Fast Fashion – Can Your Signage Supplier Keep Up?
Fast fashion – just another buzz word? You be the judge but we don’t think so. Fast fashion is best described as the ability to take a product from design concept through to a product available to purchase in the shortest possible time. Arguably the leader and pioneer of this trend would be Inditex of Spain, the owners of the Zara retail empire. Zara boasts industry leading profit ratios with global sales of AUD $30billion and profits over AUD $4 billion. Zara claims they can deliver products from design into store within two weeks – well below the industry average of 6 months! With the growing prevalence of online sales platforms there has never been a greater need for traditional bricks and mortars stores to offer the latest styles and trends in store in the smallest window of time. In an article about Retail winners and losers of 2016, Christina Boni, VP & Senior Analyst of Moody’s says that “Brands that have leveraged their online and mobile channels to meet consumer demand for more immediacy were also big winners, especially in the apparel sector. “The focus is on being quicker and softer and improving your supply chain such that you are ‘buy now’ and the product is as fresh as it can be, and I think different retailers are in different stages of being able to provide that,” Boni said. “The fast-fashion retailers do the best job at that.”
How does this affect the role of visual merchandisers in Australian retail? Today’s consumer wants instant gratification; they don’t want to wait. So, given that the landscape for retailers has changed so much it should be expected that suppliers to this industry need to also align with their client’s needs or risk being overtaken by those that see this trend and meet the changing needs of clients.
Fast fashion companies need signage suppliers that won’t constrain or limit their ability to respond swiftly to market trends. Providing solutions that can be express freighted into store cost effectively and that will not be damaged in transit are all important factors for fast fashion companies. A growing number of fast fashion companies are choosing fabric signage as a perfect solution that can be shipped quickly and cost effectively into store while also maintaining brand integrity.
Fabric Signage is fast, cost effective and maintains the integrity of your brand. As the largest supplier of fabric signage to the Retail fashion industry in Australia, we understand that deadlines are not ‘nice-to have’s’ in this industry. If your supplier is not able to deliver your signage on time, on budget and right first time then you should switch to someone who can. At AFI Branding we have invested significantly in our people, systems and equipment to ensure we have enough capacity to meet even the most demanding requests. We believe that fast fashion is not going away and in fact predict that timelines and consumer expectations will continue to put greater pressure on signage suppliers and fast fashion companies.
Source: http://www.afibranding.com.au/blog/2017/02/22/fast-fashion-signage-supplier/