Real voices, real results: Unlocking fashion retail growth

As a new fashion reality emerges—defined by trade tensions and economic uncertainty—brands face three forces: more price‑sensitive consumers, a shift toward premium positioning, and rapid technological disruption. The new normal is now constant change, and the brands that embrace this reality the fastest are winning.  

Succeeding today requires a dual strategy: smarter pricing to protect sell‑through and margins, and new revenue streams such as marketplaces to keep the right products visible across digital channels. 

Overcoming these major challenges entails moving from reactive decisions to strategic, data‑driven ones. Lectra’s market intelligence and marketplace solutions, Retviews and Neteven, empower these prominent fashion brands to navigate complexity with stronger retail strategies. 

1. Lack of assortment clarity leads to over-expansion and missed opportunities 

Without a unified view of competitors’ assortment mix, market trends, and category weight, brands struggle to identify gaps and adjust collections. Both The Kooples and Manor relied on manual benchmarking — visiting competitor and store sites and using spreadsheets. For both, the process was slow and lacked analytical depth.  

2. Inefficient stock management reduces sell‑through and margins 

With trend cycles accelerating, SKUs that look right in the planning phase can already be outdated by the time they reach stores. A significant share of C.P. Company’s inventory ended up in the wrong products, leading to heavy discounts. Etam faced a similar challenge during the pandemic—store closures and travel restrictions made collection development more difficult. 

3. Pricing uncertainty distorts market positioning and harms profitability 

Lacking a global perspective, brands had to react quickly to pricing shifts— risking margin erosion and misaligned price positioning. C.P. Company faced this as premium brands raised entry prices by 27% since 2024. Armed Angels, aiming to grow beyond its primarily German customer base, also had to navigate the complexities of international pricing structures. 

4. Insufficient diversification of revenue streams constrains market share 

Missing a strategy for choosing the right channels and markets, brands fail to fully capture high-growth digital opportunities. Aubade sought to strengthen its global digital presence but faced time‑consuming, complex data flows. With many stores closing in Europe, Promod needed new strategies to sustain and accelerate revenue. Gerard Darel decided to reinvent its digital presence entirely from store website to marketplace.  

5. Weak control over brand image erodes brand equity 

Brands are facing difficulty in maintaining full control of their brand image and consumer experience across sales channels without a system. Piquadro was looking to boost its customer base but had problems identifying premium marketplaces. Vertbaudet was aiming to diversify its sales channels, but managing multiple marketplaces manually had become increasingly complex. 

Neteven and Retviews empower brands to build agile, data-driven, and competitive fashion strategies. Their combined marketplace and market intelligence fashion expertise deliver a crucial edge, offering a comprehensive view of pricing, positioning, and marketplace performance