THE DIGITAL AGE
Emerging markets are always going in and out of fashion.
In the first decade of the 21st century, the term BRIC (for Brazil, Russia, India and China) was coined by Jim O'Neill. When the economies of the rich world descended in 2008, emerging markets were the best aim for the future.
Sao Paolo is an area which has become an emerging market. In 1996, the
fashion event in Sao Paulo had its first edition under the name Morumbi Fashion Brasil.
It was organized by businessman and promoter of events Paulo Borges in Sao Paulo's Ibirapuera Park. During that time, international brands such as Chanel, Versace and Gucci started to open up stores in Brazil. This brought a significant change to the country's textile industry.
As the interest in fashion is so high there along with the ratio of wealthy people and the poor, Brazilian businessmen were forced to invest in technology, machinery and skilled labour, to compete with the foreign market.
The event changed its name into Sao Paulo Fashion Week after ten editions.
The hottest emerging market right now is digitalisation.
These are some main points to consider:
Retailers will give consumers more payment options.
Mobile will play a bigger role in click-and- collect initiatives.
Merchants will adopt in-store mobile devices.
Digitalisation will play a big role and has already started. If you walk into many high-street / luxury stores, you will see that there is an iPad at the entrance. This can be utilised for many things, including customer feedback of the store experience, signing up to newsletters and even ordering stock if they didn't have your size!
This simple idea seems beneficial to us but it also really helps the company. The data that they collect can be used to push out marketing directly to you, meaning you cant really escape the brand! These techniques are currently being used by Facebook and Instagram. When you scroll through your feed you will see an ever so coincidental advert of that designer pair of shoes you have been thinking about for weeks. This can be seen by millions just on a mobile device.
Here is an example from my Instagram feed, it is an advert from Vodafone who are the provider I am currently with. How convinient...
Most renowned brands in this age have apps, websites, and in store technology. It is continually growing but creates a seamless experience. This is known as omni-channel.
The brand aims to create the same feel and experience within each platform, so when you are on the app it feels like the website and store are one of the same thing. This is good for the customer as we always get that same great shopping experience and continue to rate the brand without even leaving our house.
Some brands are even taking it to the extremes by having digital features inside their stores such as virtual makeovers.
Charlotte Tilbury created a perfect example of digitalisation in store. The idea behind the feature was to be able to get each of Charlotte Tilbury's makeup looks virtually place on your face, meaning you could see which suited you best.
Not only is this good for the customer but it is great for driving sales in store. Attracting more of the public inside and also allowing the customer to get an honest view of what they will look like with the makeup, rather than a size 0 model wearing it off.