Brand Love has Nothing to do with Today's Fashion Retailer Success, Warns New Analytics Report from WGSN

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WGSN

14 Jun, 2018, 07:00 GMT

WGSN's Analytics Division's white paper offers fast-fashion and midmarket womenswear US and UK retailers new measure of success, as consumer perspectives and purchase habits shift in era of online fashion pure plays

LONDON, June 14, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- A long-held belief is that consumers flock to fast-fashion retailers who are the most "loved" and have the most stylish proposition—a belief that was certainly true even 5-8 years ago when having a unique style-led proposition was enough. However, with almost all fast-fashion retailers now offering a competitively designed product range and consumers shifting to the immediacy and personalisation of online pure plays, these are no longer a key differentiator in driving a fashion retailer's success.

The Fashion Retail: New Measures of Success - Getting It Right With Young Consumers white paper from the analytics division at WGSN, the world's foremost authority in fashion trends, gives fashion retailers an in-depth understanding of:

  • Market dynamics and fragmentation, and why the midmarket is increasingly squeezed;
  • What drives brand love and how (ir)relevant it is to purchase frequency;
  • How soft measures (brand perception, image associations, affinity) are mapped against hard metrics (demand, visitation, purchase frequency) to define the fashion market's new measures of retail success.

"It is now more important than ever for retailers to ensure the right product is delivered to the right people at the right time. Using e-commerce and consumer data, we dissect the emerging strategies necessary for fashion companies to stay relevant in a dynamic, fast-paced and rapidly evolving fashion market," explains Carla Buzasi, WGSN's Managing Director.

"In order to succeed in the future, fashion retailers have to be adept online; alongside which they also have to develop a deeper understanding of the drivers of purchase, especially in the context of the younger, digitally native demographic, who will command a bigger share of spend as they age and take their shopping habits with them," says Nivindya Sharma, Retail & Insight Director and author of the white paper.

The report examines online pure plays, such as ASOS, Amazon and Boohoo, and established, such as Zara, Macy's and H&M, and their consumers' purchase frequency, new product offerings, markdowns and personalisation versus what consumers consider to be the most loved, most exciting and most stylish retailers.

Key takeaways from the white paper:

  • Brand love is no longer a driver of purchase frequency, hence, commercial success;
  • Newness has increasingly become a driver of demand and purchase frequency, but fashion retailers should think of it beyond product;
  • Use analytics to your advantage to develop an agile, responsive business.

To download WGSN's Fashion Retail: New Measures of Success – Getting It Right With Young Consumers whitepaper, visit: https://lp.wgsn.com/aiv-download-whitepaper-june-2018.html

To learn more about the findings of the white paper directly from its author, Nivindya Sharma, Retail & Insight Director of WGSN's Analytics, register for the webinar on June 19th here: https://lp.wgsn.com/aiv-register-webinar-june-2018.html

About WGSN's Analytics Division

WGSN is the world's leading trend forecaster used by 6,500 companies globally. WGSN's Analytics Division helps fashion businesses optimise trading in a digital-first competitive landscape by combining data analytics and specialist fashion insight. Our data science team process millions of new data points on each business daily and, importantly, on each business's competitors, from our consumer and e-commerce data platforms, Barometer and Instock. Our fashion industry specialists combine these in-depth data sources with their years of experience to ensure businesses are successful across the 4 'Ps' of effective trading: product, price, place, and promotions. It is these four levers which ensure businesses can identify revenue opportunities and win. Richer than a data platform and more timely than one-off consultancy projects, our combination of live dashboards and frequent, practical recommendation-based reports allow over-stretched clients to track progress over time. For more information, visit this page.

WGSN is an Ascential plc brand.

For media inquires, please contact:

Ilaria Pasquinelli, WGSN's Analytics Division:
Ilaria.pasquinelli@wgsn.com
+44 (0)7825 420321 

Pola Hallquist, Apothecary Communications:
phallquist@apothecarycommunications.com
(866) 213-9210 ext. 801