Digitalisation
Some are Already in
Digital is not new, and technology is not something new-fangled either. Some disruptions have already
happened, and some—as indicated earlier in this write-up—are bound to happen. Still other changes
have happened; but most of those have been enablers rather than disruptors.Technology-driven
elements like e-commerce sales, social media marketing and digital textile printing, etc, are now part
of the fashion ecosystem. The use of digital in product lifecycle management (PLM) and enterprise
resource management (ERP) are so last decade. Those have long been in, and are now well-established
practices.In that sense, digital has been there for a while now.
How soon and in what way brands respond to emerging trends is what will decide the future.
The earlier wave from the initial years of this century had seen brands lacking in initiative. Not that
much has changed. A study a few years back by SAP had found that banks were the quickest to
take to new technologies, and the fashion sector was among the slackest to get the whiff of things.
Among leading brands that were thought to be slow in reacting was Burberry. But in 2006,
Burberry’s then chief executive Angela Ahrendts and chief creative officer Christopher Bailey
decided to make the brand the first fully digital luxury company. The company, under the
leadership and following the vision of Ahrendts, went the whole hog—from leveraging social
media to upgrading its mobile platform. Digital technology soon became central to the brand’s
very existence. In nine years, it emerged on top of the Fashion Digital Report rankings published by
digital think-tank L2.
Burberry was a leader in its own right, but was perceived to be slow in adopting technology. Its
policy shift was noted all around, prompting even the Economist to comment on what the brand
was doing: “Garments are fitted with interactive screens and RFID (radio frequency identification)
tags, which mean that customers can flash clothes in front of interactive screens to see how a
handbag detail or raincoat lining is made. More potential buyers are browsing online, then coming
into the stores to make their purchase, so it makes sense for the two platforms to have the same
stock organised in the same way (an organisational feat that has defeated many retailers).”
Luxury brands, of course, had much to be wary about. As an Associated Press report in February
2016 noted, “The digital revolution is difficult for the luxury world, which has been wary of courting
a broader audience for fear of losing the mystique that fashion houses market along with their
garments. The efforts to change the fashion show [London Fashion Week] aren’t an attempt to
Burberry, at the turn of the millennium and the advent of the internet, was perceived to be too slow in adapting itself to new technology. In 2006, the brand started going the social
media way and also upgraded its mobile platform. By 2015, it had emerged among the top brands to have a digital presence. Pic courtesy: othree / Creative Commons 2.0
50 | FIBRE 2 FASHION NOVEMBER 2017