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Fashion Reinvented: Trade Show Outlook

With trade shows on hiatus across the U.S., the organizer of the Magic fashion expos invited a panel of four experts to discuss the long-term impact of the coronavirus outbreak and how apparel retailers should best prepare to resume operations.

In line with many trade show organizers around the world, Informa Markets — the London-headquartered event management company behind the Las Vegas Magic show, among many others — has been obliged to cancel or postpone the majority of its events amid the novel coronavirus outbreak. Its solution — again, as with many others — has been to reinvent some of its key expo brands in an digital format.

One of its first ventures is “The Small Business Survival Guide: How to Navigate Uncharted Waters During COVID-19,” a webinar intended to help the fashion industry through the pandemic. The company assembled an online panel of industry experts, including Karen Giberson, president of the Accessories Council; Mark Beckham, vice president of marketing and events at The Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA); Marc Weiss, chief executive of Management One, an Arizona-based retail consultancy and Gary Wassner, chief executive of Hilldun, a New York-based, fashion-focused financial services company.

Buy Now, Wear Now

The discussion was dominated by two key points: how the COVID-19 outbreak will affect the seasonality of merchandise and how best to handle promotional issues during this emergency.

Seeing the situation as an opportunity as much as a crisis, Weiss said, “This could be a real chance for retailers to adopt a ‘buy now, wear now’ approach.”

Wassner, too, emphasized the importance of delivering the right product at the right time, regardless of seasonality, saying, “‘Buy now, wear now’ is now a reality. The reason we had such a heavily promotional environment before was because retailers brought merchandise in way too early. Now, they don’t have a choice.”

“Basically, retailers will need to show that the right product is on the shelf on a ‘buy now, wear now’ basis,” Wassner continued. “Everything must be reassorted, and it won’t matter which season it was originally produced for.”

Digital Evolution

The experts also called on retailers to reconsider their web image and look to distinguish them from their brick-and-mortar stores via a focus on agility and adaptability. Citing the success the online designer store Net-A-Porter has had with digital brands, Wassner said, “They’ve gone through their inventory and figured out what will work better online than in the physical shops.”

The Future

Talk turned to seasonless collections as the conversation switched to Fashion Week. For Beckham, it seemed unclear what the situation meant for the market, with no real pictures emerging as to when brands will actually be in a situation where they can shift from digital to showing physical collections.

Looking to apply earlier research, Beckham said, “About three or four years ago, we conducted a study of the ‘see now, buy now’ phenomenon and the concept of more seasonless collections. One of the things it showed is that some of the established terminology is no longer really relevant to the current consumer generation.”

So, how can fashion brands ensure they always have relevant products on hand? While it’s true that retailers are at risk, they can get ahead of disrupted inventory availability by engaging directly with consumers to find out what they want, even if they are not spending.

Such a relationship must be built in an authentic way that matches the brand and resonates with existing and potential shoppers without being intrusive. Messaging is key; retailers may choose to communicate on their branded website, through social channels or email why it’s safe to shop online.

 

The idea is to provide a source of connectedness that consumers desire while the fashion brand learns about consumers more intimately and forges an engaged and loyal community. With this insight, retailers can quickly assess their entire inventory — both in season and out of season — to make decisions based on timing and relevance, category by category.

Informa Markets currently plans to hold its Magic future fashion events digitally until the country bounces back. Regardless of whether or not the trade shows take place as planned, it is clear that the current situation could well impact the apparel retail industry for a long time to come.

Elsweet Rufino 

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