Virtual showroom proves perfect 10 for fashion buyers
ASTART-UP firm providing virtual reality showroom technology to the fashion industry has reported a huge rise in customer interest due to the pandemic.
Founded in 2016 by brand owner Dan O’Connell and fashion buyer Jennifer Drury, Cardiff-based BrandLab is an emerging digital software solution designed to streamline the wholesale fashion industry.
Prior to the pandemic, BrandLab was already seeing success with the development of digital showrooms from over 200 labels around the world including the UK, Italy, South Africa, Dubai and the US.
But over the last few months the number of new customer inquiries has increased by 2,000% as fashion brands seek new routes to market.
BrandLab develops customised virtual showrooms that recreate a brand’s physical space, right down to the floorboards, the shape of the chairs and even the bespoke hangers. Buyers can browse through 360-degree showrooms, view individual garments, including closeups of fabric textures, with clickable links to product and price information, watch catwalk shows filmed exclusively on BrandLab’s 50-footlong catwalk and add products directly to orders.
Brands including Hula and Barbour are adapting their showrooms to become virtual.
Barbara Hulanicki is planning to sell her entire collection only through her BrandLab virtual showroom.
And to support its global growth plans the business, which has more than doubled its headcount to 13, is about to open offices in Los Angeles, Paris and New York to accommodate the 2000% increase in inquiries from global brands.
It now has 250 customers and from April to June saw its revenues up 10 times on the same period in 2019.
Mr O’Connell, co-founder of BrandLab, said: “We were seeing fantastic growth at the start of 2020, mainly with brands seeking to improve their sustainability credentials and reduce huge costs in wholesale buying.
“When Covid hit, all of a sudden we were the number-one solution.
“For brands, the ability to maintain customer relationships in a world where they could not meet face to face was very important, and we are the only business to offer this type of immersive and interactive showroom appointment.
“Interestingly, the majority of customers we speak to have no plans to return to the way things were — even if life returns to normal.
“Virtual reality was once seen as a marketing gimmick, but it’s now not only a solution to the problems the industry is currently facing, but the obvious answer to reduce costs through travel, physical builds and clothes wastage as well as dramatically improve its environmental footprint.”
With some buyers typically taking up to 80 flights a year to visit fashion showrooms, the impetus was already on the industry to come up with more sustainable solutions.
Mr O’Connell added that virtual showrooms are not set to replace all face-to-face interactions.
Instead they will simply be a viable alternative to enhance and improve productivity in the industry.
He said: “Buyers are often restricted to viewing 10 or so collections, back to back, over the course of two days at trade shows.
“Through a virtual showroom, they could now see up to 200 in this time and then visit the ones they have particular interest in.
“It will also allow the industry to become more inclusive – allowing buyers to engage with a wider range of designers they might never have had the time for before.”