not enough! For all the hype about consumer facing technology in our industry, the business to business side of technology has been largely ignored. It’s amazing how many brands and retailers are still using spreadsheets, and even pen and paper, to manage their wholesale businesses.

Specifically, how has Covid-19 impacted the wholesale sales process/pattern?

It is incredibly tragic that we find ourselves in these circumstances, but the fact remains that digital transformation in the wholesale buying process has lagged – and finally that is changing. Now that business has been upended, we are seeing the power of technology brought to bear on reimagining the overall buying and trade show model. JOOR has worked with a large number of prior and new JOOR brands to set up virtual showrooms, and to help connect them to the buyers through our shoppable showrooms. This has created 365 day per year access, independent of travel and the buying calendar.

What are the benefits of a virtual showroom?

Virtual showrooms are allowing more buyers in more regions to shop, 24/7, enabling brands to extend their reach and achieve business continuity during these difficult times. Our showrooms reimagine the wholesale experience, enabling brands to send personalized shoppable links to their retailers along with video meetings via our appointment hub. Our styleout feature, The Edit, allows brands to present styleboards where they can visually collaborate with their buyers and edit the assortment down to the final selections. Virtual showrooms, with their ease, reach and availability, will remain a permanent fixture in the post-COVID world.

Where do you see this post-Covid?

JOOR remains a strong believer in the physical event, and also that digital is a critical component to extend the reach and value of these events. The buying process will evolve; we are already witnessing the combination of fashion events and seeing a move towards fewer seasons led by our brands like Saint Laurent and Michael Kors. When recovery ultimately happens, the high quality events will persist, but we may see some consolidation, and other events will remain fully digital. This is not a bad thing for an industry that has historically traveled an excessive amount, overproduced samples, and generally needs to be more sustainable in its practices.

What are you looking forward to this season?

I’m personally very proud and excited that JOOR is exclusively powering 11 fall shows on the heels of five successful ones this summer. We are doing all of this via our own application called JOOR Passport​. Launched earlier this year, JOOR Passport is intended for the current market conditions of restricted travel as well as the post-pandemic era when physical events resume.  It centralizes the trade show and fashion week experience by creating a one-stop-shop for users: one place to upload data, one website to visit, one app to download, and one comprehensive experience. By digitizing the interaction between brands and retailers, it enables a 365 day per year marketplace where retailers discover new styles and designers, and brands generate more connections.

There has been an incredibly positive response to JOOR Passport thus far. JOOR was the first company in its space to have hosted virtual fashion events. The events to date have driven 80k+ visitors and 20k+ unique buyers from the likes of Neiman Marcus, Saks, Zalando and Shopbop as well as thousands of independent boutiques. Buyers from countries spanning from the U.S. to Japan to Greece to Guatemala purchased more than 150,000 items from brands all over the world.

How do you view American fashion’s position within the global fashion landscape?

While the pandemic has made the fashion world even more global, American fashion will continue to play an important and influential role. American fashion is eclectic and generally informal – if you think of JOOR clients Tory Burch and Kate Spade, they have made permanent marks on classic style while Rag & Bone has a signature denim cutoff. I expect we will see brands continue to innovate in a style that reflects American culture​.

Where do you see the potential of American fashion?

We’ve heard a lot during the pandemic about the rise of comfortable clothing and the athleisure category in general. While this trend will continue, I think people will want to dress up and be fashionable when social interaction returns. I’m looking forward to how designers will get creative to blend the two!