“Research shows that most Gen Zers make a decision about what they’re going to buy before they ever go onto the brand’s website or to the store,” Zagor says. “That is a massive shift that essentially says we are in a purely demand market versus the supply market. So, the concept of a retailer or a company promoting an idea that may shift the paradigm is much harder to execute when your consumers have already decided what they’re going to buy. Also, consumers have access to all the materials that industry insiders do because runway shows are live streamed and look books are posted the moment they drop.”

“Another change I see from a decade ago is small conceptual stores can’t compete today with global sites like MatchesFashion, Mr. Porter or Ssense,” Zagor says. “Multi-brand boutiques with a point of view — places like Opening Ceremony or Stephen Alan — are all gone. Maybe not 100 percent gone but for all intents and purposes, gone. Those stores introduced and supported all these brands that are now the marquee brands of engineered, conceptual fashion. And I think trying to open a brick and mortar store like that now is impossible. You’d have to be so small and niche that it doesn’t matter, or so big that you can cover everything.”

Full Article by: Catharine Salfino for The Cotton Lifestyle Monitor

January 31st, 2020