Set the Trend: Present Seasonal Apparel Online with Dynamic Imaging
By: LiquidPixels | September 20, 2022 | 9 Min Read
How apparel companies leverage pre-fall campaigns to inspire their customers.
According to a Google survey, 56% consider a wardrobe refresh the top reason to shop in the next 12 months. Similarly, McKinsey’s State of Fashion 2022 report emphasized consumers’ expected wardrobe reboots as they navigate the post-pandemic new normal.
The fashion industry expects consumers to increase post-pandemic spending on apparel brands as shoppers finally leave their homes and venture outdoors. Thirty-seven percent of fashion executives expect occasion wear to be one of the top-three categories contributing to year-on-year sales growth.
This trend began in 2021, as people manifested “revenge shopping” once they resumed their social activities.
Case in point: Global monthly searches for occasion dresses were up 200% year-on-year in 2021.
Because of this, brands are now leveraging the wardrobe reboot trend through seasonal apparel; for example, unveiling pre-fall apparel online.
Growth Opportunities for Seasonal Apparel
According to trend forecaster Geraldine Wharry, people want bright colors and shiny clothing as they look for new, timely apparel for brands’ pre-fall apparel collections. Louis Vuitton is one of the brands which has showcased its pre-fall apparel online.
Any apparel brand or business can take this exact route—utilize online platforms to showcase their collections. And they should act on this immediately. McKinsey’s most recent State of Fashion report reveals that hyper-interactive digital environments and e-commerce investments remain the key drivers in the fashion industry. It adds the expectation that companies will look into fresh approaches to online creativity and commerce, such as the provisioning of virtual showrooms.
Thirty-two percent of executives see digital avenues and consumer engagement as the most significant growth opportunities in 2022. Furthermore, the global e-commerce apparel market is expected to reach USD 941.0 billion by 2028.
Online platforms present a good opportunity for brands. Digital media remains a viable option to engage a brand’s target audience and will continue to be a solid avenue for customer engagement. Businesses failing to tap into this opportunity are in great danger of getting left behind.
There are many ways to capitalize on emerging trends and to help attract customers online, such as social shopping and the creation of digital passports.
But amid these various online marketing channels, selling channels, and media, how can brands effectively and immediately launch their pre-fall apparel online? Through dynamic imaging.
Leveraging Online Trends for Pre-Fall Apparel Marketing
In 2022, the post-pandemic wardrobe reboot among consumers has led brands to adjust strategies, especially across product development, merchandising, and marketing. According to McKinsey, companies leverage consumers’ eagerness to dress up for social occasions.
Social Commerce Strategy
Marketing through social media platforms, such as TikTok and Instagram, is expected to help brands engage with customers seeking to buy new product styles, such as pre-fall apparel. This is because consumers are able to get a more authentic interpretation of the apparel items being offered.
But, buyers want to have the ability to interact with the products they want to buy, and businesses should provide this feature today to solidify the interest of these customers.
Consumers are now interacting with brands and making purchases through social media platforms, currently touted as social commerce. Seventy-four percent of consumers are more influenced to shop via social media now than at the pandemic’s height. And it is expected to increase further.
The US market expects to increase its social commerce sales to USD 56 billion by 2023, compared with USD 37 billion in 2021.
Meanwhile, worldwide social commerce sales are expected to skyrocket to USD 600 billion by 2027. We can attribute this to social media platforms’ investment in and introduction of shopping features and the “simple, frictionless shopping” it provides consumers.
This demand creates an urgent need for businesses to boost their presence on these platforms or risk falling behind competitors and losing potential additional revenues. Brands such as Michael Kors and Marc Jacobs have partnered with Instagram to make their products accessible on the photo-sharing app or direct users to their websites.
According to McKinsey, to be successful in their social commerce strategy, brands will need to apply a tailored approach.
Digital Product Passport
In addition to social commerce, digital product passports also answer consumers’ increasing interest in getting detailed product information online. These digital product passports help create “digital twins” of brands’ products—a replica of real-life products online. This means that products can be accessible online and include various details, such as production and material information. It ensures the authenticity of products and transparency for its consumers.
McKinsey estimates that two of five fashion executives will adopt product passports in 2022 or have already done so. The goals of increasing brand engagement, brand loyalty, and repeat purchasing are driving the increased implementation of digital product passports. And 13% of customers said they are interested in products with digital passports due to their connection to digital experiences and content.
One of the brands that have already provided this offering is Prada, by offering personalized information and purchasing suggestions to customers who scan NFC tags embedded in products.
Effective Customer Engagement with Pre-Fall Collection Images Online
An apparel business’ seasonal collection should be visually captivating at first glance. Once online consumers discover a product that meets their needs, 85% of them take a product-related action within 24 hours of discovery. That is, if it meets customers’ standards. So, brands and businesses must act now and meet the needs of consumers to ensure effective customer engagement.
To achieve customer engagement, brands must deliver “a consistent online and offline shopping experience,” according to Shopify. Therefore, brands must be able to showcase dynamic apparel images when presenting pre-fall collections online, whether through a brand website, social media platform, or a digital passport.
Compelling digital imagery is crucial in achieving this. Seventeen percent of websites see an increase in revenue when customers can visualize a product feature or benefit.
2D photos are not able to create an immersive visualization experience. It is also why product photography can no longer meet consumers’ current demands and may even cost businesses more. Brands can only enable this consistent and optimized shopping experience through interactive images.
Moreover, dynamic imaging provides this level of interaction to brands’ pre-fall collections.
How Dynamic Imaging Helps in Launching Pre-Fall Apparel Online
“Fashion is part of the daily air and it changes all the time, with all the events. You can even see the approaching of a revolution in clothes. You can see and feel everything in clothes.”
—Diana Vreeland
When presenting pre-fall collection images interactively, brands must provide a customizable experience, such as allowing users to view various angles, different textures, fine details, and color variations. Dynamic imagery provides online shoppers a complete visual representation of a brand’s collection. With businesses having a small window to capture customers’ interest and urge them to purchase seasonal collections until it becomes no longer relevant, it is imperative to deliver this experience.
This is where dynamic imaging proves its value. It is a revolutionary way of processing and delivering images online, enabling high-performance, interactive online visual merchandising.
Dynamic imaging allows apparel brands and companies to look into recent online trends. Here is how dynamic imaging can achieve these visual experiences:
Real-Time Customization
It lets users view every detail of each piece of clothing in a brand’s pre-fall collection through real-time customizations of the product’s different textures, patterns, details, and colors.
Interactivity
Dynamic imagery enables interactive zoom, magnification, and exploration of products in 3D viewing from multiple axes, to give a complete 360° surround view. This interactive control and immersion enhance the user’s familiarity with the product, akin to picking up the item with their hands.
Fashion brands have already used 360º views to present seasonal collections through online showrooms, and avatars of models have walked 3D virtual runways.
Business Logic for Streamlined Experiences
Dynamic imagery allows companies to use business logic to present imagery that best follows their business plans and data on their customers, providing a truly customized and personalized experience.
In addition, dynamic imaging on brands’ online pre-fall apparel can be more effective and efficient simultaneously:
- Dynamic imaging is done in real-time. Businesses can take advantage of instant optimization features of dynamic imaging that allows the automation of image delivery. It combines one or more master pre-fall collection images with live data, bringing the customized image to the browser instantly and automatically.
- Dynamic imaging instantly optimizes the presentation of collections for any device. The rendering of an image combines internal and external data sources to generate text, logos, color, and other variables to produce a unique image optimized for any device. Businesses can provide this optimized image on any device while saving costs and resources.
- Dynamic imaging does not compromise web loading speed. Website images are dynamically optimized on demand, without any human intervention or the need for an extensive, duplicative image library. It allows businesses to use advanced tools and move on from traditional methods that are time-consuming, disruptive, and inferior. Web speed also translates to increased revenues.
Showcase Seasonal Collections to Make Your Brand the Trendsetter
Dynamic imaging through LiquiFire® Operating System (OS) can provide:
- Device agnostic superior rendering. LiquiFire OS can display dynamic images on any device—from desktops to laptops, smartphones to tablets—without compromising quality and resolution.
- High-definition, immersive capabilities. Dynamic imagery enables interactive motion, zoom-and-pan, 3D, and multi-axis 360° photography solutions for every screen size and resolution.
- In-depth product exploration and interaction. Dynamic imaging allows shoppers to interact with and explore the most precise details of a product without sacrificing image quality.
- Full customization and personalization features. Customers can discover colors, patterns, and composite product features while personalizing items with their name and corporate logo. Companies can use business logic to create and present imagery that provides a personalized experience for customers while allowing businesses to use their data.
LiquidPixels also has specific solutions that further help brands showcase their pre-fall apparel online in an immersive way, including:
A collection of applications that come standard with LiquiFire® Operating System (OS), which includes: Magnify Viewer™, Zoom Viewer™, Motion Viewer™, Surround Viewer™, and Collection Viewer™. LiquiFire Viewer Suite delivers interactive motion, zoom-and-pan, 3D, and multi-axis 360° photography solutions for every screen size and resolution.
A first-in-class embroidery technology that merges the power of dynamic imagery with the tools of traditional embroidery to create an unprecedented end-to-end customer experience. It allows brands to acquire any standard embroidery file, interpret it, render it as a photorealistic image, or create machine-ready embroidery files such as DST and EMB in real-time. See how embroidery can be used in dynamic images.
Real Time Inbox™ with LiquiFire OS
Provides brands the ability to present dynamic email imagery in real-time, creating timed email imagery that can show sales and countdowns. It can also present imagery based on business logic—for example brands can offer a particular product because most of it is in stock and once stock levels hit a certain threshold, a different product can be shown. Businesses are also able to inform users if supply is low for a specific product or use the customer’s color preferences to show a variation of the product in a color they like.
Now is the best time for apparel businesses to take advantage of these dynamic imaging tools to reap the benefits, such as increased customer engagement and revenues. Contact us to learn more.