How can technology help the Fashion industry face the disruptive effects of COVID-19 outbreak? Virtual reality stands out as a valuable ally.
Key takeaways
- In the global COVID-19 emergency, the fashion industry has been forced to postpone or cancel events and runway shows, as well as to close stores and showrooms
- Fashion brands are looking for technological alternatives to in-person shows, showrooms and presentations
- Virtual reality enables brands to simulate their showrooms and share their collections with buyers from all over the world, and will have significant implications on the relationship with consumers too
The COVID-19 outbreak has turned the world upside down, with a growing impact on the global economy and negative implications for all industries and businesses.
The Fashion sector is not immune to this. Fashion houses have postponed or even canceled their runway shows: Giorgio Armani postponed its April cruise show to November, Versace and Gucci canceled US shows planned for May, while Prada canceled its May resort show in Japan. Numerous fashion weeks have also been canceled, and some runway shows like Armani’s and Biagiotti’s at the Milan Fashion Week happened behind closed doors or were transmitted in live streaming.
In addition, brands’ stores and showrooms have been closed indefinitely.
The crisis has brought to light already existing thoughts of changes within the fashion industry, related to the consideration that runway shows are expensive, laborious and harmful to the environment. Before the Alexander McQueen show in Paris, the chief executive of the luxury conglomerate Kering François-Henri Pinault wondered whether the industry should begin digitizing showrooms and considering a new system.
The artistic director of Condé Nast and editor of Vogue Anna Wintour said that she had also been thinking about the future and the necessity of a radical reset at a time of crisis.
Ayse Ege – founder of the luxury women’s label in Paris Dice Kayek – noted that, despite lots of buyers are experiencing budget cuts and are asking for the option to cancel orders or receive discounts, buying has not stopped completely but is instead happening remotely through videochats, lookbook photos, and sales line sheets shared between designers and buyers.
Now more than ever the sector needs technology to relaunch, as stated even in Vogue Business’s recent article: “This season’s spate of cancellations due to Covid-19 have clarified the need for technology that facilitates an alternative to in-person fashion shows, presentations and showrooms”.
These “tech alternatives” can be found in videos, virtual showrooms that make use of 360-degree imagery, Augmented and Virtual Reality, holograms and haptics.
Virtual reality can tremendously help brands in their relationships with buyers, especially in such a period of emergency, where a new need has come to light: engaging partners without meeting them in person. By simulating their showrooms in virtual reality, brands can share their collections with partners from all over the world without the necessity of physical space and face-to-face meetings.
The investment in 3D products can be scaled to e-commerce, where displaying interactive 3D products instead of pictures has proved to increase conversion and reduce returns, according to the company Threekit.
In the close future, 3D e-commerce will evolve into next-level experiences, such as online “smart-fitting” and AR/VR commerce. According to a recent Nielsen survey on tech-transformed consumption, 51% of global consumers are willing to try A/VR to assess products and services.
So the potential of virtual reality doesn’t end in the relationship between brands and buyers, but goes far beyond it, embracing the relationship with consumers. According to Vogue Business, “The advent of 5G connectivity teamed with VR or XR devices will entirely upend how buyers, press and consumers interact with fashion.”
Leader in high-quality virtual reality simulation for retail, Invrsion is perfectly positioned to help fashion brands cope with this emergency. By simulating their showrooms in immersive virtual reality and digitizing their products and contents in hyper-realistic 3D, Invrsion provides fashion brands with an effective, professional solution to showcase their collections to buyers anywhere in the world. Detailed accuracy, interactivity and customization, and high performance are the key aspects of the virtual experience, where catalogs really “come to life” and partners are engaged like never before.
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