SELLING IN TIMES OF A PANDEMIC
Angela Cavalca / Claudia Gunter
As the international consultancy company McKinsey recently highlighted, apparel and specialty retailers are now faced with the need to redefine the role of the store. Developing a deeply personal relationship with consumers, through direct marketing via social media, email, SMS, apps and so on, is paramount. The difference between offline and online shopping needs to disappear, but more importantly, shopping has to stop feeling like shopping; it needs to become a conversation, an exchange of ideas and a source of inspiration and solace.
During the lockdown, London’s Selfridges has kept its clients entertained, launching challenges (for example, the #Fullfridges challenge where customers nominate someone they consider to be a London hero, and the winner gets a full fridge of gourmet edibles from the store’s Food Hall), talks (think Executive Director Sebastian Manes in a hilarious and poignant video conversation with Rick Owens and Michèle Lamy), and so on.
Live shopping is an attractive tool for retailers to foster personal connections with customers. Rothmans New York, a menswear retailer, began offering personal shopping appointments via FaceTime this spring after a shelter-in-place order took effect across the state. Hero, used by brands like Chloé, rag & bone and Levi’s, is a robust mobile application that allows store staff to shop live with customers, integrating chat, text and video into a seamless customer experience.
SV Moscow has maintained contact with customers through smartphones, providing not only personal consultancy about their current range but also more general conversations about fashion. Similarly, the employees of Russian department store TSUM are keeping in touch with their clients via WhatsApp. Italian retail giant La Rinascente successfully launched an on-demand service through WhatsApp and WeChat a few years ago; its popularity has grown during the lockdown. For those who miss physically being in a fashion space, Malmö- and London-based Très Bien shops have been offering virtual visits of their closed stores during which consumers can discuss fit and fabrication with team experts.
As the role of the store is changing to that of a friend, advisor and confidante, the old rules of competition no longer apply. Just before the pandemic started, the Palermo-based multilabel Giglio launched a digital project called Community Store, a virtual hub gathering around 150 Italian boutiques that promote the Made in Italy ethos. The project celebrates local retailers’ unique identities and gives them access to an international clientele. As there is a marked demand for cooperation and sharing in a retail landscape dramatically altered by the Covid-19 crisis, we will hopefully be seeing more collaborative projects designed to keep fashion retail afloat through a team effort, possibly uniting former rivals. WeAr will keep an eye on this trend and report on it more in forthcoming issues.