COMMENT AND OPINION | Dan Mounsey
DAN MOUNSEY OPINION
The marketing and business development director at Hills Panel Products, offers some advice for retailers looking to respond to the challenges raised by ‘fast- fashion’ online browsing and shopping experience
want to focus on how the different experiences of browsing and shopping online can influence consumers’ choices of colours, materials, designs and price more than physically browsing in a store with a friend or family. There are implications – opportunities and challenges – for us all across online and physical environments. The apparent tendency for young online shoppers to choose certain colours, fabrics and clothing shapes online, as opposed to customer choices in physical stores, raises questions about how we promote full product ranges and especially innovative, subtle or niche products. According to fashion retail analysis, garments with brighter colours, cheaper or stretch fabrics and certain cuts sell better online than in physical stores. Why? Primarily because some colours or shades draw attention on screen. These are not big-ticket items and the solo buyer typically views and purchases items alone without a second opinion.
There are
implications – opportunities and challenges – for us all across online and physical environments
In contrast, clothing with subtle colours, better-quality materials and tailored designs sell better in physical stores. Why? Because shoppers can actually feel the fabrics, experience the quality and cut, try garments on and get second opinions from a friend or family.
While the respective advantages and disadvantages of physical and online business may be generally appreciated and often discussed, the influence of customers’ sensory experiences of products within different browsing environments on final purchasing decisions are probably less known.
How to influence online shoppers I
Complex
The KBB market is complex with diverse customer groups. Rather than being locked into a polarised ‘online retail versus physical retail’ debate, a more productive way forward is to understand these complexities and position your business’s whole offering (products and services) to target specific customer groups. As prospective buyers of KBB products, by understanding the browsing experience and purchasing decisions of younger people now, we can respond, online and physically, to benefit our sector in the future. As mentioned, the key characteristics of younger fashion-focused consumers are viewing products purely on-screen, making purchase decisions based only on online resources, and browsing and buying alone at home. If these tendencies continue as they get older and start buying fitted furniture, then how might the KBB sector respond?
Can we find more advanced ways to promote wider product ranges, decors, design, service and other considerations? There could be good commercial opportunities for those who can.
It’s also vital to recognise that physical retail is dynamic and changing. Workspaces, commuting and home life are changing in the post-lockdown world, too, creating new KBB opportunities. At HPP, we operate across physical and digital channels. This is our 30th anniversary year and we’ve recently launched a new online Inspiration Centre with Egger. This features 2D and 3D visualisers for trade customers and end-consumers. These capture the sensory qualities of surfaces, colours, tones and textures. Users can discover new products, brands and considerations before purchasing. In turn, they may contact local showrooms or installers to learn more and sample products first-hand. This year, we plan to support showrooms too with various resources, in keeping with our holistic approach. Physical retail has been hugely important to HPP for 30 years and continues to be so.
22 · June 2021
This isn’t just an issue for clothing. Customers’ sensory experiences of products and browsing environments are relevant to the KBB sector, too. Selling new products and full ranges matters.
But the tendencies of younger consumers with online habits could have implications for how we do this. How do we encourage customers to consider alternatives to established mainstream top-sellers? These questions are perhaps especially relevant to businesses, physical and online, which may want to differentiate themselves from mass-market, mass-volume providers.
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