The role of the fashion buyer is undergoing a profound transformation. Once centred primarily on product selection and trend intuition, the position is now increasingly strategic, data-driven, and closely connected to digital commerce. At the same time, the job market for fashion buyers is evolving, with fewer traditional roles but growing demand for professionals who combine product expertise with analytical and digital skills.

This article explores how the fashion buyer role is changing, how the job market is evolving, and where professionals can find new career opportunities.

How the role of the fashion buyer is evolving

From intuition to data-driven decision making

Traditionally, fashion buyers relied heavily on personal taste, trend forecasting, and relationships with brands. Today, decisions are increasingly supported by data analytics, artificial intelligence, and performance metrics.

Buyers now work with tools that analyse:

• historical sales performance
• customer preferences
• price elasticity
• inventory turnover
• demand forecasting

The modern buyer is becoming a “data-informed curator”, combining creative sensitivity with analytical capabilities.

Integration with technology and AI tools

Digital transformation is reshaping the way buying decisions are made. AI-powered tools help predict demand, optimise assortments, and reduce overstock risk. Many retailers now use advanced planning systems that simulate product performance before committing to orders.

As a result, buyers increasingly collaborate with:

• data analysts
• merchandising teams
• eCommerce managers
• digital marketing specialists

The role is becoming more strategic and less operational.

From product selection to assortment strategy

Buying is no longer simply about selecting products. Today’s buyers must balance:

• profitability and margins
• brand positioning
• inventory risk
• customer experience
• pricing strategy

Buyers are increasingly responsible for building structured assortments that include:

• core products
• seasonal trends
• experimental items
• exclusive collaborations

In many organisations, buyers act as category managers responsible for the overall commercial performance of product lines.

Customer-centric and omnichannel approach

The growth of eCommerce has significantly influenced buying decisions. Buyers must understand how customers interact with brands across multiple channels:

• online store
• marketplaces
• physical retail
• mobile commerce
• social commerce

Consumer data plays an increasingly important role in determining product selection, quantities, and timing of product launches.

Buying decisions are now closely aligned with CRM strategies and customer lifetime value.

Increased collaboration across departments

The buyer role is no longer isolated within merchandising teams. Today’s buyers collaborate closely with:

• digital marketing teams
• eCommerce managers
• supply chain departments
• brand and creative teams

Product selection is increasingly influenced by storytelling, campaigns, and digital positioning.

Faster product cycles and agile buying models

Fashion companies are reducing time-to-market and introducing more frequent product drops. This requires buyers to react faster to market signals and adapt assortment strategies more dynamically.

Test-and-repeat models allow brands to launch smaller product quantities and scale successful items quickly.

Sustainability and responsible sourcing

Sustainability remains an important factor in buying decisions. Buyers are increasingly involved in selecting suppliers based on:

• ethical production practices
• material sourcing
• environmental impact
• transparency

Although cost pressures sometimes limit the speed of change, sustainability is expected to remain a long-term priority in buying strategies.

How the job market for fashion buyers is evolving

Fewer traditional roles, higher skill requirements

The number of traditional fashion buyer roles is gradually declining as retailers optimise organisational structures and adopt automation tools.

Companies are increasingly looking for professionals who combine:

• commercial awareness
• analytical skills
• digital understanding
• financial planning capabilities

The role is evolving into a hybrid position between buyer, merchandiser, and business analyst.

Growing demand for hybrid digital profiles

Fashion companies increasingly seek professionals with experience in:

• eCommerce merchandising
• data analysis
• assortment optimisation
• pricing strategy
• omnichannel retail
• demand forecasting tools

Professionals who understand both product and digital performance are particularly valued.

Polarisation between luxury and mid-market segments

Opportunities for buyers vary significantly depending on market segment.

Luxury and premium brands continue to invest in differentiated assortments and exclusive collaborations, maintaining demand for experienced buyers.

Mid-market retailers are more exposed to margin pressure and competition from online platforms, which has led to restructuring and more selective hiring.

Entry-level roles becoming more competitive

Junior roles such as assistant buyer positions still exist but often require:

• internships or practical experience
• strong Excel and analytical skills
• understanding of eCommerce metrics
• familiarity with digital tools

Graduates entering the profession are expected to have a more technical skill set than in the past.

New career paths related to buying

As the profession evolves, new roles are emerging that are closely related to buying:

• Merchandise planner
• Category manager
• eCommerce merchandiser
• Product data analyst
• Demand planner
• Marketplace manager

These roles often offer strong career opportunities for professionals with analytical and digital competencies.

Where to find fashion buyer job opportunities online

Specialist fashion job platforms

Some job boards focus specifically on fashion and luxury roles:

• FashionUnited
• BoF Careers
• Drapers Jobs
• Fashion Workie

These platforms often include positions in buying, merchandising, and product management across international markets.

General job platforms

Large job platforms provide a high volume of listings:

• LinkedIn Jobs
• Indeed
• Reed
• Totaljobs
• Glassdoor

These platforms allow users to set alerts and track market trends in hiring demand.

Recruitment agencies specialised in fashion and luxury

Recruitment agencies often manage mid-level and senior buyer searches:

• Zachary Daniels
• Luxury Recruit
• Four Seasons Recruitment
• Elite Associates

Working with specialised recruiters can increase access to confidential opportunities.

Key skills for the future fashion buyer

Professionals who want to succeed in the evolving job market should develop skills in:

• data interpretation
• Excel and analytics tools
• assortment planning
• pricing strategy
• digital merchandising
• omnichannel retail strategy
• supplier negotiation
• trend analysis

The combination of creative and analytical capabilities is becoming essential.

Conclusion

The role of the fashion buyer is becoming more strategic, analytical, and digitally integrated. While the number of traditional roles may decline, new opportunities are emerging for professionals who can combine product expertise with data-driven decision-making.

Understanding how digital commerce influences buying decisions is now a key success factor. As fashion companies continue to invest in omnichannel strategies, the buyer role will increasingly sit at the intersection of product, customer experience, and business performance.

For professionals working in fashion eCommerce and digital transformation, this evolution creates new career opportunities and highlights the growing importance of cross-functional skills.

Best websites for fashion buyer jobs

Specialist fashion job boards

These are often the most relevant because they focus on fashion, luxury and retail roles.

1. FashionUnited

• Strong European coverage
• Roles in buying, merchandising and product management
• Includes brands like NEXT, White Stuff, etc.
• ➜ Browse fashion buyer jobs

2. BoF Careers

• High-quality roles in luxury and premium brands
• Good for senior buyer positions
• Often includes international roles

3. Drapers Jobs

• Focus on UK fashion retail and brands
• Useful for buying and merchandising roles

4. Fashion Workie

• Good for internships and entry-level buyer roles
• Increasing number of digital commerce roles

General job platforms (large volume of roles)

5. LinkedIn

• Very strong for fashion buyer roles in UK and Europe
• Example: 190+ fashion buyer jobs listed in the UK
• Useful for networking with hiring managers

6. Indeed

• Large database of fashion buying roles
• Includes hybrid roles like buyer + eCommerce manager

7. Reed

• Around 100+ buyer-related openings depending on filters

8. Totaljobs

9. Glassdoor

Major UK job sites like Indeed, LinkedIn and Reed are considered among the most effective platforms due to their large number of listings and filtering tools

Recruitment agencies specialising in fashion & retail

Useful especially for mid-senior roles:

• Zachary Daniels
• Luxury Recruit
• Four Seasons Recruitment
• Elite Associates

Recruiters often manage confidential buyer searches.

Most requested skills for fashion buyer jobs

1. Analytical & data skills (increasingly critical)

Modern fashion buyers are expected to interpret performance data and make financially sound decisions.

Most requested capabilities include:

• sales analysis
• demand forecasting
• margin optimisation
• budgeting and cost control
• assortment performance analysis
• KPI monitoring

Analytical and numerical ability is consistently listed as a core competency because buyers must evaluate profitability and forecast demand trends.

Understanding ratios, pricing structures, and margins is essential for commercial decision-making.

2. Commercial & strategic thinking

Employers increasingly seek buyers who understand the broader business impact of product decisions.

Key strategic skills include:

• pricing strategy
• category management
• assortment planning
• product lifecycle management
• competitor benchmarking
• profit optimisation

Buyers are responsible for ensuring product ranges meet customer demand while achieving business goals.

Strong business acumen and decision-making skills are frequently highlighted in job descriptions.

3. Trend forecasting & product sensitivity

Creative judgment remains essential in fashion buying roles.

Frequently requested capabilities:

• trend forecasting
• product selection
• understanding consumer preferences
• competitor analysis
• brand positioning awareness

Buyers must interpret fashion trends and align product choices with target customer expectations.

Trend research remains a core responsibility across fashion buying careers.

4. Negotiation & supplier management

Relationship management skills remain highly valued.

Typical requirements:

• vendor negotiation
• supplier relationship management
• cost negotiation
• partnership development
• sourcing strategy

Vendor relations and negotiation skills are among the most frequently mentioned competencies in buyer resumes.

Strong interpersonal communication skills are necessary for collaboration with suppliers and internal stakeholders.

5. Digital & technical skills (fast-growing requirement)

The digitalisation of retail is changing skill requirements.

Increasingly requested technical skills include:

• Excel and data tools
• merchandising software
• ERP / PLM systems
• eCommerce analytics
• inventory management software
• omnichannel performance analysis

Proficiency with retail systems and inventory management tools is often required in job descriptions.

Overview of the fashion buyer career path

The career progression traditionally follows a structured hierarchy, starting with administrative support roles and moving toward strategic leadership positions.

However, today the path is becoming more flexible, with increasing crossover into merchandising, eCommerce, and data-driven roles.

What the typical career progression in fashion buying looks like

1. Entry level roles

Buying Assistant / Buying Admin Assistant

Typical experience: 0–2 years

Responsibilities:

• managing product data and samples
• preparing reports and sales analysis
• supporting supplier communication
• coordinating orders and deliveries
• updating assortment information in systems

Skills developed:

• Excel and reporting
• organisation and time management
• basic retail KPIs
• understanding product lifecycle

This role provides exposure to the operational side of buying.

Assistant Buyer

Typical experience: 1–3 years

Responsibilities:

• analysing product performance
• supporting assortment planning
• supplier coordination
• preparing buying meetings
• trend research

Skills developed:

• data interpretation
• trend analysis
• negotiation basics
• pricing structure understanding

Assistant buyers begin contributing to product selection decisions.

2. Mid-level roles

Buyer

Typical experience: 3–6 years

Responsibilities:

• selecting product ranges
• managing budgets and margins
• negotiating with suppliers
• analysing sales performance
• defining seasonal assortment strategy

Skills developed:

• commercial decision making
• forecasting
• supplier negotiation
• assortment optimisation
• category strategy

Buyers are responsible for the commercial success of product categories.

Senior Buyer

Typical experience: 5–8 years

Responsibilities:

• defining category strategy
• managing supplier relationships
• mentoring junior team members
• aligning buying with brand positioning
• improving margin performance

Skills developed:

• strategic thinking
• leadership skills
• advanced financial planning
• cross-functional collaboration

Senior buyers often manage complex or high-value product categories.

3. Leadership roles

Buying Manager / Head of Buying

Typical experience: 8–12 years

Responsibilities:

• leading buying teams
• defining company assortment strategy
• aligning product strategy with brand positioning
• managing budgets across categories
• collaborating with merchandising and marketing teams

Skills developed:

• leadership and team management
• business strategy
• financial planning
• cross-department coordination

Buying Director / Chief Merchandising Officer

Typical experience: 12+ years

Responsibilities:

• defining company-wide product strategy
• managing multiple categories
• aligning buying strategy with financial targets
• contributing to company growth strategy
• overseeing merchandising structure

These roles are highly strategic and closely connected to company leadership.

Sources

FashionUnited – retail insights and buying trends
McKinsey – The State of Fashion reports
Business of Fashion Careers – job market insights
Drapers – UK fashion retail employment trends
LinkedIn Jobs – fashion buyer job listings
Indeed – retail and fashion employment data
Luxe Talent – recruitment insights in fashion and luxury
U&I Search – hiring trends in fashion and retail

Interview with Giulio Salvucci Digital Fashion expert and founder of Search Bridge.

The interview features a discussion between Enrico Fantaguzzi and Giulio Salvucci, an e-commerce expert and founder of the startup Search Bridge.

They discuss how Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT are fundamentally changing how consumers search for products and what fashion brands must do to adapt to this new landscape.

Key Topics

• The Shift from SEO to GEO (Generative Engine Optimization): While traditional SEO focuses on optimizing a single website for search algorithms, GEO requires building brand authority across the entire web. LLMs do not just look at a brand’s website; they synthesize answers by pulling “multi-signal” data from diverse touchpoints like journalistic articles, forums, communities, and review sites like Trustpilot.
• The Collapsing Marketing Funnel: The traditional user journey of researching and filtering products across multiple websites is condensing into a single step within AI chatbots. Users can now ask an LLM for specific items (e.g., “a spring sweater in my size and price range”), and the AI will filter catalogs and provide highly targeted recommendations directly in the chat, turning the brand’s website primarily into a final checkout destination.
• The Attribution Measurement Gap: Currently, traditional tracking systems rely on “last click” models, making it very difficult to measure how much traffic truly originates from AI searches. Traffic influenced by LLMs often shows up as “direct” or “organic” in analytics, creating a “black box” scenario where multiple customer interactions happen invisibly within the AI.
• The Social Media “Blind Spot”: Major social platforms like Meta (Instagram) and TikTok actively block LLMs from scraping their data to protect their own traffic. As a result, massive marketing budgets spent on these platforms do not contribute to a brand’s visibility or authority on generative AI engines.
• Content Optimization for Machines: To be cited by LLMs, brands need to adapt their copywriting. Content must be highly factual, clear, and simple—ideally matching the reading level of a 10-11 year old, which can be measured by metrics like the Flesch score. Formats like FAQs and comparative tables are highly favored by LLMs.

Key Takeaways for Brands

• Maintain Absolute Consistency: It is crucial that brand information (e.g., number of stores, technical details) is identical across every single online touchpoint; inconsistencies cause LLMs to view the information as unreliable.
• Prepare for Direct AI Feeds: In the near future, brands will be able to submit their product catalogs directly to LLMs (similar to Google Shopping feeds), bypassing the need for the AI to crawl their websites.
• Manage Online Reputation Proactively: Because LLMs read external sites to form answers, brands must actively engage in digital PR, moderate complaints on sites like Trustpilot, and participate in online community discussions.
• Do Not Discount Google: While OpenAI and ChatGPT are popular, Google remains incredibly powerful because it can combine its new AI models (Gemini) with its massive existing infrastructure, including Google Maps and Google Shopping.
• Invest in Continuous Learning: The AI landscape is evolving exponentially. Professionals must dedicate significant time to continuous education, as disruptive new technologies can emerge and change the rules in just a matter of months.

How can brands improve their authority to rank in GEO?

To improve authority and rank in Generative Engine Optimization (GEO), brands must shift their focus from purely optimizing their own websites to building a comprehensive, multi-channel digital presence. Large Language Models (LLMs) synthesize answers by drawing correlations from various sources across the web, meaning a brand’s authority is determined by its overall digital footprint rather than just its website.

Here are the key strategies brands should implement to improve their GEO authority:

• Generate “Multi-Signal” Traces Across the Web: Brands must establish semantic traces across diverse touchpoints, including journalistic articles, reference sites, forums, and online communities.
• Focus on Accessible Platforms: Because major social networks like Meta (Instagram/Facebook) and TikTok actively block LLMs from scraping their data, brands should invest in platforms that AI can actually read, with networks like LinkedIn and YouTube becoming increasingly important.
• Prioritize Content Clarity: Content must be highly factual, direct, and objective. To ensure LLMs can easily read and cite the information, texts should be written simply—ideally matching the reading level of a 10-11 year old, which can be evaluated using a Flesch score.
• Maintain Absolute Consistency: For LLMs to consider information reliable, it must be identical across every single touchpoint. For example, if a brand has 100 stores, that exact number must be reflected uniformly on its website, press releases, and external articles; any inconsistency will cause the AI to deprioritize the information.
• Adopt AI-Friendly Formats: LLMs strongly favor specific content structures. Brands should incorporate FAQs (Q&A mode) and comparative tables, as these formats are easily digested and perfectly read by generative systems.
• Proactively Manage Online Reputation: Because LLMs analyze external discussions to gauge sentiment, brands must actively participate in digital PR and online communities. Engaging with customers and resolving complaints on review platforms like Trustpilot significantly improves the brand’s sentiment perception and visibility to the AI.
• Prepare for Direct Catalog Feeds: Looking ahead, brands should prepare to submit their product catalogs directly to LLMs—similar to how Google Shopping feeds operate—allowing the AI to access product data locally without having to crawl the brand’s website

How does AI affect the traditional e-commerce marketing funnel?

The traditional e-commerce marketing funnel is essentially collapsing into a single step within AI search engines. Rather than following the conventional journey where a consumer visits multiple websites and manually uses search filters, the AI is now condensing the research and filtering processes into one concentrated channel.

Consumers can simply ask an AI chatbot for highly specific items—such as a spring shirt with a particular pattern, style, or weight. The AI then acts as the filter, navigating various catalogs to present a narrow, curated selection of products from different brands that perfectly match the request.

This transformation affects the funnel in a few key ways:

• Accelerated Journey to Checkout: Traditional funnel stages like product discovery, research, and side-by-side comparison are now handled entirely within the AI’s chat interface. This allows the user to get almost to the final checkout stage without ever leaving the AI platform.
• Loss of Visibility (The “Black Box”): Because all of this research and consideration happens internally within the Large Language Model (LLM), brands lose the ability to track the early stages of the customer journey. A customer might have several interactions with the AI to narrow down their choice, but the brand only sees the final result when the customer suddenly arrives on their website to make a purchase, turning the top and middle of the funnel into an invisible “black box”

What is a Flesch score and how is it calculated?

The Flesch score is a metric that evaluates the complexity and readability of a text, determining how easily it can be read by both humans and Large Language Models (LLMs). For content to be highly optimized for AI systems, it should achieve a score that reflects a very simple and direct writing style, ideally matching the reading comprehension level of a 10 to 11-year-old child.

The score is calculated by analyzing two main structural elements of the text:

• Word length: It measures the number of letters within each single word.
• Sentence and paragraph length: It counts the number of words used to form paragraphs.

By keeping words short and paragraphs concise, brands can improve their Flesch score and ensure their content is more easily processed and cited by generative AI engines

How can I learn more about AI in Fashion?

You can learn more about AI in fashion through the Digital Fashion Academy, which offers several live online courses and certifications tailored to different career levels, goals, and time commitments.

Here are the primary learning paths they offer:

1. AI for Fashion Executive Master This is a comprehensive, 14-week part-time online program requiring about 3.5 hours of study per week. It is designed for managers, marketing professionals, and consultants who want to master end-to-end AI applications across the fashion value chain.

• What you will learn: How to implement AI in design and trend forecasting, supply chain and operations, merchandising, ecommerce, marketing, and customer service.
• Format: It features hands-on labs, real-world case studies, digital portfolio building, and one-to-one mentoring.
• Outcome: Upon completion, you earn an internationally recognized AI for Fashion Professional Certificate. The course fee is €2,150.

2. AI for Fashion Executives If you are a senior leader, CXO, or entrepreneur looking for a fast-track option, this is a 6-hour intensive program delivered over two 3-hour live sessions.

• What you will learn: It focuses heavily on executive strategy, teaching you how to identify high-ROI use cases, define an AI roadmap, and secure quick wins across design, marketing, and operations.
• Format: Interactive live sessions focused on frameworks and actionable strategy. The program costs €350.

3. Short Courses for Specific Skills If you are looking for highly targeted, practical knowledge, there are shorter courses available for €75 each:

• Essential AI Training for Fashion Professionals: Teaches you the principles of EU Artificial Intelligence compliance, how to safely use tools like ChatGPT at work, and how to craft effective, reliable prompts specifically tailored for fashion workflows.
• Personal Branding in the Age of AI: Focuses on using AI tools to build content libraries and boost your personal brand with a tone of voice that sounds like you.

Across these programs, you will learn directly from senior industry experts and digital strategists who have worked at top global luxury brands, including Gucci, Valentino, LVMH, Dolce & Gabbana, and Burberry. Both the Master and the Executive programs emphasize moving beyond the hype of AI to focus on practical implementation and real business results

What challenges fashion brands need to face?

Here is an analysis of the challenges facing fashion companies, structured using the categories of a Fishbone (Ishikawa) diagram to identify the root causes of the core problem.

Core Problem (The “Head” of the Fish): Navigating AI Disruption and Digital Transformation The fashion industry is facing a massive paradigm shift in how consumers discover products, how operations are managed, and how brands must present themselves online due to the rapid integration of Artificial Intelligence.

1. Measurement & Technology Challenges

• Obsolete Attribution Models: Traditional analytics rely on “last-click” models, which are incapable of accurately tracking traffic and influence originating from Large Language Models (LLMs).
• The “Black Box” Customer Journey: The traditional e-commerce marketing funnel is collapsing into a single step within AI chatbots. Because users research, filter, and compare products entirely within the LLM, brands lose visibility into the customer journey, often only seeing the final interaction when the user arrives to purchase.
• Data Flow and Management: Companies struggle with turning raw data into competitive advantages, requiring new workflows for smart data collection, analytics, and business intelligence.

2. Marketing & Visibility Challenges

• The Shift from SEO to GEO: Traditional Search Engine Optimization (optimizing a single website) is no longer enough. Brands must now focus on Generative Engine Optimization (GEO), which requires building semantic traces and authority across multiple external touchpoints, such as journalistic articles, forums, and reference sites.
• The Social Media Blind Spot: Fashion companies heavily invest their marketing budgets in platforms like Meta (Instagram) and TikTok. However, these platforms actively block LLMs from scraping their data, meaning this massive investment does not contribute to a brand’s visibility on generative AI engines.
• Proactive Reputation Management: Because LLMs source answers from across the web, brands can no longer rely just on their owned channels. They must actively monitor and manage their reputation on third-party community sites and review platforms like Trustpilot.

3. Content & Process Challenges

• The Copywriting Conflict: There is a clash between the emotional, highly creative copywriting traditionally favored by luxury brands and the direct, simple, and highly factual writing style required by LLMs. To be effectively cited by AI, content needs to match the reading level of a 10-11 year old (measured by the Flesch score) and utilize structural formats like FAQs and comparative tables.
• Absolute Information Consistency: AI engines penalize inconsistencies. If a brand states it has 100 stores on a press release but 98 on its website, the LLM will view the data as unreliable. Ensuring exact consistency across every digital touchpoint is a major operational challenge.

4. Operations & Supply Chain Challenges

• Efficiency and Optimization: Brands are challenged to optimize their inventory management, demand forecasting, pricing, and returns management in an increasingly complex retail environment.
• Sustainability: Companies face increasing pressure to adopt ethical AI, reduce waste, improve supply chain transparency, and implement circular business models.

5. People & Strategy Challenges

• The Exponential Pace of Change: The technology landscape is evolving so fast that disruptive new tools emerge every few months. This creates a severe risk of falling behind, making continuous professional upskilling and training an absolute necessity for fashion professionals.
• Governance and Risk Management: Leaders must figure out how to navigate complex legal, ethical, and governance frameworks, including the EU AI Act, data privacy, IP protection, and mitigating AI biases and “hallucinations”.
• Moving Beyond the Hype: Executives face the challenge of distinguishing real ROI-generating AI opportunities from industry hype, requiring them to define clear roadmaps, select the right vendors, and secure quick wins across design, merchandising, and operations without disrupting existing workflows

Video interview with Giulio Salvucci

In this article, learn how benchmarking can benefit fashion companies, the steps to take to carry out a benchmark and the best tools to use.

Read on to find out how benchmarking can benefit fashion companies.

Article written with the help of ChatGPT

Identifying industry trends

Benchmarking allows fashion companies to stay updated on the latest industry trends, including consumer preferences, design aesthetics, materials, technology, and marketing strategies. By comparing their offerings to industry leaders, they can identify areas where they need to adapt or innovate to remain competitive.

Improving operational efficiency

Benchmarking helps fashion companies assess their operational processes, such as manufacturing, supply chain management, inventory management, and distribution. By comparing their performance metrics, such as lead times, production costs, or order fulfillment rates, against those of top-performing competitors, they can identify inefficiencies and implement improvements to enhance their operational efficiency.

Enhancing product quality and innovation

By benchmarking their products against those of leading fashion brands, companies can evaluate the quality, design, functionality, and features of their offerings. This analysis can inspire innovation and help identify areas for improvement to meet or exceed customer expectations.

Optimizing pricing strategies

Benchmarking pricing strategies is essential for fashion companies to ensure they remain competitive while maximizing profitability. By comparing their pricing structures, discounts, promotions, and value propositions against industry peers, they can adjust their pricing strategies accordingly.

Strengthening marketing and branding efforts

Benchmarking allows fashion companies to evaluate their marketing and branding activities against those of successful competitors. By examining elements like advertising campaigns, social media presence, influencer partnerships, and customer engagement, companies can identify effective strategies to enhance their own marketing and branding efforts.

Enhancing customer experience

Benchmarking helps fashion companies understand how they fare in terms of customer service, delivery speed, return policies, and overall customer satisfaction. By studying industry leaders and customer feedback, companies can identify opportunities to improve their customer experience, build stronger relationships, and foster loyalty.

Fostering innovation and creativity

Benchmarking encourages fashion companies to look beyond their industry and explore practices and ideas from other sectors. By benchmarking against innovative companies outside the fashion industry, they can gain fresh insights and ideas to foster innovation and creative thinking within their own organization.

It’s important to note that while benchmarking provides valuable insights, fashion companies must also consider their unique market positioning, brand identity, and target audience to make informed decisions and tailor strategies to their specific needs and goals.

Reserve your seat

Steps to Follow to carry out a Benchmark

To conduct a benchmark analysis for your fashion company, you can follow these steps:

Define the objective: Determine the specific aspect of your business that you want to benchmark. It could be product quality, operational efficiency, marketing strategies, customer service, or any other area that you wish to evaluate and improve.

Identify benchmarking criteria: Determine the key performance indicators (KPIs) or criteria that will be used to evaluate and compare your company’s performance. These could include metrics like sales revenue, production costs, customer satisfaction ratings, delivery times, or social media engagement, depending on the objective of your benchmarking analysis.

Select benchmarking targets: Identify the companies or organizations that are considered industry leaders or have achieved excellence in the area you are benchmarking. These can be direct competitors or companies from other sectors known for their best practices.

Collect data: Gather relevant data and information about your own company’s performance and the performance of the benchmarking targets. This can include financial reports, operational data, customer feedback, market research, and any other data sources that provide insights into the chosen criteria.

Analyze and compare data: Analyze the collected data to compare your company’s performance against the benchmarking targets. Look for gaps, differences, and areas where improvements can be made. Identify both strengths and weaknesses in your own operations.

Identify best practices: Study the practices, strategies, and processes employed by the benchmarking targets that contribute to their success. Look for innovative approaches, effective techniques, and lessons that can be learned and adapted to your own company.

Set improvement goals: Based on the findings from the benchmarking analysis, set specific goals and targets for improvement in the areas identified. These goals should be realistic, measurable, and aligned with your overall business objectives.

Implement changes and monitor progress: Develop and implement action plans to address the identified areas for improvement. Monitor the progress regularly and track the impact of the changes made. Adjust strategies as needed and continue to measure performance against the benchmarks.

Continuous benchmarking: Benchmarking should be an ongoing process to stay relevant and competitive in the fast-paced fashion industry. Regularly revisit your benchmarks, update your criteria, and identify new targets to ensure continuous improvement and innovation.

Remember that benchmarking is most effective when it is tailored to your specific business needs and objectives. Adapt the process to fit your unique circumstances and always consider the broader context and industry trends when interpreting benchmarking results.

Which tools can I use to create a benchmark?

There are several tools you can utilize to create a benchmark for your fashion company. Here are some commonly used tools and approaches:

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): KPIs are measurable metrics that help you evaluate the performance of your fashion company. Identify relevant KPIs based on your benchmarking objectives. For example, you might track sales revenue, customer acquisition costs, production cycle time, return rates, social media engagement, or customer satisfaction ratings.

Financial Analysis Tools: Financial analysis tools like accounting software or spreadsheets can help you gather and analyze financial data. They allow you to compare and benchmark your company’s financial performance against competitors or industry averages. Examples of financial analysis tools include QuickBooks, Excel, or specialized accounting software.

Survey and Feedback Tools: To gather customer feedback and measure customer satisfaction, you can use survey tools such as SurveyMonkey, Google Forms, or Typeform. Design surveys to collect information on customer preferences, experiences, and satisfaction levels. Compare the results with industry benchmarks or competitors’ feedback to gauge your performance.

Social Media Analytics Tools: If you want to benchmark your social media presence and engagement, social media analytics tools can be useful. Platforms like Facebook Insights, Instagram Insights, or Twitter Analytics provide valuable data on metrics such as reach, engagement, follower growth, and demographics. Compare your performance against industry leaders or competitors’ social media metrics.

Market Research Tools: Market research tools can help you gather insights on industry trends, customer behavior, and competitor analysis. Tools like Nielsen, Euromonitor, or Statista provide market research reports, industry analysis, and consumer behavior data that can be used to benchmark your fashion company’s performance against industry standards.

Operations and Efficiency Analysis Tools: To benchmark operational processes and efficiency, you can utilize tools like process mapping software, supply chain management software, or enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. These tools help you document and analyze your company’s operations, identify bottlenecks, and compare your performance against industry best practices.

Competitor Analysis Tools: Various tools can assist you in conducting competitor analysis and benchmarking. Tools like SEMrush, SimilarWeb, or Ahrefs provide insights into competitors’ website traffic, search engine rankings, keywords, and online marketing strategies. This information can help you evaluate your online presence and performance against industry leaders.

Internal Data Analysis Tools: Utilize data analytics software like Excel, Google Analytics, or specialized business intelligence tools to analyze your internal data. By examining historical data, sales reports, customer data, or production metrics, you can identify patterns, trends, and areas for improvement. Compare your performance over time to create internal benchmarks.

Remember, the choice of tools depends on the specific areas you want to benchmark and the data you need to collect. It’s important to select tools that align with your objectives, budget, and data requirements. Additionally, consider consulting with experts or hiring professionals if you require specialized tools or expertise for in-depth benchmarking analysis.

Google provides for free a number of tools that have become essential in everyday digital activities.

Of course, Google earns from advertising and if you want to advertise on the Google network you have to invest, but before you get there you must first learn Google’s free tools. Here are the tools I use most frequently.

Google Search Console. It is the free tool that allows you to monitor the SEO positioning of your site on the Google search engine

One of the main reports in the Google Search Console: it shows the trend over time of organic clicks and impressions in search results. You can also add the “position” in the SERP and the click through rate (CTR)

Google Analytics

Google Analytics is another free tool from Google that allows you to monitor the performance of your website and e-commerce. The main reports are those of traffic: how many visits, how many visitors,% returning visitors. demographic and geographic data on the audience. Browsing behavior reports: most visited pages, bounce rate and finally the reports on objectives and sales: newsletter subscriptions (to be configured), sales, product performance and performance of product pages and category pages.

Google Ads – keyword planner

If you want to estimate the advertising budget to invest in advertising on the Google network, you can use the free Keywords planner tool found within Google Ads. Creating a Google Ads account is free, once you have created the account you can use the keywords planner found in the main navigation bar at the top.

A screenshot of the Keywords planner tool inside Google Ads. The keyword planner is accessible from the Tools and settings button located at the top of the navigation bar.

Google trends

Google trends is the free tool from Google that allows you to analyze the macro trends of the internet, that is, those movements of general interest of the population towards a specific object or topic. In fact it is assumed that if the population is interested in a certain topic or product they will search for it on Google . In the example below you can see the trend of searches worldwide for “smart watch”. You can clearly see that from the moment smart watches were invented they kept growing with peaks around Christmas time.

Google Ads

Google ads is Google’s tool for managing advertising campaigns. It is free to create an account but the publication of the campaigns is subject to a fee. Through Google Ads it is possible to manage awareness campaigns, for example with display advertising and conversion campaigns, for example with Google Shopping and retargeting.

Google Merchant center

The Google Merchant Center is the catalog of your products on Google, it contains product information such as photos, description, price and quantity available. From here Google synchronises the data with paid advertising campaigns such as Google shopping and, from time to time, will show your products even for free.

Google My Business

Google my business is the tool you use to manage your stores on Google Maps. If you have a multiplicity of points of sale, Google MyBusiness is happy to manage the information on the points of sale by uploading an excel file or Google sheet instead of managing the information by hand one card at a time. Google My Business is also called the Google Business Profile

Google Data Studio

Google Data Studio works as a Business Intelligence (BI) system through which you can create one or more dashboards (reports) to monitor the performance of your business. It is a free tool. Google Data studio allows you to integrate data from various Google and external sources. For example, it allows you to integrate data from an Excel or Google Sheet file.

Google Tag manager

Your brand, like many others, work with several marketing agencies and advertising campaigns solutions, from Google Ads to Teads videos.

In order to measure performance of these campaign you need to instal a tracking code on the webpages that are linked to the campaigns.

You can install these tracking codes manually, with the help of system integrators agencies or developers or you can use a tag manager which allows you to install the ads tracking code on your website with out programming.

Why is metaverse becoming important for fashion and for the economy?

The metaverse is becoming important in for fashion brands and the economy in general because people are spending more time in virtual realms. If you have studied marketing and advertising you may know that people used to spend a great part of their spare time in front of the TV and that made that medium a powerful tool for advertisers as it allowed to reach millions of people repeatedly.

How big is the NFT market?

Analysts at Morgan Stanley say the market for virtual luxury goods could be as large as $50 billion by 2030

Digital demand for fashion and luxury brands is expected to grow from current low levels and result in extra sales for the industry that could reach $50 billion by 2030, according to Morgan Stanley

According to Morgan Stanley, NFTs (non-fungible tokens) and social gaming could expand luxury group’s total addressable market by more than 10% in eight years time and boost industry earnings before interest and tax by around 25%.

It also said Italian brand Dolce & Gabbana’s recent sale of nine NFTs for $5.7 million, albeit small, highlights the virtual and hybrid luxury goods’ huge potential over the coming years.

What is the relation between cryptocurrency and the metaverse?

The cryptocurrencies are often used for transactions in the metaverse, however the thing that they have in common is the blockchain technology which is a distributed calculating approach.

Is Facebook a metaverse?

Facebook is part of the metaverse even if it’s not a 3D virtual

3 elements that characterise the metaverse

1. Presence of Avatars instead of real people;
2. Interaction with other avatars is possible;
3. It’s represented as a virtual place;

What is Gucci superplastic?

Gucci superplastic is a collection of super-limited NFTs created as part of a collaboration between the Gucci brand and digital artist

These were co-created by Alessandro Michele, Gucci’s head of design, and SUPERPLASTIC synthetic artists Janky and Guggimon

Design TAXI

It’s a series of NFTs co-branded Gucci. Some screenshots from Superplastic website below.

Watch the Gucci Superplastic video

Not all metaverses are 3D spaces: discord servers.

With Discord app people can create virtual spaces where they can collaborate, discuss and play with groups friends. In Discord you will need to create a space that is you and your friends own. It is a virtual space but it’s not in the form of a 3D ambient.

What is the difference between the metaverse and virtual reality

Virtual reality is a technology that is used to re-create the visual forms of reality in a digital environment, typically a 3 dimension digital world that can be navigated on a flat screen or by the use of special glasses Virtual Reality Glasses. The essential feature of VR is that you see the “fake world” in first person and it’s a 3D environment.

A metaverse can be represented as a 3D virtual world, but the key difference is that in a metaverse the relations between people is a core feature, while in Virtual Reality the relation with other people is not mandatory.

Selling luxury items on-line

The first cases I had to deal with were related to the unauthorized sales of luxury products through online channels that weren’t supposed to sell these products. Let’s say for example if you find a chanel bag on sale on ebay, the company Chanel, might not like this because eBay is not considered a luxury outlet.

I’m not saying it’s illegal to sell a Chanel bag on eBay, I personally sold some Gucci 2nd hand items on eBay and it’s perfectly legitimate.

Counterfeits

A completely different matter is when the items sold online are not authentic. This means that the items customers buy online from random sellers may be counterfeits. It can be difficult to distinguish an authentic brand product from a counterfeit from a digital photo. That’s online customers may end up buying counterfeit products by mistake.

One way to prevent this from happening is the use of specific codes that can track back the origin of the product to the manufacturing company.

As of March 1st of 2021, a prominent change is in effect. Louis Vuitton collections of leather pieces and small leather goods will now be embedded with an integrated microchip with information held on a private blockchain.

Love the Bag

Intellectual property registers

We’ve seen how making a copy of a bag or another designer product it’s an infringement of the intellectual property of a company, but we haven’t yet say why. The reason it’s illegal to make a copy of a bag it’s not because of the design of the bag itself but because nobody can use a registered trademark such as a logo or a name of a brand that has been registered at the national or national Intellectual Property offices of a country.

If you want to protect your own brand you should register the brand in all the countries you think you will be selling to. For example you may want to register your brand in the United States, European Union and China. In the case of China you’ll need to register the brand in both latin and Chinese characters.

Fashion Photography and Advertising images copyrights

The right to use and distribute photos of models is generally acquired by paying the staff involved in the shooting and the agency that manages the talents involved in the photo shooting. This is another type of intellectual property that is generally referred to as “copyright”, often represented as (c) + name of the owner and year.

Fashion brands usually hire models, photographers, hair and make-up stylists through modelling agencies when they take photos for their websites (digital production). When

Google Analytics 4 engagement metrics

• Page views: Capture a page view event each time that a page loads or the website changes the browser history state.
• Scrolls Capture scroll events each time that a visitor gets to the bottom of a page.
• Outbound clicks: Capture an outbound click event each time a visitor clicks a link that leads them away from your domain(s). By default, outbound click events will occur for all links leading away from the current domain.
• Site search: Capture a view search results event each time that a visitor performs a search on your site (based on a query parameter). By default, search results events will be fired any time that a page loads with a common search query parameter in the URL.
• Video engagement Capture video play, progress and complete events as visitors view embedded videos on your site. By default, video events will be automatically fired for YouTube videos embedded on your site with JS API support enabled.get_appFile
• Downloads Capture a file download event each time that a link is clicked with a common document, compressed file, application, video or audio extension.

Configuration

In Google Analytics 4 you need to insert 2 codes to your website: the Measurement ID (G-XXXXXXXXXX) and the Measurement Protocol API Secret, this second one you need it to send e-commerce events to GA4. You find this configurations options in Google Analytics Setting (the Cog icon)

People need to dress up also in the metaverse. Which means that your avatar need clothes, shoes, accessories and probably stuff his/her house and so on.

You don’t have an avatar? Don’t worry you don’t need one yet, but you are likely to have one in the near future, when “the metaverse will be a reality”. For the moment you only have an avatar if you are an online gamer of massive multiplayer online games, such as Fortnite, Roblox, Animal Crossing or League of legends just to mention a few.

These metaverses are virtual worlds where you have an avatar that you use to play and you can buy objects such as clothing in the game and you pay for these virtual clothes with real money.

The preferred currency to be used in these metaverses are the cryptocurrencies such as bitcon, which are based on blockchain technology.

Now, you or someone else could say “I don’t play games and my target audience doesn’t play games neither, so why is it interesting for me?”

Whether you play virtual reality games or not, the metaverse will come to you. Some people say you are already in it as you are in Facebook, Whatsapp and other applications where you have a Digital Identity. Perhaps you have a nickname or a username, a photo and some information about you. These pieces of information build up your digital identity.

Let’s imagine that tomorrow you can build an avatar on whatsapp with your face and when you do the calls whatsapp will present to the persons on the other end of the line an avatar with your face, a body and some clothes on. Would you want your avatar to wear standard clothes, like a red overall, or would you want your avatar to where a Dolce & Gabbana suit?

The concept of stock in the metaverse

In order to understand the value of products in the real world we need to consider if a product is scarse or if there is plenty of units around the world to meet the demand. If a good is scarse the price is higher because the supply doesn’t meet the demand and the seller can raise the prices of the scarse goods because they know that people will buy them anyway.

We all know that we can make as many copy as we wants of a file, like a picture, we could send a copy to each one of our friends, all of them will have a copy of our photo and the photo has no monetary value because it’s not scarse and we can make as may copy as we want. At the same time we would not be able to know who has the original photo, because the files are all identical.

In order to stop this to happen we can use the blockchain technology to add a certificate to a file that makes that file unique and identifiable, in other words that file has its own digital identity.

By assigning a unique blockchain code to each single copy of a file we can create the quantity of stock available of a specific file. Let’s imagine that you want to buy a Gucci bag in a virtual world and there are only 3 bags available. The blockchain technology helps us to create 3 unique digital bags that are recognized on the internet and you own one of these three bags.

The non-fungible tockens NFT applied to fashion

One a virtual object like a digital handbag has been provided with a digital identity with the blockchain, it becomes a Non-fungible tocken, which means that:

1. If you loose your tocken the tocke is lost and cannot be replaced;
2. You can resell your tocken if someone is interested in buying it;
3. You can use it in all virtual environments that are compatible

With this last point we touch one of the most important open points of “the metaverse”: we need a common language, in order to make sue that the Avatars and NFTs created around the world will be compatible, in otherwords a standard.

Here some resources to understand even better the NFTs:

Ian Rogers: “Five years from now, we will have closets where we share our digital collections”

At the beginning it was more like an exchange of a product for visibility on the influencer’s social channel, but like everything, where there is a flow of money there is the need and opportunity for a more structured approach.

Today, in the 2021, fashion companies invest a relevant part of their digital marketing budget to promote the brand via influencers. With the Covid-19 pandemic Fashion companies have accelerated the switch over from paper fashion magazines to digital channels.

Social media marketing is effective because it is similar in his principle to the word of mouth, or it’s like to have a suggestion from a friend or a person we trust.

92% of people around the world said they trust recommendations from friends and family (earned media) above all other forms of advertising.

Nielsen

This hasn’t changed with covid nor with the digitisation.

How do we measure the Return On Investment on Incluencers?

To get to the answer we need to analyse the benefits expected from the social media marketing activities:

• Increase in Brand Awareness: number of followers, research on google, website traffic
• Increase in Engagement e.g. questions, shares, comments
• Increase in Online Sales within the channel i.e. social shopping or from the ecommerce website

How to organise the social media marketing team

Some companies are dedicating teams of community managers to engage with the fans on social media. The community managers should have the hard skills to interact with fans on social media according to the rules of the channel, but they should also have the “Customer Service” attitude and the “Sales” competences to deal with customers who may have specific enquires and to convert prospects who are ready to buy through proactive communications.

If a customer asks for the price of a product, the community manager should be able to quickly reply to the customer, which means the Community manager should have the price list, the product code, if there is any discount or promotion active on that product, if it’s available in the prospect country or geographic area. In other words the community manage acts like online sales assistant.

Which channels should we use?

As we all know there are several social media available and it would be very hard for a medium size fashion brand to be present effectively on the majority of them. Wikipedia report around 30 social networks with more then 100 million registered users. If we have to choose which channels we should actively manage we can choose thoose channel that we are able to manage, which means we are able to speak “the language of the channel”.

What is the down side of social media for fashion companies?

One of the main risks associated with the development of a strong fellowship on the social media platform is lack of ownership of the contact details of the followers. Because the social networks control everything that happens on the social media own platform, it’s actually possible that the platform at some point may change the algorithm that determines the visibility of the brands on the platform, this could cause a decrease of visibility of the brand posts, that may determine a loss in visibility and/or sales for the brand.

The reason behind this possible change is that the social media platforms are free for the private users but they need to make money from advertising. And because it’s the company accounts that pay for the advertising the social media platforms have an interest in reducing the companies accounts visibility so that they invest money in advertising to gain back the visibility lost.

The copyright on the social media platforms.

The second downside of the social media is that the brands give up the rights on the content they upload on the social media platforms the very moment they upload them. Both Youtube and Facebook

… a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, and worldwide license to host, use, distribute, modify, run, copy, publicly perform or display, translate, and create derivative works of your content (consistent with your privacy and application settings). This means, for example, that if you share a photo on Facebook, you give us permission to store, copy, and share it with others (again, consistent with your settings) such as service providers that support our service or other Facebook Products you use. This license will end when your content is deleted from our systems.

Facebook

… a non-exclusive, royalty-free, transferable, sub-licensable, worldwide license to host, use, distribute, modify, run, copy, publicly perform or display, translate, and create derivative works of your content (consistent with your privacy and application settings). You can end this license anytime by deleting your content or account. However, content will continue to appear if you shared it with others and they have not deleted it. Instagra

Instagram

Which KPIs can we use to measure the performance of social media marketing?

Let’s divide the KPIs into Micro-conversions and Macro-conversions: the first thing we want to track it’s of course the number of followers that we gain through the social media campaign and then the number of comments and also the sales.

That’s good but it’s not enough. We need also to evaluate the quality of the engagement, the quality is determined by how relevant are the comments. If the comments are just made with the purpose of getting visibility to the person who made the comment are not qualified comments.

The comments that you consider as relevant are comments like: where do I find the product, how much does it cost. Or people who tag other people, like their friends, and they generate word of mouth.

What did you do then? Did you panic? Or did you open  Google Analytics to hunt the cause of the drop? Did you find the problem? Here is how I go about hunting down the root cause.

I usually go to Google Analytics and look at these 5 reports :

1. Traffic sources , to check if there has been a drop in traffic from a particular acquisition channel;

2. Number of pages viewed per session, if they are decreasing there may be a navigation problem;

3. Number of products added to the carts, which can be determined by an assortment problem or a technical problem;

4. Transactions on different types of devices which tells me if the problem was on smart phones, tablets or desktops;

5. Checkout funnel , which tells me if there is a problem with the order completion flow.

1)  If there has been a significant drop in site traffic, your transactions will likely have dropped accordingly and this could be the cause of the drop in revenue. The report that gives you the answer is the daily trend of visits or sessions which can be found in  Audience> Overview , if the graph shows a sharp decline in sessions , taking a look at the  Traffic Sources  can explain many things, for example how digital and direct marketing campaigns are performing. If until the day before my campaigns brought me X thousands of Euros a day, what changed yesterday? Did I run out of budget for Adwords campaigns ?

To see if the drop in sales is due to campaigns that are not performing as expected, go to the Acquisition> All traffic report and then you can either draw the lines that interest you or make a comparison by date, selecting the option in the calendar : Compare with previous period. The report will now tell you how your traffic sources, CPC, organic, newsletter, are performing compared to the previous period.

If it doesn’t work as described you may have to make changes in the tracking parameters of your campaigns.

2) Pages viewed per session: if the visits are stable but there is a decline in the pages viewed per session, perhaps the interest in the products on your site has dropped or there is a problem with the usability of the site. Maybe an intervention on the site has compromised a button that is no longer clickable. Or that the site has suddenly become slow, which makes it difficult for users to navigate. an excess of traffic on the site could cause just that.

Usually to check the progress of the pages I go to the Audience> Overview report then I choose Pages / session from the selector with drop-down menu (see image)

3) Additions to the cart . If you track cart additions with a Google Analytics event (if you haven’t already, here’s a good reason to do so) and you see that there is a significant drop in this event, it may be that there is a technical problem on the site or that the stock is running out.

In the first case, unlikely but disastrous if it occurs, the add to cart button no longer works, in the second case it could be that some sizes or colors are out of stock , so users cannot find the product they are looking for.

4) Transactions on different types of devices . When you have a mobile version of the site or a responsive site, it is useful to know if the decline in sales has occurred on all types of devices, on a single category or on a particular model of smart phone.

To see this report, go to Audience > Mobile> Overview and look at the column with the ecommerce conversion rate, which shows the percentages for the different categories of devices: Desktop, Mobile, Tablet.

Devices can have different average conversion rates  depending on the device or geographic area of reference, so it’s good to have an idea of ​​what average values ​​are acceptable for your brand.

5)  The checkout funnel  is the last part of the journey in acquiring the order, if you have not yet identified the cause of the drop in transactions, the answer may be here. If you have configured this report in Google Analytics, you also know what percentage of users on average successfully complete your checkout . If the percentage has dropped suddenly, the answer lies precisely in this path. It could be that your acquirer has had a (difficult) problem or that there is some other technical problem. Your best bet is to do a full test check out and see what’s wrong.

The report is located in Conversions> Goals> Funnel View and looks something like this.