How Tech can help Fashion Retailers overcome rising costs

With the global spread of the vaccines against COVID-19, many believed that a new normal would finally bring some stability in 2022. However, fashion online players are still struggling to preserve cash when everything from labor to materials to energy are becoming costlier and more volatile at a daily rate.

“It’s more costly to operate a business today than it was pre-Covid”, says Gary Wassner, whose firm Hilldun helps finance production for more than 400 fashion brands (Business of Fashion, April 2022).

KEY FINANCIAL DISRUPTORS DURING H1 2022:

• The war in Ukraine.
• Remaining lockdowns due to Omicron in China.
• Energy crisis with spiking gas and oil prices.
• Sky-high freight rates.
• Rising wages for labor.
• Unprecedented inflation that is taking a toll on household budgets.

During these times, experts anticipate that technology investments in the fashion industry are expected to ramp up. McKinsey Senior Partner states that “technology plays a very important role: we have to think about it really end to end” (McKinsey, June 2022).

In an effort to minimize operational costs, many fashion retailers and brands are looking at multiple tech providers to optimize their current setup and work cost-efficiently at scale. Looklet, for instance, has helped long-standing online retailers save 30-40% costs when moving from traditional photography to a Looklet digital setup.

HOW LOOKLET CAN HELP:

• Shoot individual items in a Looklet studio without models, photographers and HMUP on-set.
• Enjoy predictable variable per-item cost, including model rights, processing and software licenses.
• Add production capacity easily, with low fixed cost from Looklet.
• Save on travel expenses for models or staff and centralize photo operations wherever your samples are.
• Equipment available 24/7, less need for permanent staff and easy training of freelancers.
• Decentralize digital styling to multiple locations and retain control with digital monitoring tools.

As a matter of fact, many fashion retailers have opted to combine live models with the Looklet tech solution to save financial resources in some categories, off-banners or improve working capital by getting products online faster and beat sales.

Looklet and traditional photography imagery in online department store chain.

Please do get in touch with us so we can learn more about your cost-saving targets and propose a setup that can meet your goals for model photography for e-com.

Sources:

How current global trends are disrupting the fashion industry

Apparel retailers get squeezed in Q1

How Brands Can Deal With Rising Costs

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