Fashion Web Driving change for the fashion minded

Theories Most consumers of fashion look to others/style icons to help inform them of what to purchase Most consumers end up buying based on recommendations or validation that the item is right for them (sales clerks, friends, etc).

Overview of the Fashion Industry The Fashion Industry

The Industry Fashion Designers/ Manufacturers DistributorsRetailers Consumer Bloggers/ Promoters

The Actors Fashionistas –Strong sense of style –Early adopters of fashion websites and technology Fashion-interested –Decent sense of style –Experienced online shoppers Fashion-victims –Lack sense of style, looking for help –Use the web mainly for research

The Market BlueFly – 4,201 Shopbop – 5,456 Purse Blog – 9,314 This Next – 16,608 Daily Candy – 18,549 Fab Sugar – 28,286 Frugal Fashionista – 303,198

Idea #1 “Blog-Shop” Service

Issue: Many bloggers blog about products with the intention of promoting that product. However the structure of blogs today do not enable the easy viewing of all the products one blogger is or has promoted. Furthermore, in the future a new segment of online “promoters” will emerge looking for the ability to sell/promote products. Product: Provide a service for bloggers to easily set up store-fronts which allow them to easily promote products and refer customers to the e-commerce sites that actually retail the products. The longer term service would be to extend this into an official affiliate marketing program where bloggers could monetize their product recommendations.

Consumers love to recommend

Social Shopping = Value Add

“shop-blogs” Nitro:licious is opening a “shop” soon.

“shop-blogs”

“review-blogs”

Idea #2 Fashion Content Aggregation and Product Reviews

Issue: Today content about a particular fashion product is dispersed across the internet. Users will typically search for these specific key terms and end up surfing for hours to find all the places that offer content/information on the item. Product: Aggregate sought for/helpful content about each hot/popular fashion item (retailers, blogs, product photos, etc) into one page for the convenience of online shoppers. Provide product review capability directly on page.

“Murakami” searched 6653 times on Yahoo, Google # unknown “Louis Vutton Murakami” searched 221 times

“review-blogs”

Idea #3

Behavior of fashion consumers Fashion and style is a highly social phenomena. We build our sense and tastes in fashion through other beings. –Girls tend to dress similarly as their friends, or groups of girls tend to too alike. –Girls will often purchase the same products as their friends. –Girls want to wear what the celebrities are wearing. It is through other individuals that we learn what we like and don’t like, as well as what is socially acceptable or unacceptable to wear. Most women dress to impress other women. It is on special occasions that women dress to “attract” other men (dates, at a club or bar, etc).

What does this mean for the web? Web 2.0, that is… the new internet framework of user participation and community… provides the perfect vehicle for enabling the fashion consumer’s goals and tendencies. It is through others that we learn about ourselves. By increasing the exposure of fashion consumers to like and un-like consumers, we will help them lean about their tastes much more quickly as well as allow them to explore new depths of the fashion retail industry they would never have had exposure to before this.

Revenue Model Advertising –Targeted advertising. This product will enable true 1:1 targeted advertising Opportunity for designers to test designs –Users vote for their favorites –Unpopular designs end up not being manufactured Concern: duplication

Common Tasks Searching for a specific fashion item –Where to buy –More pictures –Product reviews Tasks the user may not be aware that can be helpful –Other items that may be of interest (other products similar users have bought)

Features and Functions Build a style profile, avatars etc – this may be your fashion alter ego. Build a “virtual” closet Predict the “it” bags Rate the “it” bags, provide comments/feedback Post questions on where to find Answer questions on where to find Rate upcoming designs from favorite designers Functionality Ability to group like-minded tastes together. Closed community? –Ranks? –Refer a friend?

Success Factors Create and retain levels of users –Active contributors –Participants –Viewers

What does the Future Hold? Fashion Consumers will no longer be at the whim of the “fashion designer”. They will be inspired but will have greater control over their closet’s destiny. Great fashion will not “run out” at the end of the season Manufacturers of fashion will be able to better predict demand of their products, as well as test designs they are not sure of.

No one cares about Birthdays

Key Take-aways Keep your core users sacred, do not alienate

Key Take-aways You must keep your core users sacred, do not alienate