Home » From 3D creation to virtual showroom: the blackest year saved by digital

From 3D creation to virtual showroom: the blackest year saved by digital

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The key points

  • The role of the “billion visitor companies”
  • Focus on the customer
  • The success of platforms like NuOrder

Cwith the Italians closed again at home and the shutters of clothing stores lowered in 11 regions and autonomous provinces, the theme of virtual purchases returns to make room almost exclusively. Just like a year ago, when Covid-19 disrupted everyday life and, with it, the shopping habits of billions of people.

For fashion and luxury, in particular, it was a leap forward of seven to eight years. All concentrated in the span of ten months in which companies, large or small, have clung to the web in order not to sink. That online sales have made the difference can be seen from the accounts of the global luxury giants: in the full year 2020, Kering recorded a + 67.5% in online sales, which came to account for 13% of total sales; the LVMH group reported a “decisive acceleration” of e-commerce, which partially offset the closures of physical stores. The growth did not concern only the big names in luxury: Inditex (Zara) achieved + 77% of online sales in the full year 2020; H&M registered + 38% on an annual basis, with + 50% in the last quarter. Marketplace and multi-brand platforms – such as Farfetch (+ 49% of the value of goods sold) and Zalando (+ 30.4%) – recorded equally important growth.

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Who wins and who loses

«The winners, in this situation, are the so-called“ billion visitor companies ”, that is the companies that register billions of visits on their portals. And they are often the same ones that invest in digitalization, supply chain and physical retail. They are realities in which the entire management thinks in a digital key, only to then decline it in an integrated way on different channels », says Emanuele Pedrotti, partner of McKinsey & Company, head of the Apparel, Fashion & Luxury practice for the Mediterranean.

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Retail digitization

Online sales are only the first of the pillars of the digital evolution path that the fashion sector has undertaken. Pedrotti confirms this: “Certainly during 2020 there was an acceleration of sales on brand sites and especially on marketplaces, but at the same time companies have focused on increasing technology in physical stores so as to increase efficiency and improve assortments, as well as optimize staff attendance planning. Today, in fact, it makes no sense to think of channels in a distinct way ».

Focus on the customer

In fact, there are many meeting points between real and virtual dimensions. And they all refer to the end customer: «The CRM, and therefore the image of the consumer that the company“ creates ”based on the data collected, represents the backbone of the omnichannel strategy of the brands», he comments. The data collected, thanks to the use of technologies such as artificial intelligence or machine learning, are key tools to increase the level of efficiency of the company which, for example, can reduce returns (and related costs) or inventories.

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