In this competitive market, every fashion business needs to analyse itself to ensure that it is still relevant to the market’s needs. Moreover, by analyzing a fashion clothing retail, one also gets a fair idea of the areas that need improvement. There are several methods and metrics that are used to analyse a fashion business.
Key Metrics To Analyze A Fashion Business
An ideal fashion business has several weaknesses and strengths. One needs find those strengths, and coping with the common weaknesses in the fashion industry.
Vast Product Range
Every fashion clothing retail business offers its customers a wide range of products. A good fashion business should have clothes and accessories for every age group and occasion. However, some fashion brands may wish to focus on a particular age group, and if they do, they should ensure that their product range meets the needs of their growing customer base.
Global Presence
Today, the world is more connected than ever. This has brought people from all across the world together, giving birth to a close-knit community of creators, designers, and fashion enthusiasts. Therefore, every brand needs to have a global presence and participate in global events, like fashion shows and beauty competitions.
Growth
Fashion is a multi-billion industry today, and every fashion brand is making huge profits. And if your brand is not growing, there is probably something wrong. So it is crucial that you analyze your inventory and sales record to find the fault in your supply chain. Try to bring more creative minds into your clothing retail business to ensure that your product is acceptable to your target audience.
Product Quality
Today, many companies try to make a place in the market by supplying low-quality, low-cost, fast fashion to their consumers. These companies are forcing other brands to resort to low-grade material to increase their sales, thus compromising the quality.
Every fashion business should seek feedback from their customers on the quality of the clothing. A good company always ensures that its quality products satisfy consumers’ needs. If a company compromises on the quality of their clothing, they would not be able to retain their customers for long. Therefore, it becomes essential to run timely quality checks on the products sold by the company.
This will ensure that companies know what their customers like and dislike about their offering. By doing this, companies can modify the products they sell in the future so that it falls in line with the needs and desires of the customers.
Self Reliance
Every big fashion brand maintains its quality through an in-house production unit. This production unit ensures that the product that the company delivers is made with a high level of precision. Companies that send out their clothes for production to places far away to cut down manufacturing costs, but don't realise that clothes manufactured away from their supervision may not meet the demands of the consumers.
The strength of a fashion business also lies in the fact that it is autonomous in its operations. If a fashion business gives its designers and artists the freedom to make designs, they will use their creative power to make an excellent final product.
Adaptability To Market Trends
One of the biggest challenges the clothing retail business faces is the uneven nature of fashion trends. The emergence of fast fashion is also a significant threat to companies that are planning to make sustainable and durable clothes. So to analyze a business, it is essential to see if they can keep up with the changing trends and how well they can manage these upheavals.
Online Presence
Today, every brand competes in offline stores and on various social media platforms and e-commerce websites. Data shows that fashion businesses that have successfully created their e-commerce portal have earned significantly more profit than the ones that did not. Therefore, while analyzing a fashion business, do consider whether they have an active online presence or not.
Is The Fashion Business Meeting The Needs Of The Buyers?
Every buyer has some expectation from every clothing retail business. Recent research published in Harvard Business Review highlighted five things customers seek in the fashion business. These things are:
Quality
As discussed earlier, quality is a fundamental metric while analyzing a fashion business. According to Harvard Research, “perceived quality affects customer advocacy more than any other element.” The importance of quality can be well reflected in the promises like “ our product will last for life” that brands like Aviator, Saddleback, and Leather Co give to their consumers. If any company is looking after the needs of their customers by ensuring good quality clothes, the customers will surely reward them with their loyalty.
Variety
A clothing retail business can be called a well-established one if they have products for everyone. Many big fashion brands have made a loyal base of customers by offering endless clothes options to them. Moreover, suppose a company has its firm footing in all the categories, it will be the least vulnerable to the changing trends in the market because if one of the segments gets affected by a shift in direction, the other will continue to generate sales for the company.
Design
Every customer looks for a cloth that resonates with their personality. Most people love to buy things that look confident and have an eye-catching aesthetic. Fashion businesses can effortlessly track using the sales data to find out which category of garments appeals to customers the most. And can put more research and money into developing that design to boost their sales. An intelligent brand is one that studies the market and trends on social media platforms, fashion magazines, shows, and updates its inventory accordingly.
Make Shopping Simple
A good fashion business tries to simplify the shopping experience for its customers. This process also includes developing good e-commerce strategies to ensure that your online sales are adequately streamlined. In case of unavailability of any color or size in a particular dress, the portal can give them the option to opt for a pop-up notification that will inform them once their desired color or size is back on the portal. Apart from this, one should ensure that their business has dedicated customer service to assist them 24X7.
Save Time
No one likes to wait in long queues at the checkout counter. Harvard study shows that brands that have developed a hassle-free method of shopping for their customers have generated a lot more revenue than brands with complex checkout and shopping interfaces. Therefore, brands need to analyse their e-commerce business model to make it more efficient and friendly. While analyzing a fashion business, one should ensure that it is equipped with advanced technology that provides effortless checkouts.
These were some of the metrics you need to look into while analysing a fashion clothing retail business. One metric that reflects the strength of a company is its replenished inventory. Fashinza is providing a B2B apparel manufacturing platform to fashion businesses. They help clothing brands to manufacture their collections by connecting them with suppliers.
