So my dear glamazons and fashion thinkers, I wanted to
address a topic that many shy away from; how technology has affected and
revolutionized our shopping activities. Now people lets think here: To get our
fashionable ensembles we must engage in the act of being a consumer (unless
you’ve designed it yourself) and obviously we are purchasing them from
somewhere, but where do we purchase and how do we purchase! Let’s take a look at some of the different avenues
in which we shop, why, the affect it has and go a dig a little deeper to
discover if our needs are being met in the process.
Boutiques
Shopping in boutiques is always great and it gives this
feeling of personalization, as we have the ability to view, touch and try
items. We are able to have greater trust and satisfaction in our purchases as
we ourselves have hand selected and scrutinized them from every angle. I’m sure you all have your personal favorite
boutique that you must visit and see what items are waiting to be part of your ever
growing closet, that place where you find fashion solace.
Before all the developments in technology there was a
general excitement to go out to engage in the act of shopping, peruse through
racks, indulge in a little ‘dress up’ and find that special piece (or pieces)
that we knew was meant just for us while stirring up ideas of events or outings
in our minds that would be just perfect for that sexy dress or sparkly piece. Close
your eyes and picture yourselves in your favorite boutique right now,
surrounded by garments, accessories, mannequins dressed to persuade your
thoughts. Tell me that’s not a happy place! Tell me that you’re not enticed!
Now I’m sure these thoughts put a smile on your face, but then the thought of
exiting our homes and facing the outside world turns that smile upside down!
For us super busy ladies, we would prefer not to leave the
house much less our beds with our spare time, sometimes the weekends are too
short and we just want to relax and would rather not face the crowds in the malls or humid
conditions or the staggering heat of the sun while going from store to store.
Sifting through racks with other strangers eyeing pieces we may be considering,
vying for that particular color or size and don’t we love the long wait and
lines at the cashier! We love shopping
but could do without the added on hassle. Though we love that ‘do it ourselves’
feeling, this is where technology makes its way into our lives to rescue us
from these circumstances and not only act as our personal style assistant but
also make the shopping experience much more bearable.
Web Sites/ Blogs
This is another avenue to aid in the satisfaction of our
consumer craving. Created to add convenience to our lives, preventing us from
actually venturing out of the comfort of our homes and yet still enjoy the
thrill of shopping. Again there are
thousands of websites out there (probably millions) but I’m sure you can
immediately name a few that come to mind.
You log on to your pc and you actually have the address saved in your
favorites, they are your ‘go to spot’ to fill the closet gaps. You know the
value of these websites; they are your favorite boutiques at your finger tips,
you can expect the same service as you would entering the establishment. We enjoy having the ability to look through
the entire store with just the click of the mouse, all that power by literally
lifting a finger!
In today’s world it really is the easiest and fastest way to
shop and yet not take away from the retailer and consumer experience. The power
of value and customer appreciation is not lost and they have found new ways to
highlight and celebrate avid and loyal customers. There may be a few glitches with
site technicalities and lets admit it, if we don’t get to that pc in time we
risk not getting our preferred color or size. But the enjoyment of shopping in
this way still has some thrill to it and major advantages. Some websites are
cleverly built have made their site even more fun and interactive by implementing
fashion tools, games, advice columns and lookbooks. We may not be able to try
on physically our choices but there are so many other ways to get involved in
the styling aspect, even some that educate us.
Websites now do their best to contain aspects of personalization and yet
still remain creative; to ensure us fashion forward thinkers are always alert
of trends being set. We must admit this invention of online boutiques has made
keeping up with our image much more manageable.
Fan Pages
Fan pages in the beginning were invented to simply assist
with promotion of our endeavors, to be in closer contact with the customer but
nowadays everyone has a fan page. We are flooded with fashion updates and
opinions. Facebook (the king of fan pages) has afforded many the opportunity to
venture into careers within the fashion and retail field. Fan Pages have become
the new online boutique, in a manner of speaking and in a lot of cases have
overshadowed the thought to building websites or establishing actual boutiques. Not much effort, skill and knowledge is
required to build a retail fan page, but
the profits apparently are quite heavy.
While some companies use their pages as an extension of
their brand, others solely operate from this option with no intent of expansion.
There are many fashion and retail fan pages out there, but do we really
consider how much thought is really invested into making us as customers feel
satisfied….or is it all about the income aspect. Well….lets see! While we enjoy the simple convenience
of these retail pages, many are just, and I say this plainly “save as images”
from actual established retail websites, copied over and sold at a higher cost. Do the owners of these fan pages really
possess any knowledge of fashion and the retail industry? Do they consider a
fan base or target audience in their selections? Do they really think about us? What are the rules and regulations to fan
pages and are we as consumers protected? In some cases, I have to ask, are they
(the page owners) even in actual possession of the items they advertise for
sales? Makes you think huh…
Well my dears I too love retail pages as do many of us, but
lets admit the avenue is flooded and there aren’t much rules that govern or
protect us as consumers and as much as we adore having many options, what about
service! Are we only paying for product, or are we also paying for a service?
Where is the creativity that comes along with being fashion forward, where is
that unique stylistic signature? Let’s face it; in most of theses pages everyone
has the same concept, no imagination and to be honest, there is really only so
much one can do with a retail page. Though there are those that really do invest
some effort and make valuable use of this aspect to social media, they use it
to not only as a tool to promote and advertise but also to give back to
consumers, while there are others that are too focused on gathering photos to
their collection without any real knowledge, consideration or contribution to
the fashion and style industry.
We definitely favor and appreciate those businesses that put
some thought and imagination into the use of their company pages to accommodate
our fashion curiosity, and we are thankful to have another resource that keeps
us updated on all the happenings. Another upside to retail pages is it provides
new entrepreneurs opportunity for a great start in the business, as maintenance
cost is low (or free), and reaching your audience is quite easy. It would be
advisable though, to not forget the value of the customer and personalization,
after all, consumers are reasons businesses exist.
Conclusion
My fellow fashion colleagues given all the above, it’s clearly
seen that the fashion and retail industry has definitely evolved and provides
us all some kind of benefit with its evolution.
As someone in the industry myself, I must admit each avenue has it ups
and downs but its all a matter of how we chose to use the tools we are provided. We are not confined to one or the other but I
must ask which do you prefer, convenience or value? Should they be one in the same? Does this
affect the way we shop? What is our style worth to us? We invest a lot of time,
energy and our income to look as good as we do, so lets go beyond the surface
when consuming.
We fashionistas don’t only look good but we consider all the factors that go into the finished product.
No comments:
Post a Comment