The future of Retail – international shopping and humanization of technology

COVID has redefined luxury consumption: Fashion responds with innovation

A 2020 influenced by lockdowns and a pandemic approaches its end. Fashion experts, while processing the usual year-end evaluations, notice how, in any case, Fashion is completely able to respond to crisis. Innovation, internationalization and omni-channel are the keywords to intercept the consumption habits for the years to come.

New trends on the rise: global logistics, omni-channel and human driven services

The final months of the year are always a time for taking stock, a tradition which also concerns the world of Fashion. This time industry experts have looked beyond, observing how this 2020 has tracked trends destined to last over time. Let’s take a look at some of the evaluations which have effectively captured the significant changes underway.

Kelly Kowal, Chief Platform Officer of Farfetch, comments the future of retail during the e-P Summit 2020, which sees the absolute consecration to omni-channel: “customers are much more determined when entering e-shops and they spend a greater amount of time in researching products before converting their visit into a purchase. A well-organized global logistics network becomes an essential tool for capturing those customers who cannot physically get to the store. It may seem trivial to say so, but the importance of the omni-channel emerges more than ever. To create a wonderful customer experience, it is necessary that physical and virtual Retail work together”.

Regarding customer experience, Kelly Kowal is echoed by her colleague at Farfetch, Sandrine Deveaux (EVP Store of the Future), also during the e-P Summit: “tech and data will amplify the customer’s shopping experience. The union of the power of data and technology will provide a human driven service in the end. A humanization of technology that is already underway. But we must be careful, because including new technologies in stores must go hand in hand with proper use preparation for the team at the sales locations – which sometimes is lacking”.

The two managers of the platform founded by José Neves end with a thought that appears to be a realistic verdict: “the aversion in facing the inevitable risks of the digital world will certainly not protect the fashion businesses, it will kill them. Retail is not dead. It must change. And must do so quickly”.

Fashion after COVID – for a new humanism in Luxury 

The acceleration of trends which were already underway, and the advent of a more human technology are nonetheless detected also in other occasions. During the event “The age of new Visions”, held in Florence on November 10^th, Matteo Lunelli of the Fondazione Altagamma observes, for example: “the pandemic has launched us five years into the future. It is a traumatic phenomenon which forces the system to not stop. Businesses must increase investment to hook trends that were already quick and today have accelerated”.

“Contamination among sectors increases”, Lunelli continues, “with Luxury always more tied to experience. International groups open or buy hotels, fashion brands enter the design and food industries, which is pure experientiality. Large opportunities open up to new synergies for Made in Italy. It is the dawn of the ‘new humanism’ of aspirational luxury, based on more authentic values like sharing and durability”.

New models of business and consumption: Fashion & Luxury redefines itself

To certify the analyses we have just gone over, there is also a recent study, “World Luxury Tracking: between new constraints & new expectations” by Ipsos. Based on what is reported from the research results, Luxury has by now become a digital experience and it confirms itself as an essential pleasure contributing to wellness. Those interviewed believe also that it must offer a real added value, with high quality products, and a well-functioning experience where they are able to find the exact product they are looking for.

Lastly, let’s return to the latest edition of the e-P Summit, to close with a statement which summarizes well what has been reported thus far, by Giacomo Santucci, the President of Camera Buyer Italia: “we live in a ‘Test and Learn’ phase. Everything capitalized on to date will not disappear but will evolve. The economic crisis has become an opportunity to reconsider how we think and act. Digital innovation has involved the entire supply chain, from production times, that are to be adjusted to real market needs to the role of wholesale”.

The Fashion system has basically challenged itself and is becoming renewed from its foundations. In this context in the making, thanks to flexible solutions which provide for mobile use, cloud management and always available global support, Bizeta places innovation once again at the forefront. Products used all over the world, whose alignment with almost 60 foreign tax systems is synonymous with an international calling.