Source: Louis Vuitton

Aledo, Illinois. Population — 3,500.

This is where I grew up. A small rural town on the edge of the Iowa-Illinois border.

As a kid, my wardrobe consisted mostly of hand-me-downs and goodwill finds. JCPenney was the fanciest dept store I visited and I didn’t have the slightest clue that places like Saks Fifth Ave or Barney’s even existed. Let's just say it definitely wasn’t the type of environment that fosters much interest or opportunity in the fashion world.

But fast forward to today and fashion is a big passion of mine. Why? The creativity. The individuality. The opportunity to take some fabric and an idea and transform it into art. 

In my opinion, the storied fashion brands are unmatched in their ability to create collections that are daring and edgy yet still maintain an elegant beauty to them as well.

And I think now we’re at a pivotal time in the industry where brands will need to bring that same creativity and innovation to their digital presence in order to succeed over the next decade and beyond. We’ve already seen some impressive digitally focused startups come in and create a lot of disruption in the industry.

Rent the Runway changed the game by making designer collections affordable and accessible to a new demographic of customers. They also proved that there’s a large audience very willing to pay for pre-owned luxury apparel, paving the way for brands like TheRealReal and Poshmark.

Farfetch and REVOLVE built themselves up from unknown startups to global publicly traded companies by focusing just as much on customer data and advances in technology as they did on fashion.

FUTURE PREDICTIONS

Convenience and Accessibility

It’s one of the pillars of marketing - you have to go to your customer and meet them where they are. It’s no longer enough to just be present on digital. To stand out, brands will need to connect with their customers by providing a unique and mobile-optimized experience.

Personalization

In order to gain loyal customers from the younger generation of consumers, it’s critical that brands develop authentic and personalized relationships with their customers. 

A 22 year old guy who shops for trendy streetwear and a 55 year old woman who often buys runway dresses and shoes should receive entirely different experiences from the brand. 

Of course this is a very simplified and obvious example. However, with the rapid advancements of Artificial Intelligence, it’s now possible to use your customer data to hyper-personalize and tailor the experience specifically for each individual customer, even on a large scale. 

Omni-Channel

At this point, you probably think I have a pretty negative outlook on the brick and mortar approach. However, that’s definitely not the case. 

There are certainly still many customers who want to experience the character of the boutiques lining the streets of SoHo or indulge in the extravagance of the flagship stores of Rodeo Drive. 

The leading fashion brands of tomorrow will focus on ensuring that this incredible in-store experience continues long after the customer has left the store by creating a thoughtful and personalized strategy using multiple conversational channels like email, SMS, and social media to further develop the relationship with the customer. 

It has been great to see many leading fashion brands spending more time experimenting with different innovative digital and social strategies these past couple years. But, now is the time to take the next step and make the digital experience a top priority. I’m confident the brands that do this successfully will reap the rewards over the next 5-10 years and beyond. 

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