Some of the best articles from the world of retail and its supporting industries.
Monthly Retail Round-Up - December 2018
It’s been a busy year for the retail industry and December has been no different. Here are the final stories to round it off!
1) Farfetch Launches ‘See It, Snap It, Shop It’
Luxury e-commerce platform, Farfetch has partnered with Syte to launch a visual search feature called See It, Snap It, Shop It. Reported in Glossy, “the feature lets customers upload pictures from anywhere, which the app will then analyze and serve up either the specific product or something similar.” This is done using details such as color, fit and fabric.
Reported in Tech Startups, Sara Wood, VP Product, Farfetch said, “Visual search is the ultimate connection between on and offline inspiration. By allowing our customers to show us what they are interested in we gain a deeper understanding of their needs, are able to inspire them with fashion based on what they are looking for, and enable a more personalized shopping experience.”
This year has seen a wave of retailers continually investing in innovative technology to help them improve their customer experience. Check out some of our other retail round-ups for more.
2) H&M’s New Concept Store
H&M has revamped its Hammersmith store with the launch of a new retail experience. Opening on the 6th December with goodie bags for the first 200 shoppers, the concept store is nothing like existing H&M stores. Reported in Retail Week, this store is “aimed at a more mature shopper” and is “more sophisticated than your average H&M”.
The store will include a fashion assortment specifically tailored to Hammersmith customers along with H&M Home products. Reported in Retail Week, there are also many new additions to the store apart from the new look including:
- A ‘Repair and Remake’ station where H&M will repair customer-owned H&M clothing.
- Personalization in the shape of customised embroidery with prices starting at around the £3 mark.
- Screens showing images of customers wearing recent purchases that they have shared using the #HMxME hashtag on Instagram.
- Self-checkouts in addition to normal till points (the first H&M in the UK to do this…Zara launched self-checkouts earlier this year, which you can read about in our blog post where we went to try it out for ourselves).
3) Yoox Launches AI Stylist
Another luxury e-commerce platform is in the news this December. Reported in Drapers, YOOX launched an AI-powered stylist.
The feature, YOOXMIRROR, allows customers to explore new looks by mixing and matching garments and accessories on a virtual avatar, Daisy. Daisy can be customised with different hair color and skin tones which best relate to the customer, or they can upload their own picture. Reported in Fashion Network, “Customers can see how a look will suit them (or at least how it looks on an avatar, which is a big step forward from static product images).”
There are 250 products that Daisy will be able to showcase every week, and customers can then share the looks they have created on social media. This will get them to gain immediate feedback to decide whether to purchase the items or save them directly into their wishlist, the Yoox DreamBox. In addition to this, Daisy has taken over the YOOX Instagram account.
Paolo Mascio, President, Yoox, said (reported in Drapers), “The introduction of YooxMirror represents an important move for us, offering our customers something personalized and memorable which is also a brand-new way to explore the very best of Yoox.”
4) Bestseller’s Sustainability Strategy
Reported in Fashion United, Danish fashion group, Bestseller has “unveiled what it is calling an ambitious new strategy that will make sustainability central to its way of doing business.”
The ‘Fashion Fwd’ strategy will be integrated across all their brands and has set goals for 2019 to 2025 that will launch the company towards becoming “climate positive, fair for all and circular by design”.
The four key areas of the strategy are Creating Fwd, Making Fwd, Engaging Fwd and Delivering Fwd. Reported in Drapers:
- Creating FWD is about working with innovative new fibres until everything Bestseller creates is made exclusively using sustainable materials.
- Making FWD aims to improve the environmental footprint of Bestseller’s products, supply chain and operations so they have a positive impact on the environment.
- Engaging FWD is an approach to embed human rights in the fashion industry, with a focus on the supply chain.
- Delivering FWD is to create a future circular model for fashion, where products and materials are ongoing resources.
The Drapers Sustainability Report was released in July, showing us there are many retailers including H&M and John Lewis who all have the same goal - to become more sustainable.
We hope you enjoyed the round-up. Please feel free to get in touch with any stories you feel would be of interest.
Banner Photo by @bravelyventure on Unsplash