For most ‘non-essential’ retailers, 2020 was not the best year. But many quarantined consumers re-channeled their entertainment spending into improving their household environments and home offices. As a result, multi-brand home specialty retailers saw profits actually increase during the health crisis--and general merchandisers with robust home offerings experienced significant boosts as well.
It's safe to say that the global pandemic outbreak has fueled a dramatic shift towards digital solutions within the home textile industry. Brands and retailers worldwide have been engaging and experimenting with a range of immersive virtual showroom technologies.
2020 was an opportunity for the retail industry to change and evolve. Brands found themselves having to make sudden decisions on what digital channels to pursue and partners to work with.
Across sectors, significant obstacles still make it harder for Black creatives and entrepreneurs to achieve mainstream success. And in fashion and luxury, they have additional issues to navigate, including an established networking culture. This has stacked up to a history of Black underrepresentation in our industry--both in terms of the designers creating the collections, and the models and stylists bringing them to life.
Today’s fashion customers want value. And post-COVID, that means a lot more than price. Millennials and even more so Gen Z want their purchases to support local businesses and strengthen communities--whether shopping online, or in-person. (And more and more their values influence how older generations shop as well.) They also want their purchases to express an individualized and unique sense of style.
When COVID hit our industry last spring, we engaged in a lot of soul-searching. Many fashion and luxury leaders reframed the disaster as a chance for meaningful change. Hundreds signed on to Dries Van Noten’s #rewiringfashion manifesto, the CFDA and BFC released a joint advisement for the health and future of the industry, and high-visibility players like Gucci’s creative director Alessandro Michele poetically called for a ‘seasonless’ future, one where fashion would once more live in harmony with the natural world. Production/overstock problems brewing for a decade or more imploded in their dysfunctionality, and mainstream market demand lined up with sustainability ideals. We had arrived at a rare inflection point where ‘changing the way we’ve always done things’ from a moral perspective was also making perfect business sense.
JOOR has streamlined, enhanced and added features to help buyers discover new brands from around the world. At this high-stakes time, there is an opportunity for buyers to create their most confident assortments and finalize orders virtually… just so long as they put in work, too. Here’s how you can make sure you stand out and set yourself up to make those new relationships from the comfort of your home.
What buyers need to know:
By now, we all get it: virtual wholesale appointments are here to stay. But did you know that they are not just a new way of doing business, but your buyer’s preferred way of doing business? On average worldwide, B2B buyers favor digital sales appointments 2X more than meeting in-person; and in Spain and the UK that number goes up to 3X. And even more interestingly: B2B buyers who have an excellent online sales experience become 2X more likely to return to the brand on an ongoing basis a ‘seller of choice.’
