Fashion sales and marketing is more complicated than merchandise marketing because of the highly perishable nature of the fashion product. Fashion trends change every year meaning that any remaining stock from the previous season has to go on sale (Brannon 14). Good sales are also dependent on the customers, important to note is that most clients have become more and more discerning about their image. In the early twentieth century, fashion was a preserve of royalty, aristocrats and other high standing members. With time, growth of the industry and technological advancement, fashion has become more accessible to everyone.
A fashion retailer’s most difficult job is determining the Stock Keeping Unit (SKU) in the first order for any particular season (Kim and Fiore 98). SKU classification determines the designs, colors of the season, and the sizes to be taken. More often than not, retailers use intuition to determine their orders for the season. There have been several technologies designed with the intention of making the decision process easier. Examples are Quick Response Systems (QR), Point of Sale Systems (POS), Management Information Systems (MIS) and Electronic Data Interchange (EID) (Brannon 231). All these technologies only help in short term forecasting by minimizing the time gap between demand at the point of research and demand at the selling point. However, even with all these technologies retailers cannot accurately predict actual consumer behavior.
The biggest challenge that fashion marketers face is the highly perishable nature of fashion items. A successful marketing strategy might be successful one season and fail terribly in the next. The typical life of any fashion trend is getting shorter because of access to information and the presence of many value based designers. A fashion trend can last anything between several months to several years. Fashion fads on the other hand have a very short life cycle with a high adoption speed (Kim and Fiore 27). Classics on the other hand have low adoption speed with a very long life span. Forecasting sales for these two fashion segments becomes a challenge because time determines which items become fads or classics.
Consumers have also become more discerning. Fashion is no longer a preserve of the wealthy and neither do they stick to high fashion items only. Consumers are more concerned about their overall image with regard to their personality. Fashion enthusiasts do a lot of research in magazines and other publications before making purchases. It is now common to have celebrities buying pieces from budget stores to complement their designer items just to achieve a particular look (Kim and Fiore 45). Low level shoppers also save up to buy a few classic items from designer shops. Exclusivity is no longer such a major concern as compared to value, quality and style. In recent times consumers base their purchase decisions on other factors apart from the actual fashion item. Use of leather, fur and other animal hides, exploitation of workers and use of child labor in third world countries are some of the issues that affected sales of some major fashion houses. Retailers have to find this balance and appeal to the varied tastes and preferences of the discerning client.
Another challenge that faces fashion companies in forecasting sales is the role of industry analysts and fashion opinion leaders. Fashion innovators introduce a fashion trend which the fashion opinion leaders adopt and endorse. These endorsements come in the form of magazines, blogs and other fashion publications. It is from here that fashion followers will pick a trend and adopt it. Their role cannot be overlooked because they fill the gap between the creation of a fashion trend and its final adoption. The success of a fashion trend is therefore based on the opinions of these trendsetters and opinion shapers.
Finally, harsh and unpredictable economic fluctuations make forecasting a challenging exercise. High end fashion markets are generally insensitive to economic conditions because they target the very wealthy. The other markets on the other hand feel these effects because in hard times fashion ceases to be a necessity. People will only buy functional items and will more often than not look for a bargain (Brannon 16). Other economic factors are the strategies adopted by various fashion houses to reduce production costs. These include among others importing fabrics, mechanization of most processes and outsourcing cheap labor from third world countries
Fashion products cannot be analyzed like other merchandise because of the nature of the products, the gaps that exist in the product cycle and the opinion factor that greatly influences purchases. Forecasting sales in fashion is therefore done to give estimates of sales level and not necessarily a solid base on which to make business decisions. More research needs to be done to find ways of making the process more reliable.
Works Cited
Brannon, Evelyn. Fashion Forecasting, 3rd Edition. Manhattan: Fairchild Publications, 2010.
Print.
Kim, Hyejeong and Ann Fiore. Fashion Trends: Analysis and Forecasting. London: Berg
Publishers, 2011. Print.
