Though technically seasons change 4 times a year, but for many retailers today the season changes between 7 to 15 times, luring shoppers into store. Ditching the traditional fashion-cycle, many retailers and brands are striving to deliver a near-constant feed of ‘buy now, wear now’ products. The buying season in fashion is no longer about Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter, as retailers develop new reasons for fashion seekers to shop, widening the number of collections and plugging falling sales in traditional lean periods.
Today, the lead time of individual collections for brands is anywhere between two to five weeks, compared to the traditional six months or more, enabling fresh products on the shelves with every new delivery. This shortened cycle allows brands to better respond to market feedback by doing smaller runs per piece and if well received by consumers, then produce more, instantly. Though the concept is not entirely new, as ZARA, the master of offering consumers a near-constant stream of newness has been embracing faster fashion-cycle for a long time, making it amongst the consumers’ favourite; it is now almost a norm with every fashion retailer. The Spanish fast fashion retailer commits six months in advance to only 15-25 per cent of its season’s collection and only locks 50-60 per cent of its collection by the start of the season, which means that up to 40-50 per cent of its clothes are designed and manufactured in the middle of the season. For instance, if Marsala becomes a rage, then ZARA’s supply chain reacts very quickly, designing new styles and getting them into stores, while the trend is still at its peak.
Even though it has a different business model, following ZARA’s footstep is the Japanese-owned Uniqlo, an affordably priced global apparel retailer, which makes well-designed and well-fabricated basic clothes. Not to remain behind, Burberry, which is also well-known for its tech-savvy approach to shopping, has experimented with this concept. Since 2010, the brand has sold a selection of pieces straight from the runway, with a delivery time of just eight weeks. Almost unbelievable, but as of today the fashion industry is churning out around 52 ‘micro-seasons’ per year, with new trends coming out every week for consumers to buy as quickly as possible, before they disappear from the shelves. According to Elizabeth Cline’s book Overdressed: The shockingly high cost of cheap fashion, ZARA receives new deliveries to its stores twice per week, whereas H&M and Forever 21 get daily shipments of new styles, and Topshop introduces 400 styles a week on its website.
Another approach is numerous collections within seasons. A leader in this concept is H&M, the second largest apparel retailer in the world, which offers two main collections each year, one in Spring and one in Fall, but within each season, there are several sub-collections that allow H&M to continually refresh its inventory. The retailer’s primary collections are traditional long-lead times, while the sub-collections are trendier items with shorter lead times. Generally, the items by the Swedish retailer with very short lead times are manufactured in Europe, while longer-lead items are manufactured in Asia. Like Zara, this allows H&M to be more responsive to trends.
The concept is now expanding into other fashion items like accessories. Tamara Mellon, Jimmy Choo Co-founder, who launched her namesake brand in 2013 with ‘buy now, wear now’ ready-to-wear accessories faces a challenge of getting retailers to accelerate the way they work. Instead of quarterly deliveries, Mellon provides monthly collections and finds it challenging to get stores to agree to working with 12 deliveries within a year. “It is difficult for department stores to fully adopt the updated distribution cycle. We have seen great success online with our own e-commerce and with forward-thinking retail partners like Net-a-Porter. The consumers have fully-embraced the ‘buy now, wear now’ approach, but department stores have been more reluctant to follow suit,” reveals Tamara.
However, the retail scenario is changing and slowly department stores too are embracing this concept, such as Neiman Marcus, which encourages brands to split their collection into 8 to 10 (sometimes 12) deliveries. “We have engaged customers, who visit our stores weekly and to keep their attention, there has to be fresh goods with new deliveries. We live in an ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) society, with the iPhone, iPad, Instagram, etc. We like immediate gratification and visual stimulation. At Neiman, that means new, exciting clothes,” informs Ken Downing, Fashion Director and Executive Vice President at Neiman Marcus. But the longer and more complex the supply chain, the harder it is for the retailers and brands to break away from the traditional retail cycle. “The number one thing facing the industry right now is timing. Consumers today buy what they need when they need it, changing the way they used to shop. But retail has not changed completely. It needs to be more in sync,” asserts Marshal Cohen, Chief Analyst at Market Research Firm NPD.
With designers creating new looks on a weekly basis, the customer feels off-trend after the first wear.
From mass market ZARA to high-end Burberry, retailers and brands are embracing and accepting the change happening in fashion and the customers need for instant gratification. With designers creating new looks on a weekly basis, the fashion calendar for these companies is set up to deliberately make the customer feel off-trend after the first wear. In today’s highly competitive retail environment, regardless of approach, it is critical to know how consumers will react to products well before they are launched. The chase after Spring, Fall, Resort and Pre-Fall season is pointless when retailers such as ZARA, H&M, Topshop, Forever 21, etc. are coming up with collections every week or so.
Scurrying to keep pace are manufacturers around the world, while European producers in Turkey and Eastern Europe and US suppliers in Mexico and South America give advantage of proximity to fill shelves in two weeks, Asian destinations are still the preferred choice for more long running and classic garments where along with fashion, quality and timelessness are the critical deciders for shopping the style.
