Designer Brands And Buyers Are Turning To Digital Platforms For Sale.

Holland cashmere brand Extreme Cashmere believes that consumers will hope that their cashmere sweaters will shine a little brighter next spring. The brand was founded in 2016 by Saskia Dijkstra and Camille Serra, and was sold by Rainbowwave's Showroom agent in New York, including Ssense, Amarees and Ikram, and other multi brand retailers to sell their soft touch products. In its early spring series of 2021, the two founders will be their glittering gold and silver fabrics.

But the new crown epidemic has temporarily stopped buyers all over the world. Extreme Cashmere's team in Rainbowwave plans to let buyers understand their latest series through video phone and digital Showroom.

Although technology helps Extreme Cashmere continue to sell, it's more difficult to convey the vitality of its products. This season's new gold, silver and silk cashmere products do not look like objects in the picture. "It doesn't get on the Internet," says Maria Lemos, the founder and director of Rainbowwave, which represents the brand.

Therefore, despite the progress made in modern technology, the brand and its Showroom have turned to a low fidelity solution: Send a new belt made of new material to each buyer, so that they can see the real thing with their own eyes and a complete set of cashmere samples.

This strategy is expensive but very necessary. The brand can show its best side to the buyers. The buyers are reducing their budgets and reviewing the clothing series through one video conference, which is different from the past evaluation in fashion capital.

"Many designers who have worked with us have decided to skip this season," said Simon Lock, chairman and chief executive of Ordre. His company is a virtual Showroom company focused on 3D images: "but there is still a market for early spring and holiday series."

Ordre and NuOrder are just two of the few digital wholesale and image platforms that help brands display and sell their products in the normal season, but now they will play a more extensive role in sales, because the epidemic makes it impossible for people to travel. The two companies will also support the Digital Fashion Week held in London, Milan and Paris. In these fashion week, the brand will display the digital fashion show substitutes, in order to keep consumers' passion, and sell their seasonal narrative to retailers.

The market in June and July will not be too abnormal. Although there will be small-scale regional ordering sessions in the coming months, the market expects that the September season will also be mainly digital. For brands, this means that personal relationships have never been as important as they are now.

"If it's just pictures, we'll send them a product order list," said Martin Bartle, an online retail consultant who works with Rainbowwave.

In order to succeed in June and July, brands need to do more than just upload some pictures to these digital wholesale platforms. They also need to attract buyers through various media: HD images, 360 degree videos, creative fashion movies, video phones and mail.

Ordering offline is not entirely impossible. In situ procurement is expected to take place in Milan in July and in Paris in September. Having said that, digital tools are still very important. Joor, the digital wholesale purchasing platform with the largest market share, has increased by 46% since its closure.

"In general, digital transformation takes 3 to 4 years," said Romain Blanco-Espuny, managing director of Le New Black, the French wholesale wholesale platform.

In this season, buyers will spend a lot of time to adapt to the change, browse different platforms and use new methods to evaluate the series they see.

Tiffany Hsu, Mytheresa's fashion buyer director, said: "for us, it's a very big challenge to not touch objects." The number of appointments is much longer than the actual appointment time. Many brands offer 500 SKU per quarter, and they have to be streamlined. "

The digital wholesale platform in the fashion industry enables buyers to review and order products online. When they try to gain market share and cooperate with different trade organizations and exhibitions, they need different additional functions.

In this market, different platforms can be distinguished by different technology products, regional penetration and retailer relationship. Joor and NuOrder are the most commonly used in the industry. Ordre is well known for its 360 degree display of product technology, which allows buyers to see images rotating around the body and cooperate with Joor. Le New Black is very popular in the French and European markets, and is working closely with Paris fashion week.

There is a healthy competition among different choices, though no platform has yet to be the ultimate solution. Joor has a relatively rich history of wholesale management platform, the most mature company, its goal is to dominate the market, which may be the reason for its cooperation with Ordre, which is a smaller, but more visual driven competitors. "The brand must start to consider building a more globalized platform, which is the development direction of the industry," said Kristin Savilia, chief executive of Joor.

But which platform will it be? In order to decide which platform is suitable for itself, the brand and its Showroom should examine different enterprises, choose one from them, and invest in building related visual and information contents, and spend the money spent on entity Showroom in the past.

A brand should consider which platform is most suitable for its important retailer customers, and which platform is best suited for the product or the product it offers - or which platform is suitable for the same group of Showroom brands, and which platform is suitable for a brand. For example, Nordstrom department stores use NuORder to process its digital wholesale orders, while Neiman Marcus group and Shopbop use Joor. Paris fashion week and Le New Black jointly organize the upcoming digital fashion show to provide services for emerging brands in its Sphere Showroom.

The digital platform can only become a useful tool or platform only if the brand is allowed. Providing enough images is the key: more visibility ways such as high quality, multi angle and video, so that buyers can clearly observe how clothes are worn on the body.

"We are planning to build a highly planned and content oriented digital platform," said Elena Troulakis, business director of Tomorrow London Ltd. The company has its own Showroom.

As long as buyers can clearly see the color and texture of the product, visual images do not necessarily need fancy cameras or lights. Buyers should see the true description of the product, rather than carefully decorated things.

"Photos are always more perfect than what you see in real life," says Hsu of MyTheresa.

For buyers, a series or a designer brand is more than just a commodity. Brands need to treat their exhibition platforms as an e-commerce website, combining content with business.

Blanco-Espuny said: "brand narrative is not only about design and inspiration, but also in its mode of production."

Buyers need to try to predict what will resonate with shoppers next year, and a brand sustainable development plan or a designer's season inspired article can have an impact on a limited budget buyer.

Olivia Skuza, co-founder of Nuorder, said: "content is king here, which creates the experience of that brand."

If a brand takes a series as a part of the exhibition or Showroom, unique labels and keywords can be distinguished from others.

Heath Wells, another co-founder of Nuorder, said: "now retailers can search by saying, 'I want to find a leather jacket.' if a brand has classified their products in this way, buyers can find their products now.

There is no doubt that it is worthwhile to collect samples of a cloth book or fabric sample to send to the buyer. If a brand intends to focus on the introduction of a new fabric or color, this method of high touch will be very beneficial.

Sending the entire sample line is another option. Troulakis recommends that if a brand has important business overseas, it should send a complete set of samples to its local partners, so that local buyers can also see it with their own eyes. Of course, the production of a set of extra samples may cost hundreds of thousands, which is not a viable option for many designer brands.

"I think this is an example of the importance of considering localization," she said. "Don't expect everyone to place an order in a place or two."

In the end, the most difficult dialogue between the brand and the buyer is to agree on when and how to pay the brands that are still waiting for the last payment. This process can not be replaced by any software.

Rainbowwave's Lemos said: "discussing payment is a very fragile problem. You have to face to face (through video) for discussion, and you need those who have established relationships to operate."