The answer is probably a big yes! Compare fashion brands that invested strategically in omnichannel with 89% retention rate versus brands that had lukewarm omnichannel strategies scoring a 33% retention rate and you have your answer. Brands and retailers are moving quickly to supply more seamless omnichannel shopping experiences—but customers are moving faster. Many apparel companies however find their brick-and-mortar stores are still essential. Their insight has been that more of the best customers are using a combination of offline and online channels when they shop. Post pandemic, this is often the emerging truth as footfalls to brick and mortar stores are returning to being on track.
During the pandemic, fashion retailers opted for e-commerce solutions for survival. The e-commerce sector received a notable boost from the pandemic thanks to the strong emphasis on social distancing, safety measures, and a convenient return policy. For retailers and fashion brands an omnichannel approach is preferred over a multichannel approach because the advantages are so many. The lifestyle sector has always been keen on adopting an omnichannel approach as they wished to offload the seasonal collections at the entire markup. In it, the retailers have effectively bridged the gap between offline and online models with a typical view of customers in omnichannel retail.
Selling off newest collections quickly
Omnichannel provides fashion brands huge visibility across various online and offline sales channels. This is extremely beneficial for fashion brands because older products/seasonal collections become obsolete. Here, omnichannel retail helps open up by offering much-needed product visibility. The visibility helps them offload all their collections, thereby facilitating garnering maximum revenues with ease and convenience. Fashion retailers have also considered the vital aspects of fashion, i.e., the speed to plug aspect. Customers expect brands to deliver products as quickly as possible. An omnichannel retail solution then becomes the ideal. Additionally, in India, fashion brands have the advantage of bypassing seasonal demands in areas that don’t have extreme climates and not have the onus of physical placements in areas that do.
Apparel in comparison to other products is most likely to be bought online
Customers are more likely to shop for apparel online as compared to other products. Two core factors that make online fashion immensely appealing to customers- lower prices than other sectors and apparel is straight forward to pack and ship across multiple pincodes in India due to easy logistics. Unfortunately, industries like electronics and luxury products (jewelry & watches) fail to supply such convenience. Larger electronic products cannot be shipped quickly, and hence they fail to make a significant impact like fashion. On the opposite hand, the high price point makes people wary when purchasing luxury items like jewelry and watches online. Online shopping embraces instant gratification. Customers also tend to get more when shopping online as they get huge discounts and free shipping on products.
Of course, fashion brands have to keep continually evolving their customer journeys and experiences to not only be relevant but also attractive in the moment of trends that flit in and out. Technology, particularly AI will lead the way towards more personalisation, ease of access to product information, trials and returns and last but not the least, a great sense of value purchase in a market that is so value and price sensitive.
