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Digital Selling: A Time For New Possibilities For Fashion Brands
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Digital Selling: A Time For New Possibilities For Fashion Brands

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The online world has undeniably been playing a bigger part in our lives, especially after the Pandemic. From more online events to social commerce, the possibilities for innovation are expanding for companies who want to improve their digital selling. 

The time is ripe for fashion brands to take advantage of three aspects of the online world: creativity, technology and experiments. With a deliberate and consistent application of each, enormous gains can come; particularly as consumers demand both value and distinctiveness when making buying decisions.

We’ve interviewed Mainda Kiwelu, Senior Product Manager at Metail. She shared some insights on what innovative approaches brands have been exploring. Metail is a company keen on using technology for positive change in the apparel industry, whether it is better collaboration, increasing opportunities for creators, diversity, or sustainability.

Understanding Digital Selling

In a nutshell, digital selling is using digital means to communicate a product to potential customers. To better understand this, let’s analyze the application of digital selling in Metail’s reality. 

According to Mainda, in their apparel context, digital selling is “using digital assets, in as high fidelity mode as possible. It gives the viewer information that conveys the attributes of a garment before or after its manufacture.”

Online shopping and its convenience are already part of our routine, both from a retailer and a consumer perspective. However, companies and brands still face challenges in getting the right product to the right person and at the right time. 

Digital selling can mitigate different challenges faced by apparel companies, such as consumer returns. And, in recent times, the lack of the right stock due to logistical constraints or additional border controls. Far from claiming that there is a hard and fast solution, Mainda proposes that the positive thing is that people from both sides of the coin are more willing to experiment. And, this is where innovative technology to fill in the gaps and make new things possible comes into the game. 

Digital Selling 

A Tool Full Of Possibilities  

According to Mainda from Metail, digital selling “is a catalyst for digital transformation within companies. This while taking advantage of the fact that consumers are also engaging more online. For example, offering pragmatic ways of delivering better products that customers are looking for. They can be refashioned garments or locally made ones. On the other hand, others may be looking for low-friction ways to explore digital-only experiences via extended reality or a hybrid.”

Technology’s role in digital selling is closing the communication and data gaps to help serve up better services and experiences. “We believe that, for both fashion merchandisers and consumers, the need to buy better is apparent. If we can help people make better decisions by giving them innovative visual assets and tools, we are playing our part” says Mainda.

Furthermore, it also opens the way for a number of explorable avenues. Digital selling gives creators the possibility to come up with concepts and sell their ideas before actually producing the products. So, it not only gives room for creativity but also cuts costs and shortens the decision-making process. 

In other words, we can see digital selling in a broader sense. After all, it can be used for insights and ideas development, instead of jumping directly to sample making. 

An example of what brands are doing is using this strategy for pre-selling. They announce a certain product that customers can visualize accurately digitally.  And, then, see if their audience will like and engage with it. And, if the answer is yes, only then do they start – actually – producing the physical product. 

Exploring Digital Selling As a Company’s Differentiation

When asked if digital selling can help companies stand out in the market, Mainda’s answer was direct and straightforward: “Absolutely. Context and relevance are important.”

According to her, there is a difference between something being gimmicky, helpful, or even a hindrance. And brands do need to bear this in mind. As long as they’re applying digital selling where it is helpful, it can help them demonstrate that they are committed to providing value to their customers. 

Adopting digital selling in a company is an ongoing process. There is a lot to do, a lot that can be done and, when talking about technology, updates are constant. But a good place to start is with the fundamentals. 

Metail’s area of product visualization starts with having the right assets in the product creation process. Then going further to show these to potential customers in marketing campaigns and e-commerce stores. The visuals are critical to helping the buying decision. Therefore, “brands that represent the diversity of consumers and take advantage of all digital formats – 2D, 3D and XR will win over those who don’t”, Mainda states.

Helping to Solve the Returning Ecommerce Issue

Digital selling also plays an important role in decreasing returns. About that, Mainda affirms that “the less disparity we have between what is presented to customers and what they receive when products are delivered, the better.” 

In other words, digital selling gives customers a better idea of the product. Therefore, they’ll be able to better visualize what they’re buying, aligning expectations with reality and decreasing the chances of them not liking their purchase. 

Thus, what Metail experts – and other companies should do as well – is reflect on what customers would ordinarily do in a physical environment and consider ways of giving them a brand new experience. A lot has been talked about detrimental consumer behavior, for instance, about those who buy to wear for social media and then return items. However, Mainda affirms that “we don’t think this tells the full return story. There is still a lot to explore. For example, if a wider shoppers demographic shift to buying online, how can we assist this transition for them as new shoppers? Also, how can we help them understand the products and makes the best choices? We all certainly want to push for a more sustainable industry, from production to consumer behavior while making the online experience welcoming and enjoyable

Beyond the convenience of transacting online, product virtualization innovations have opened up new opportunities to pre-sell before manufacturing, re-using virtual samples and lowering barriers for entry to reaching new consumers. “With our partners in the eTryOn project, we explore VR and mobile try-on experiences that can improve the customer shopping experience. And, also, we know that there are other companies out there looking at improving the upstream product creation and logistics process. A happy place would be when the two come together for a sustainable and thriving industry”, says Mainda.

Digital Selling, Technology, Creativity & Innovation

Metail has been a pioneer in virtual fitting room tech and 3D garment visualization since 2010. And, since then, customers’ expectations have changed a lot. Consumers are engaging more online and are open to new and creative ideas.

According to Mainda, “successful digital selling means what you show your customer digitally is a true-to-life representation of the physical product. In addition to the design, there are aspects of fabric properties and color. Also, how the garment looks and fits on a particular body shape.”

Therefore, customers get the chance to really understand the product that they are buying online. They can check its details, assisted by a variety of high-quality visuals. And, remembering, all of this can be executed even before the actual production of the physical product.

Metail focuses on helping designers capture and show their garments digitally in the best way possible. In addition to this, merchandisers and marketers can augment these digital assets with their styling and campaign elements to attract customers. 

Digital selling works best where all teams involved in taking products to market work closely to share assets to fill in gaps or expand what they are presenting to customers. It’s all about taking advantage of technology to enhance the user experience.

Metail & Digital Selling: The Solution in Action

One of fashion brands’ challenges during the pandemic was getting studio photography for their new marketing campaigns and e-commerce. Sourcing the shipping of photo samples, organizing models and studio logistics was complicated. With Metail’s virtual studio, EcoShot, companies can virtually create model photography without hassle. 

The underlying technology spans 3D body modeling, capturing studio environments and photography, accurately translating garment physics, and producing garment-on-model visualization. Furthermore, Metail also secures the professional models image rights on behalf of their customers. Being able to put all this into a piece of software and make the image creation process easy has given brands time and cost savings as well as reduced the physical sample waste.

Brands can create images for pre-sell, product packaging, and social selling, including AR try-on, using the same digital assets. Metail encourages brands to start small and experiment by running pilots before attempting to roll out larger programs. The company has experience helping others do this and, where necessary, brings in partners to help them implement digital solutions.

Metail and Fashinnovation are hosting a workshop on May 4th, at 10 am EST. On it, we’ll be discussing important topics such as the skills needed for digital selling, sustainability, the importance of data and more. You don’t want to miss it! So, click here to register!

Check out our article about how technology can help fashion entrepreneurs to build a transparent and traceable supply chain!

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