The next big fashion trend won’t be something you wear. The digital force of pins, tweets and posts is taking the fashion world by storm.
That was the message at Innovation Summit, a recent conference organized by fashion marketers. The San Francisco Chronicle recapped highlights from the conference. Here’s a breakdown of the emerging tech trends affecting the fashion runway:
- Imagine picking up a display product and instantly getting more information about it. That’s possible through radio frequency identification, also known as RFID technology. For example, one retailer is using RFID technology to play a product video activated when the customer picks up a display item. RFID is good for high margin items but it isn’t practical for low price or low margin items.
- Some major high-end department stores have cafes, nail salons and lounge areas. Even grocery stores are incorporating an in-store hangout space into their designs. They’re adding coffee bars and kiosks where chefs prepare meals so that shoppers can sample it, get the recipe and pick up all the ingredients in one spot.
- Window shopping is also getting a digital makeover: Stores are creating the “store-within-a-store” concept and they’re also being more creative in the way they create a social environment for their customers. QR codes on window displays offer customers more information about products.
- Fashion marketing is becoming a blend of editorial content and e-commerce. For example, consumers want to immediately know the retailers that sell the fashion items they are reading about. Online fashion retailers are making their stores more than places to shop. They are definitely embracing digital marketing, especially with the quality of graphics and displays, and enhancing their sites for consumers to interact and explore. We’re seeing editorial content and e-commerce blend and we’ll see less and less print magazines as they fully transfer to digital.
Source: San Francisco Chronicle, April 2012
