Fashion consumers are back to spending again, this time, with newfound purchasing power. Companies are leveraging this regrowth more cautiously, after having learnt some hard lessons from the pandemic. To avoid excess inventory, markdowns, and reduce pollution, they are identifying market gaps and seizing new business opportunities in a conscious manner. Today’s fashion consumers seek fulfilling product experiences, starting with the online browsing and buying process to the time they stop using the item. Companies have to adopt a consumer-first mindset right from conception to sales, to create the perfect product experience for them.
Creating the best product experience for fashion consumers
Fashion companies have to adopt a consumer-first mindset right from conception to sales, to create the perfect product experience for consumers.
Redefining product experience in the age of conscious production
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The main challenges of delivering the best product experiences
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Fast decision-making
The most difficult part of running a fashion business is deciding on what to produce and when, especially in a world where trends change in a matter of days. When fashion companies fail to strike while the iron is hot, they end up with months of inventory. - Going ‘zero stock’
The on-demand production model is on the rise, as many fashion companies are using this to combat rising inventory levels and fabric waste, and create more personalized and fulfilling product experiences, adopting the ‘zero-inventory’ approach. The main difficulty of this model, however, is in promoting and selling the product even before its physical existence. -
Accurate pricing
Pricing is part of a consumer’s product experience– the price he pays for the item determines his level of satisfaction. The reason why so many fashion companies are dealing with excess inventory is that the pricing is inaccurate – meaning that there is a big gap between the set price and the actual value the consumer places on your product.
Using Lectra’s benchmarking, fashion PLM, PIM and DAM software for omni-channel retailing
To construct this “product universe”, you need to integrate best-of-breed solutions to ensure both product and consumer information is consistent, accurate and actionable throughout the entire process to achieve a single version of the truth. Having a full suite from the same vendor such as Lectra is advantageous, as all solutions are designed to cover the fashion conception-to-production process. What makes this suite so powerful and unique is that these solutions complement each other. We offer the best fashion PLM (PLM), product information management (PIM), digital asset management (DAM), benchmarking and marketplace distribution solutions within our Kubix Link offering.
Understanding product experience management
What is product experience?
Product experience is defined as a customer’s journey within a product, which starts from the moment he starts using it, and ends when he stops. While this is the general definition, here at Lectra we consider that the journey begins the moment he starts searching online for the product, because his accessibility to product information also shapes his experience.
Why is product experience important?
Today, with online reviews and forums, creating virtual word-of-mouth is more important than ever. Providing good product experiences is key to ensuring consumer loyalty, as unsatisfied customers can move to another brand quickly, given the competitive fashion landscape. Consumers want to be able to find the product quickly online, with sufficient information to make a purchase decision and receive the product on time, at their doorstep, and expect the product to meet their needs, both in terms of comfort and style, over a long period of time.
The benefits of product experience management
- A bigger digital presence via product content
Shoppers usually begin their buying process by a simple Google search – and the more complete your product descriptions, the better, because they are more likely to appear during the search and attract consumers. Social media platforms are now serving as virtual window displays for products – the descriptions that appear should be synced with those on your website and marketplaces.
- Establishing a continuous feedback loop
Facing fierce competition from direct-to-consumer (D2C) businesses, fashion companies are now adopting more customer-centric approaches to product development. The key to perfecting your product is listening to your customers. Their feedback matters – and you need a system to gather and share all this precious data from store websites and marketplaces with all stakeholders to make more informed decisions.
- Better product positioning
Product positioning is extremely helpful in terms of making better marketing decisions. By benchmarking against other companies using software, fashion brands and retailers can identify market gaps, compare pricing, and missing items in their collections, to develop products that meet the consumer’s specific needs. From this you can come up with well- defined marketing messages for your consumers, and communicate the real value of your product.