(COS, no date)
Impacts on he High End
High Street sector
Fast fashion is changing the way
consumers shop; today’s consumers
are becomingly increasingly inpatient.
They want to be able to shop wherever
they are and whenever they want.
Brands are able meet these consumer
demands by offering multi-channel
platforms such as bricks and mortar
shopping and ecommerce shopping,
the two platforms merged refers to
Omni-channel retailing. Omni-channel
retailing bridges the offline with the
online experience for the customers
offering a seamless and fluid business
model. This produces issues for brands
who have carefully designed their
brick and mortar stores to deliver
to customers their brand experience
but for their online presence to be
confined to a 2D catalogue where
their products can’t be experienced
like the brand would have hoped.
The vast majority of high end high
street fashion purchases are still
made in-store. (Rossi, 2015) This is
about more than just being able
to feel and try on the products
as this is an experience that online
retailers can provide by offering
the option of an in-store pick up. It’s
about the fact that physical stores
provide a fully interactive, creative
environment, displaying the products
the way the brands want them to
be
displayed.
Physical
retailers
must
now
provide
experiences,
embracing Omni-channelling to meet
the needs and desires of today’s
incessantly
connected,
time-poor
luxury consumers. Stores now must
compete with leisure experiences
such as trips to amusement parks or
sporting events for a share of the
consumer’s free time. "Over the next
five years, the "connectedness" of
the consumer will increase, through
elements like the Internet of things
and social commerce, challenging
retailers to capture consumers’
non-linear
journeys
across
channels." (Business of Fashion, 2016)
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