Online shopping has been the saving grace to many retailers during the coronavirus crisis. Retailers were forced to close their doors for most of March and all of April, making no sales in store.
Since stores have reopened many clothing retailers are seeing less traffic due to lack of demand and because of fear of contracting the virus. Consumer habits have changed and seem like they will endure beyond the pandemic. According to data from IBM’s U.S Retail Index, “the pandemic has accelerated the shift away from physical stores to digital shopping by roughly five years. Consumers want a quick and easy service to navigate.” Shares in Zalando, Europe’s biggest online-only retailer, jumped to 115 – “A new record high after it said it expects a full year sales growth of 10 to 20%,” reported the BOF. “The company has added 39% more new customers in April.”
As companies continue to see a decrease in instore purchases, they will have to improve the experience of online shopping. Fashion retailers were just beginning to look into using technologies like 3D imaging, virtual reality, and “try before you buy” solutions. Companies will now be aggressively trying to leverage and implement these technologies into their ecommerce sites.
Ordre is a virtual showroom company that creates 3D imagery of fashion collections. They do so using machines to do onsite image capturing images of garments for $55 an image. Their goal is to create imagery that will spur consumer engagement and get them to buy. “The company announced a partnership with Joor… the platform’s software now supports Ordre’s imagery.” reports the BOF.
Brands will have to be able to create engaging ecommerce shopping experiences as consumer ‘priorities have shifted away from clothing. It will be critical that the ecommerce experience is not only engaging but that it will provide consumers with a high level of serviceability.
