While most economies worldwide are slowly recovering, the overall fashion retail market remains fragile. Incident rates continue to grow, leading to the possibility of further nationwide lockdowns. Government strategies aim to identify COVID-19 hot spots and take local measures to prevent further spread of the virus. And with each new wave of infections, the risk of even stricter measures cannot be completely ruled out.

Such dynamic social changes present a diverse range of buying behaviors that are emerging across all consumers. Preference for fast fashion may decline due to economic uncertainty, while a growing movement toward work-from-home arrangements is increasing demand for less profitable leisure. But at the same time, high-end apparel is experiencing an exponential rise as shoppers find new ways to spend their discretionary funds typically reserved for travel. And once stores begin to reopen, a dramatic surge in larger-than-usual transactions and more frequent visits will likely emerge as pent-up desire for in-person shopping experiences grows.

But no matter if a consumer is eager or weary about resuming their pre-pandemic shopping habits, online commerce will likely remain a significant part of the consumer journey long after the pandemic is a distant memory. And fashion retailers must remain resilient enough to adapt their sales strategies to every twist and turn in global and regional market conditions.

Prepare for the Unexpected with Omnichannel Commerce

Think back during the first set of lockdowns. Initially, only China’s markets were impacted. Then, as agencies detected the presence of COVID-19 in Europe, the first regional lockdowns were mandated in Italy and Spain, and more nations were later impacted as case numbers continued to climb and spread across the continent. In short order, North American, Latin American, and African countries were affected just as China’s economy began to rebound due to a gradual relaxing of restrictions and closely monitored rollout of brick-and-mortar store reopenings.

Even today, as we continue to fight the pandemic, one store can open without any restrictions but another location offering the same brand in a nearby town or state may be limited in its foot traffic capacity. For some fashion retailers, the secret to recovering sales in such an uneven competitive landscape is the use of omnichannel touchpoints.

For example, brands may reorganize their store networks with flagship or pop-up stores to give customers a tactile shopping experience before ordering a new item while relying on online commerce channels to build revenue. Meanwhile, many retailers offset supply chain overages by selling excess inventory at full price when the related season comes again or through promotions or outlets.

No matter the economic condition, timely decisions are essential to run an omnichannel model without narrowing sale margins and impacting the bottom line. With the analytical capabilities of , fashion retailers get a real-time overview of their actual sales figures and all relevant finance key performance indicators. Sales executives can adjust promotions, change article pricing and discounts, and replan the required store personnel’s working hours.

Now suppose a fashion retailer needs to close stores due to a renovation or the launch of a new store format. The brand can use data to predict how its response will impact the business and its consumers. This exercise of considering immediate feedback from shoppers turns operational data into inspiration for further improvements.

Then, with the unified demand forecast component of 51·çÁ÷Customer Activity Repository, retailers can analyze historical sales data to identify influencing demand factors, such as price changes, promotions, seasonality, public holidays, and trends. Based on these demand models, algorithms in the unified demand forecast component of 51·çÁ÷Customer Activity Repository can predict the effects of similar occurrences in the future and use that intelligence to determine future demand and upselling potential.

Embrace the Fundamental Importance of Omnichannel Commerce

The importance of omnichannel has never been so fundamental to the fashion industry’s success as it has become now. Online and in-person commerce models must provide a consistent and seamless buying experience that allows consumers to buy a product in any omnichannel touchpoint and collect or return it in a selected storefront of their choice.

By rethinking their current strategy, fashion retailers can drive consumer demand with attractive, strategically placed, seamless, and easy-to-use experiences that are also accessible anytime, anywhere, and on any mobile device. And most importantly, they can set the foundation for offering products that are always available and delivering every order quickly and reliably.

Service offerings from SAP can help your fashion retail business seize your edge in an always growing and dynamic omnichannel world. .

This is the second part of the three-part series “.” Check the series landing page next week to find out how fashion retailers are testing the limits of their business during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dirk Dreisbach and Harald Ritter are chief business enterprise consultants for the Business Transformation Services group at 51·çÁ÷Germany, focusing on consumer products and retail industries.

Over the last two decades, very few industries have experienced the same level of success as fashion retail. As economic growth steadily increased, a natural rise in consumer demand emerged, and the industry caught the wave early enough worldwide to relish in growing sales volumes.

With trends popping up on a near-weekly basis and an exponential rise in the number of new collections each year, the industry was full of unlimited potential. Fast fashion became highly profitable. Leading brands opened stores all over the globe and dominated the streets of major capitals and megacities. Even designers of established labels have been anointed rock stars, endorsed by famous actors, celebrities, and many other influencers.

Since the beginning of this upswing, 51·çÁ÷has been working closely with industry players. Together, we have developed enterprise resource planning (ERP) back-end systems and core solutions for areas such as supply chain management, warehouse management, , and promotion management. And all this innovation has been accomplished over the last 15 years while fashion retailers transitioned from a purely online sales channel to an omnichannel approach.

The Pandemic Shook Up Every Industry Norm

Before the pandemic took full impact, most projects were already running with our experts, who were working closely on-site at our fashion retail customers’ headquarters worldwide. Some of our customers were preparing to go live, while others were either planning their implementation or setting up their solution investment to address business requirements.

But we reached a point where customer safety regulations and travel restrictions tightened, and people were told to work from home. Such mandates are not complementary with a traditional brick-and-mortar store approach. Without an outlet to engage customers, transact their purchases, and fulfill their needs, many fashion retailers would have stayed in the red financially.

Such a new development only heightened our customers’ sense of urgency around their omnichannel projects. Instead of halting initiatives to conserve cash during a time of economic uncertainty, these fashion retailers chose to continue – if not accelerate – their projects, even as their business experts and our technology and process experts were working from home.

To ensure the continuity of our engagements, the reacted swiftly with clearly defined guidelines based on our 25-year experience with off-site work. This action allowed our team to deliver already started and planned services remotely. In cases where an on-site presence was essential, pragmatic turnarounds – such as switching from international to national teams – were considered, always adhering to the latest travel policies and legal requirements.

Our ability to continuously support our customers enables them to face every twist and turn of the pandemic with the assistance of 51·çÁ÷service experts. We help retailers manage their end-to-end processes with on-premise and cloud solutions from our fashion retail solution portfolio to achieve sustainable efficiency across production, purchasing, logistics, sales, marketing, customer service, HR, and finance. Plus, others leverage omnichannel marketing strategies to maintain and accelerate consumer interest in fashion lines across various target groups.

But more importantly, all the efforts of our fashion retail customers are securing their place in an ever progressing omnichannel fashion world.

According to Guido Schlief, senior vice president and head of Services in Middle and Eastern Europe at SAP, the digital transformations that our customers are pursuing are essential to their success. “Services experts from 51·çÁ÷have the skills our fashion retail customers need to flexibly react to challenges and enable business continuity in an always-growing and dynamic omnichannel world.”

Service offerings from SAP can help your fashion retail business seize your edge in an always growing and dynamic omnichannel world. .

This is the first part of a three-part series “.” Next week, explore how COVID-19 is changing the future of fashion retail.

Dirk Dreisbach and Harald Ritter are chief business enterprise consultants for the Business Transformation Services group at 51·çÁ÷Germany, focusing on consumer products and retail industries.