Being able to interpret and use your data for the good of your business gives you power, fact. Offering endless opportunities to optimise your operations and drive revenue putting your product data to work has never been more critical than it is today. As digital innovation continues to reshape how the fashion industry functions, understanding and then utilising your data allows you to radically transform your business to meet the new challenges faced by fashion businesses today.
Yes, Data is Still The New Gold
As the need to collect and understand data continues to grow, Deloitte has predicted that by 2030, “data collection and analysis will become the basis of all future service offerings and business models”. It is a prediction that shouts, “fashion businesses re-align your business models and services so you can stay ahead of the curve”. However, if you are a fashion business that is still hesitant to invest in solutions designed to help you interpret your product data, then here are reasons why harnessing intelligent technology will help your business meet future demands.
THE IMPORTANCE OF CONVENIENCE
Understanding your data could help a brand drive more traffic to their stores and bring more relevance to shoppers. For example, if your customer data shows that most of your customers prefer to have options when it comes to returning an unwanted product, then you, as a business, can use this data to provide more convenience. A great example of this is Rent the Runway. With the help of data, CEO Jennifer Hyman said realised that their subscribers were changing their shipping addresses to hotels when they were away, so they decided to make the process easier for those preferring to travel without luggage.
RECOGNISING THE SIGNALS
Another way fashion businesses can use data is to recognise and understand their customer preferences and behaviours. Then, they will adapt their products and advertising strategies based on how their customer chooses to shop, and what they want to see when they shop.
By using data, brands and retailers will recognise the signals, allowing them to engage and reward their customers with better pricing and promotions. If you are not convinced, you only have to look at Nike’s flagship store in NY, USA. Designed to offer their customers a more personal and responsive experience, the store not only uses data to stock shelves, it keeps up with tastes as they change and evolve.
RESHAPING MARKETING STRATEGIES
When it comes to embracing a more dynamic way of advertising, data is changing the game. Fashion brands and retailers are using data to gain deeper insights into their customer’s shopping behaviours. Positively influencing their marketing strategies, fashion businesses are beginning to understand that integrating consumer data from various sources allows them to customise how they communicate.
Also, by using data and technology, brands can put together a more detailed strategy that is not driven by guesswork.
DATA, GIVING YOUR EMPLOYEE MEANING
Lastly, believe it or not, solid, reliable, holistic data not only benefits your customer and the business but also helps your employees. According to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, brands and retailers who want to maximise the potential of their business need to empower their staff with data. By giving employees access to data supported by technology, they will be able to understand the customers needs better. Confident that such a move could increase a business’ conversion rate by 15% and their satisfaction rate by 10%, Nadella advises that “Giving data to employees is the single most ROI intensive thing you can do.”
Solutions Designed to Unlock Accurate Product Data
For many years the industry has suffered from having too much data and not enough insights. This fact is supported by Forrester report ‘Data Literacy Matters‘. It states, “91% of organisations report that they struggle with improving their use of data for business insights”. Luckily, businesses no longer need to struggle to turn their data into insights, thanks to tailor-fit solutions created specifically for the fashion and apparel businesses looking to build a data-driven company.
Shaping a new paradigm for data-centric retail businesses is OMNIOUS. They offer a visual AI solution designed to help fashion businesses achieve complete automation. Striving to hyper automate retail through AI, they offer two solutions, Tagger and Lens. Unlocking endless product discovery, Tagger leverages Visual AI to automatically tag products and create digital catalogues. Reinventing ways to make personalised recommendations,
Create a more enjoyable shopping journey for customers; Lens AI is a solution that identifies products from images uploaded by a customer and finds the same or similar items with the specified product. Lens AI helps increase purchase rates and give customers a more seamless shopping experience by recommending visually similar items. Also, the solution offers the option of inspiring customers with visual queues.
Another data-led solution is Fashion Data. On a mission to help fashion brands and retailers accelerate their Zero Waste transformation, Fashion Data has been, since 2019, helping accelerate the transformation of fashion and lifestyle brands through Data and AI solutions. Offering solutions created to help businesses understand their customers and anticipate their expectations, Fashion Data provides solutions designed to detect trends and accurately predict demand forecasts.
Also, Fashion Data’s customer, product, supply, and store centric solutions complement Fashion Data’s Big Data platform Tailer. Through collaboration with technology partners, the platform can extend its processing, analysis and integration capabilities with all of our client’s business solutions.
Key Takeaway: Treat Your Data As A Product
If you takeaway one thing, let it be this; in a world where data-driven decision making is becoming more critical, treat your data as a product. As the industry evolves, it has never been more vital for brands and retailers to streamline their data strategy. Doing so will allow them to use the power of data to gain insight into their customer behaviour while also enhancing decision-making and improving their business performance.
Founding editor-in-chief of FashNerd.com, Muchaneta is currently one of the leading influencers writing about the merger of fashion with technology and wearable technology. She has also given talks at Premiere Vision, Munich Fabric Start and Pure London, to name a few. Besides working as a fashion innovation consultant for various fashion companies like LVMH Atelier, Muchaneta has also contributed to Vogue Business, is a senior contributor at The Interline and an associate lecturer at London College of Fashion, UAL.
