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The Future of Fashion and Retail

Fashion and retail are going through deep changes coming from globalisation, new technologies and new players.

Technology has always existed in fashion and the weaving machine of the industrial revolution is often considered as the first computer. Later, fast fashion revolutionised retail and then the whole manufacturing process. Today, fashion is seeing its whole value chain modified, from creation, to manufacturing, to retail including business models. This is visible in the use of technology for creation (Computer - Aided Design), for manufacturing (3D printing or digital printers of fabrics) and for retail, where Amazon has become the number one seller of clothing (with eight own brands) in 2016-2017 ahead of traditional players. Additionally, e-commerce are opening the door to new players such as the platform Farfetch. The traditional business model is being disturbed by new players such as the influencers that are substituting the fashion magazines in a much more segmented and efficient way. Fashion, through wearables is also entering other industries such as healthcare.

Traditional retail is going through the “retail apocalypse” and omnichannel seems to be the only option as the frontiers between online and offline are blurring. Amazon is offering the Amazon Go solution that might make cashiers obsolete. At the same time some digital born players such as Farfetch are investing in traditional retail (through the acquisition of Brown’s in 2015 and in the store of the future project).

In this conferences Knowledge@CatólicaLisbon, we are pleased to offer a very rich panel of speakers from Filipa Neto from Farfetch to Joana Rafael from Sensei (a technology to follow better the clients in the store), including Sabine Seymour’s project Supa (that captures bio metrics data through wearables) and Nuno Ribeiro from Fabernovel who will present a in-depth study of Amazon in the fashion industry. 

 

Professor Céline Abecassis-Moedas interviewed by Portuguese Shoes - APICCAPS, about the future of retail.

ALTA DIGITAL