Monthly Retail Round-Up - February 2019

Some of the best articles from the world of retail and its supporting industries.

Monthly Retail Round-Up - February 2019

Dressipi, the world’s only fashion prediction platform, brings you a round up of the top retail news this February to keep you up to date.

1) Amazon’s ‘Virtual Fitting Room’

Reported in Fashion United, Amazon is “developing an app that will work as a virtual fitting room so shoppers can try on clothes prior to purchase.”

The technology, which is only in its early stages, scours a customer’s social media images along with their saved photos to create a virtual mannequin customised to their body shape. It takes into consideration their job, where they live and what they do in their free time, to predict a customer’s style, identify possible suggestions and create bespoke outfits.

Reported in the Telegraph, customers can also “search my look”, “randomise outfits”, and “find more like this” along with liking or disliking the suggestions on screen. This is all in aim to improve the customers online experience as well as reducing the number of returns due to different styles and sizes ordered.

2) A Luxury Partnership

An increasing number of luxury retailers are partnering with specialists such as Farfetch to up their ecommerce game. This time last year Farfetch helped both Burberry and Chanel with this mission.

For their newest partnership, reported in Drapers, “Harrods is teaming up with Farfetch to provide its new global ecommerce platform from next year.” Harrods’ new and improved website will be operational from 2020 and will be using components of Farfetch Black & White Solutions. These solutions are for luxury fashion brands and retailers:

  • Delivering a global, multi-channel ecommerce offering that enables retailers and brands to seamlessly interact with their consumers
  • Allowing them to focus on the creative aspects of their businesses

Reported in Fashion United, “Black & White Solutions will provide Harrods with e-commerce management, operations support, international logistics support, and technical support, allowing the company to focus on the “creative” parts of the business, such as marketing, brand relationship, product strategy, editorial content, and customer service.”

3) Is Amazon Solving the Problem of Delivery?

If a customer isn’t able to be at home to receive a delivery it’s frustrating for both the customer and delivery person alike. Amazon has been developing new innovative ways to come up with a solution to this problem.

Amazon Key was launched last year which lets a delivery person enter your house and drop the parcel inside safely through installing smart locks and cameras. The most recent developments this month for Amazon delivery are:

  • Reported in Retail Gazette , “Amazon customers could soon be able to collect their packages from public transport vehicles they use on their daily commute.”
  • Reported in Retail Gazette , “Amazon has launched an autonomous delivery robot called Amazon Scout and will begin testing the device near its headquarters in Seattle.”

Similarly to all the February Monthly Retail Round-Up stories, Amazon is trying to improve customer experience and they have chosen to do this through experimenting with delivery ideas.

We hope you enjoyed the round-up. Please feel free to get in touch with any stories you feel would be of interest.

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