Sunday Musings – April 19th Edition
We are not there yet, but we will be eventually. Will you be ready? I ask myself this all the time. At first I assumed that when this crisis is over, things will go back to the way they were. At some point in time, I still believe that will be the case. But now I’m more inclined to adjust my thinking to living in a changed world. Will I want to travel by air? Will I be comfortable in a packed movie theater or concert venue? Will I want to wander around the shops at Hudson Yards? Is the thought of going into Macys Herald Square a panic attack inducing one? What about restaurants? Sports events? My dentist’s office? I don’t have answers to these questions, even for myself. But I do know that they will be on my mind for a long time to come.
What will this new mindset mean to the apparel industry and consumer goods in general? We’ve all already discovered the convenience of Amazon and buying commodities online. It’s easy. And we all recognize the reach that Net a Porter, Matches, ShopBop and Revolve have. Department stores have been struggling with this reality for years now. Convenience means a lot to so many. As brick and mortar worked to re-invent itself over the past few years, the words on everyone’s lips were engagement and experiential environments. Make environments friendlier and entertaining. Keep the consumer involved in the shopping experience by offering all kinds of choices in order to distinguish shopping in a store from shopping online – make it personal. But now what? Even these recent catch phrases to revive retail have quickly become obsolete.
During the down time we are all suffering while we wait and hope that our world will once again open up, and we’ll be free to wander and connect, participate in life socially, we must reassess our priorities. What will our businesses look like going forward? Where should we be investing our time and attention? Clearly, DTC will dominate the marketplace. If you do not have a robust DTC website, now’s the time to put one in place. Shopify makes it easy. Use this down time to construct it and/or perfect the one you have. So many people are out of work and willing to take on projects they can do while sequestered, at very reasonable rates. I realize it’s hard to compete with the majors as far as the dollars needed to acquire and retain the consumer. But that’s always the case when industries that are entrepreneurial born and driven, mature and grow into behemoths. We’re not confronting a new phenomenon in this. Now we have to focus more intently on how we can distinguish our companies, our brands, from the pack. And we must be cognizant of the new concerns the consumers will have when they shop. Hygiene, safety and packaging, in addition to style and fit and price. Messaging by everyone is now critical. How is my company, my brand, my product addressing the consumer’s concerns? How will we make ourselves relevant tomorrow?
As we all sit and ponder the future, worried, frightened, feeling uncertain and unstable, and even more distressing, out of control, we need to take back that control where we can. And we control the messages we send to our consumers via social media and ad spend, as well as in the products we design. Think long and hard, while you have the time, about who you want to be, what you want to represent, how you want to communicate with the individuals who buy your products. It’s not and won’t be business as usual when the economy begins to reopen. Start planning now regarding the reallocation of the dollars you have to allocate. We’ve all suffered from what the major retailers have been doing to take care of their needs and circumstances. Do you really want to spend as much as you have in the past, on product development for brick and mortar giants (unless it’s your own)? Do you want to get back on the merry go round of seasons and promotions and allowances and margin agreements and mark down contributions? I’m not saying that you should forsake those channels completely, but this crisis has put their value into a new perspective. You may need to take on more inventory risk, as what you go into production on will not be pre-sold. But there are ways to mitigate the risk reasonably, and there are ways to finance it.
A new definition of partnership must come out of this disaster. Simply referring to a vendor as a partner isn’t enough. Those retailers who are working with vendors to create a path forward, while acknowledging the extraordinary circumstances, and are willing to share the pain, are the ones you need to build stronger and stronger relationships with. During times like these, we all see whom we can count on and whom we cannot. And though in commerce, memories are often short when the opportunity for revenues is at stake. The treadmill we’ve been running on in the apparel industry in particular, has not been a level one, and the harder we run the steeper it seems to get. One way to get off of it is to speak honestly and directly to your customers. Build a later native distribution channels. So formulate your messaging now! Fully understand how what you are offering fits into the world as it will be, not as it was. Be ready and able to articulate that, both in your words and in your products.
Bottom line, plan, plan, plan. Be prepared. The one fact that I repeat so often when I speak to designers, business associates, students and colleagues in the fashion industry, is that regardless of what state the world is in, when we get up each day to go out (or even to stay in, as we are doing now) we get dressed. We will always need apparel, and we’ll always want products to embellish ourselves with. We remain vain enough to care about how we present ourselves to the world. Whether what we purchase is inexpensive or costly, fashionable or just plain comfortable, statement making or subtle, practical or impractical, we will continue to buy things to wear. So take heart during these dark times. Unlike so many industries and great companies of the past, yours will NEVER be obsolete. What you do will always be needed. Now it’s up to each one of us to make sure that we tell our own stories and create our own narratives, that we emerge from our isolation with a better perspective and a clear, concise, sustainable plan, as well as the most thoughtful and appropriate product we can create. It’s a new world.
Gary