Here comes the virtual showroom
Along with making information more accessible, the internet is guilty of wiping out parts of many industry sectors. It has chewed holes in personal introduction services, employment agencies, classified advertising, auctions, second hand shops and street directories - to name a few.
The recently established Fashion First website which specialises in retail and wholesale positions at all levels is taking the wind out of press advertising. In its first three weeks the site had a reported 18,000 hits.
There have been other attempts to present web-based employment advertising but they have fallen well short of Fashion First because they were not as easy to access and they were not of themselves an internet service; rather they were websites for single employment agencies. There is a good chance that Fashion First could gobble up all its opposing internet recruitment sites and much of the press advertising as well. And, after that, somebody will invent a new site, and rival Fashion First. It is all about timing. Entrepreneurs who arrived too early will grumble that they deserved success because they were the first to do it while those who arrived too late will grumble that all the opportunities were already gone. The same applies to E-bay, currently almost unassailable in its field.
Now, where is all this heading?
What I am suggesting is that the internet is finally on top of its credibility curve. It was always capable, but consumers were slow to trust it and use it. The question is, where might it go next in the fashion industry.
In my opinion it will soon prove the willingness of wholesale buyers to place orders based on internet images. For at least the past 50 years Australians have gone galloping abroad to knock off hot sellers in Europe and the US. They brought back the information in the form of sneaky Have buyers today advanced their trust in images to make the leap? I think they have. Already the buyers from major stores do much of their own sourcing, and in this they work in computer images - just as they use computer printouts to get a feel for what the market is doing.
Enter the virtual showroom. Versions probably exist already. They are the early adopters who may fail through either being too far ahead of the game or building a clumpy website. In the not too distant future a Fashion First type of operation will be available where all, say, knitwear will be available on the web and every retailer that is interested in knitwear will be able to access it. There may be restrictions imposed by the companies showing so that only the retailers they permit to view the range will be given a password.
One casualty of the virtual showroom will be fashion agents because the label company will only need to make images of its styles and pop them into the virtual showroom to render them visible all over Australia simultaneously. Unfortunately, I can't imagine a virtual fashion agent offering virtual Lavazza coffee and virtual Hungarian cakes in his virtual showroom.
Okay, so you'll hear the cynics say you can't buy a dress without feeling the fabric (something for which I have a difficult-to-control fetish) or examining the finish and the cut. But balance that against the overwhelming convenience of buying on-line, even bargaining on line. I wouldn't like to put money on the old fashioned way surviving.
For fear of foolishness
The greatly improved fortunes of the Just Group and Noni B illustrate an old truth about consumers and retailers. Both of these chains, plus a few others like them, have created the impression that they don't show the latest look one day and discount it the next. Irrespective of the prices paid, consumers don't like being made to feel foolish by seeing the full price line they bought being cut in half in order to support a sale that the retailer had to have.
Last week I was again wandering through Myer menswear and came upon a track pant in superb French jersey (unbrushed fleecy). It was in three colours and was on sale, knocked earthwards by three different types of reduction. What had been a good value $89 garment cost me $10.30. Of course I had to buy one in each colour. But how would I have felt if I'd bought them at full price previously? My repugnance would have been less about money than about feeling foolish.
Certainly there have to be retail sales, but make no mistake, they do not create loyal or even grateful customers.