The Business of Fashion
Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
SAN FRANCISCO, United States — Inspired by sites like Kickstarter, venture-backed online retailer Everlane has launched a crowdfunding campaign, dubbed CrowdFundCanada, to gauge consumer interest before launching in the Canadian market. At time of publication, the company was over 70 percent of the way towards its goal of raising $100,000 in pre-orders and credits from Canadian consumers by March 21, having raised $70,325 from over 970 contributors.
"So many retailers enter new markets with little knowledge of whether there's excitement there. As a young company running a lean business, we want to tread carefully and allocate our resources in a way that makes sense," Everlane founder and CEO, Michael Preysman, told BoF. "CrowdFundCanada is designed to gauge demand there before investing significant company resources."
A "transparent retailer" that only sells online, Everlane's business model cuts out the middlemen, and markups, associated with physical retail, offering consumers high quality basics — including t-shirts, sweatshirts, cashmere sweaters and button down shirts — at a significant discount. "A traditional designer shirt is sold at over 50 different stores and is marked up 8 times by the time it reaches you. At Everlane, we bypass these channels and create the shortest path from our designs to your hands," says a statement on the company's website.
At The Business of Fashion’s Professional Summit in New York last week, Sona Abaryan, partner and global retail and luxury sector lead at tech-enabled data science firm Ekimetrics, shared how businesses can more effectively leverage AI-driven insights on consumer behaviour to achieve a customer-centric strategic approach.
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Before fashion businesses can put artificial intelligence to work or target the right shoppers online, they need good data and a deep understanding of who their customers are and what they want. This case study offers a guide for brands that want to truly know their customer, allowing them to make smarter decisions that serve shoppers and drive results.
The US House of Representatives approved a bill that could ultimately lead to a ban of the app, but its path forward remains far from certain.