#nuorder

Even brands like H&M — once the king of fast fashion — cannot keep up with Zara, due to its ability to produce lower quantities and therefore create higher demand. While H&M struggled with profits dropping 62% in 2017, Zara’s parent company Inditex reported a 7% increase the same year.

Similar to Zara’s speedy capabilities, fast fashion retailer Fashion Nova was recently accused of copying Kim Kardashian’s one-of-a-kind Mugler dress only 24 hours after she posted herself wearing it on Instagram. While Kardashian took to Twitter to publicly shame fast fashion companies in general, Fashion Nova went on to Instagram to proclaim its company mission and inspiration.

Social media has become a major influence in creating trends. Using social media, brands can see trends emerge in real time and can easily begin to use these signals to develop consumer insights at a rapid pace. It’s unbelievable to think that less than two decades ago, we would have had to wait an entire month to see what the magazines declared as the biggest trends emerging from award shows.

While the speed to market of fast fashion can seem completely impossible to most brands, it’s important to note the underlying lesson toward being up to speed on trends, influencers and pop culture when it comes to building a brand.

With all major pop culture events such as the Oscars, Grammys and Golden Globes comes a plethora of trends that brands and retailers can’t wait to jump on. While fast fashion retailers like Zara or Fashion Nova have the ability to jump onto these trends within a two-week turnaround, how are more traditional retailers and wholesalers supposed to keep up?

With the emergence of digital wholesale processes beginning to become the selling norm, brands must be able to think outside of the box in order to capitalize on these opportunities for additional business.

For example, a huge trend at recent award shows was the emergence of pantsuits instead of gowns. As a brand, you can immediately bring these trends to a buyer for some additional at-once business. It’s been no secret that consumers will immediately copy their favorite celebrity trend, and it’s a brand and store’s responsibility to act quickly to fulfill this demand.

Being able to quickly put together some curated items based on your current collection as a way to illustrate these viral trends is a great way to utilize your digital wholesale process.

In addition to curating merchandise based on current inventory, it’s not impossible to take advantage of these trends by either injecting color, creating limited edition styles and even sketching styles for pre-order. The process can be more streamlined and simple to accomplish by having everything done digitally.

Another example of a trend seen recently on the red carpet was celebrities’ support for women standing together. Many award attendees wore pink in honor of the #metoo movement and support for women. By injecting a new pink color to an existing style in your collection, you can easily approach the designing process with a simple mindset of adding color as opposed to starting from scratch.

Being able to monitor what styles are being delivered immediately after these popular events is another way to stay one step ahead of your competition. Ensuring you have the right styles for the right delivery windows is another great advantage of having a digital wholesale platform.

The main takeaway from these fast fashion companies is to react as quickly as possible to whichever trends your brand can personally capitalize on the most. While staying true to the authenticity of your brand is always an element of designing, the best way to utilize this strategy is by using technology as your main ally the same way fast fashion retailers have.