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Chief Marketing Officer at Launchmetrics, the leading Brand Performance Cloud in Fashion, Luxury and Beauty.
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Fashion is an industry of creation and innovation. While designers have always been inspired by people, their stories or even the travels they’ve been on, the development of fashion collections also relies on science and technological improvements. Indeed, from the textiles used to the marketing methods employed, technology is omnipresent. And as it is becoming increasingly capable and advanced, the fashion world is opening up to many new opportunities for enhancement. From the design of a product to its commercialization, digitalization has spread to most departments in the industry.
1. New Ways To Shop
One of the most noticeable innovations due to digitalization is e-commerce. 2020 propelled e-commerce forward for many brands and caused a digital reckoning. As a result, brands have relied highly on their websites to keep up with the pandemic and restrictions that it placed on commerce; according to an eMarketer forecast, retail e-commerce sales made up just 13.8% of total retail sales in 2019 but increased to 17.8% in 2020—and are expected to reach 21% in 2022.
On the other hand, technology has made it easier to re-market. As another breakthrough change in our way of buying clothes and luxury goods, more companies have been accepting cryptocurrency as a form of payment. Luxury brands such as Off-White, Gucci and Tag Hauer already accept or will be accepting them as payment; this allows for consumers who have invested in cryptocurrencies to spend them directly on luxury goods.
The creation of virtual stores has again shaken up the fashion world by offering an entirely new kind of shopping experience to consumers. That mix between a physical store and e-commerce is increasingly present in the metaverse; technology allows customers to feel almost like they are in an actual physical store, while they’re actually visiting a digital platform designed like a store that offers linked products they can purchase directly from the e-commerce store. For example, Dior once set up a virtual Dior Beauty store—“the Atelier of Dreams”—in partnership with Harrods. It featured Dior’s beauty products in a virtual garden under the stars.
Lastly, social media platforms represent an opportunity to enhance the sales of fashion collections and a new place to shop our favorite pieces. Snapchat, which is very engaged in augmented reality, launched an AR exhibition called “Redefining the Body” with British Vogue. That exhibition shows how it’s possible to enhance physical fashion designs through digital experiences. Visitors were able to try on Snap lenses of selected pieces from seven major fashion brands, such as Balenciaga and Versace.
2. Technology As An Enabler To Sustainability
While the fashion industry accounts for 10% of annual global carbon emissions, according to data from the UNEP and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation (via the World Bank), new technologies are helping brands to reduce their impact on the environment. Some companies are coming up with alternative textiles in an effort to make their products more recyclable, reusable, regenerative or responsibly sourced. Stella McCartney, for example, uses innovative materials such as bio-based faux fur. Similarly, COS and H&M have chosen cupro (short for cuprammonium rayon, a regenerated material made from cotton waste, that may be used as an alternative to silk and that many consider a more sustainable option) to make some of their products.
Moreover, many consumers use websites like Vinted and Ebay to buy and sell clothing. Indeed, I think their popularization could support the switch from fast fashion to more sustainable fashion.
3. Avatars As A New Form Of Sartorial Expression
With the evolution of Web3 and the development of the metaverse, we are moving toward the digitalization of not only shopping but also most aspects of our lives. It is becoming increasingly possible to live outside the real world, and inside the digital world, in many senses. Consumers are creating their own avatars, and in the same way that we need to dress ourselves in reality, we can dress our avatars too. More specifically, game players have the opportunity to purchase digital wearables for their avatars. Fashion brands have therefore started to take advantage of this to create unique digital designs meant for the new digital world. Balenciaga, for example, created an authentic line of digital clothes that’s available for Fortnite players to buy in the game. As part of the development of fashion in the metaverse, Thom Browne, Prada and Balenciaga have recently entered into partnerships with Meta to sell avatar fashion. Eventually, avatar fashion could become a new way that many of us express ourselves.
4. Marketing Methods
While fashion brands used to rely on print media or on their own print advertising to launch their collections and attract consumers, digitalization has made the shift from print to online marketing a very natural process. It has allowed for brands to lead campaigns online, operate on a smaller budget and potentially access millions of social media users worldwide. On the other hand, since influencer marketing was born, the number of collaborations between fashion brands and social media influencers has surged. These collaborations often lead to successful promotional campaigns. Indeed, in 2020, my company found that 94% of brands thought influencer marketing was effective for driving sales. I’ve seen new products sell out very soon after they are featured in a post on platforms like TikTok and Instagram. This shows the extent to which influencer marketing and digitalization have allowed marketing to become very powerful.
To sum it up, new technologies like 3D body scanning, augmented reality and even 3D virtual sampling have made the fashion industry more and more capable over the years. I believe the extent of digitalization in fashion is the result of brands’ confidence in the improvements they can enjoy with these types of technologies, which shows the effectiveness of technology in fashion.
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