It’s a year to the day since we last talked about printed trousers on this blog. So to celebrate their birthday, we thought we’d duck back into the data and see how life is working out for them. Did customers latch on to the hyped-up style? And what’s the prognosis for their future?

Our first port of call to gauge how any trend is developing is to delve into our commercial database of over 8 million product SKUs to see what’s going on in retail, in real-time. We can see how many new printed trousers have come into stock and how they’re selling across the hundreds of retailers we monitor globally. So, in the last 3 months we’ve seen 1,711 new printed trouser products arrive in stores. 27% of those have arrived in the last 30 days and 103 pairs in the last 7 days. With that three month snapshot, we can see arrivals are trailing off: but bear in mind the new season stock arrives in bulk in February and March. These figures suggest a healthy progress.

Next stop is to analyse the pricing structure. We know from previous studies, such as our flared vs skinny jeans report, that for a trend to reach maturity, it needs to be represented in retail with a clear two tier price structuring: serving the fast fashion customer and the luxury customer. And lucky for us, we can generate that data at the touch of a button! Looking at the key retailers of printed trousers (those who have the highest number of products available), we see a healthy spread of retailer-types. Matches and Farfetch are representing the luxury end of the trend well, with a bulk of products sitting at the $500+ price point. ASOS, House of Fraser and John Lewis are the retailers best playing to the high street end of the market, with the majority of their styles priced between $27 and $94. So far, so good. Now, are these products selling?

We judge how well a product is performing commercially by looking for fast sell-throughs, without discounting. Looking at the fast-fashion end of the market, we see the ASOS Africa printed trousers priced at £40. They came into stock on the 1st of May, have kept their price point and are now sold out in 6 of their 7 sizes. Zara, too, have seen quick success with their tropical print trousers, priced at £29.99. They arrived online on the 29th April and are now sold out in 3 of 5 sizes. Matches are the luxury retailer who invested strongest in the trend, stocking styles from Diane von Furstenberg, MaxMara and Opening Ceremony, amongst others. We’d previously mentioned their 10 day sell out of  2 of 4 sizes of the Matthew Williamson £375 Ikat floral print trousers. Their 3.1 Phillip Lim leopard print trousers at £325 are out of stock in three sizes and their extravagant £1,117 Yves Saint Laurent Palazzo Pants are out of stock in two of four sizes. So, things are looking strong commercially too. Product is varied, and selling across the board.

But is there still legroom (pardon the pun) for this trend to grow or should retailers be content with their haul? To see if there is still potential in a trend, we look to consumer sentiment – a great measure of demand. Spanning the year, we can see that the volume of online chatter has seen a few peaks across the year around the time of collections showing. More interestingly though, is the general amount of talk has steadily grown across the year and is at its most consistent now. Sentiment, too, has seen peaks and troughs – which coincide with summer seasons coming into stock. Consumers love this trend, but were less effusive across the winter. By comparing this to a trend we know has been a roaring success over the past two years – coloured denim – we can compare scale and give the trend an ‘age’ within its lifespan. In the past month, printed trousers have seen 48% more online mentions than coloured denim. In fact, there wasn’t a month in the last year that coloured denim get as many mentions as printed trousers received last month! It seems printed trousers are mere teens!

The trend is also getting mammoth backing from fashion’s tastemakers – featuring on a host of street style blogs. Fashion’s latest blogger-outing, Australian Fashion Week, saw the trend snapped widely. So it seems the trend will prevail, but only if retailers can steer it through the treacherous winter months. In fact, last week H&M previewed their Winter 2012 collection, and featuring in their key items? A pair of wintery printed trousers.

For even the most sartorially challenged individuals, shopping is no longer a risky business. That’s if you don’t mind sharing your tastes and purchases with the online world. Pre-purchase validation has become as much part of the online shopping experience as using the zoom tool and viewing catwalk. But who’s using this approach to buying? And does it help or hinder the sales of retailers encouraging it?

We’ve previously explored the characteristics of the Gen-Y shopper, and something which earmarks them as different to other consumer groups is their determination to seek approval: not just from their peers, but from their parents also. This is a customer who’s not looking to stick out as being oddball, but who wants to move with the crowd. It just so happens that that crowd moves pretty fast, and tastes change rapidly. This poses something of a dilemma for the millennial shopper, but one that has been tackled neatly by seeking peer approval via social channels pre-purchase.

Facebook is the most visible and adopted channel for peer approval. Scores of retail sites enable ‘Shares’ (Whistles for example), which post a product to the user’s timeline, or product ‘Likes’ (ASOS).  Many sites also enable shoppers to tweet links to the product. This is a great way for brands to generate some simple analytics: gauging early interest can help pre-empt products which will need reordering. However, a number of innovative new methods have emerged, leaving this kind of link sharing feeling flat in comparison.

Fantasy Shopper is one of those: merging online gaming with fashion, the site won Amazon’s Global Start-up Challenge last November. Gamers compete to build the best outfits and fill virtual wardrobes with garments they’re lusting after.  Prizes, in the form of vouchers for participating high street stores, are awarded to outfits with the most admirers. The game charges shopping with a sporting element and adds thrill to the chase. It’s unclear whether it will actually encourage purchase though, as one user’s testimonial states on the site’s homepage: “It’s definitely helped get rid of my actual shopping needs”!

The rapid growth of, and interest in, Pinterest highlights the demand for crowd sourced product and for sharing of tastes. A site which can attract 20,000 repins for avocado on a slice of toast certainly has a share-hungry user base. So how can social sharing combined with interactive shopping be fully harnessed to generate sales? London-based start-up, LOOKK, are pioneering just that. Users of their site get to view look books from new and emerging designers, follow the designer and are then informed when their products are available for purchase. Creating an online community with commenting encouraged, the site effectively crowd sources the design direction of new labels, whilst building their fanbase of potential customers.

In order to engage the Gen-Y shopper, there will also need to be ways to bring this kind of validation to the instore experience. UK-based Aurora Fashions (who own Warehouse, Oasis and Coast) are working towards exactly this. Mike Shearwood, speaking at the Business Seminar at the L’oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival in March, outlined their plan to access their loyal customer’s Facebook pages at the point of sale by detecting the customer’s mobile device as they walk into store. The sales person will then be able to address them personally, and having pulled up their sales history, selected an item from the range which suits their tastes. They’ll be encouraged to try the product on and the assistant can offer to take a picture which can be posted onto their Facebook wall to ask friends whether they should buy. Gen-Y-ready or what?

Whilst many retailers are installing iPads on the shop floor, in order to move beyond gimmick these need to offer something more than content shoppers can already access on their smart phones. The Brazilian branch of C&A this week launched a series of clothing hangers which digitally display the number of ‘likes’ the garment has received on Facebook. This concept leads to all kinds of off-shoots: QR codes embedded in garments which let the wearer know when the garment’s trend has died? Customers paid per ‘like’ or ‘share’ to become brand advocates?

Of course, there’s likely to be a backlash against the mass-approved model and that’s when brands will have to dig deep with their merchandising and product development to reignite imaginations. But for now, continue letting customers seek as much approval as they need!

Back in 2007, Gilt Groupe did something quite simple: they took the ubiquitous sample sale online in the U.S. Buying directly from brands and maintaining the luxury quality of product by making the site invite-only, their flash sales last 24 hours only. Their very first sale was Zac Posen stock and they took $9,565 in a day. Fast-forward five years, the company has added homeware, travel and food categories, the founders have just launched a book and the company is valued at $1 billion. Not bad huh? But Gilt also had a profound effect on the online industry as a whole, as they’re the first to admit.

In conversation with Adweek last month, co-founder Alexis Maybank professed: “The retail model really was changed in the Gilt formula, which was act now, move quickly. We don’t have everything for everyone. We don’t have goods that are always here and available, and that was the typical norm within e-commerce—everything for everyone and lots and lots of selection.”

The power lies in Gilt’s ability to tap into something at the very core of consumerism: fear. By limiting the time-frame products are on sale for and by flagging up products which are in consumer’s online baskets, they’re activating demand and generating panic buying. They’ve latched onto the addictive quality of auction sites like eBay and given it a fashionable facelift.

Gilt’s ability to produce an emotional rollercoaster in the shopping experience – from fear as the clock starts ticking to elation when the product is ‘won’ – is gold dust. Unicist ontological psychologies believe that fear of social exclusion and the guilt of not being able to meet the standards of a group are the main drives of consumerism. Gilt Groupe anyone? Without getting all communist on you, how have existing retailers reacted to tapping into the very core of consumerism?

It’s a concept which translates easily at fast-fashion level, where consumers are hungry for newness and au fait with searching for discounts. No surprise then that H&M‘s email campaigns often feature 3-day-only 50% online sales – they’ve sent out four such campaigns so far this year. Same goes at Forever 21 with their ‘Today Only’ fleeting discounts: two in April alone. And of course, ASOS are onboard with their frequent one day only free next day delivery deals and promotions such as this week’s ‘Yay for Bank Holiday! 24% off for 24 hours’.

Terminology such as ‘Ends soon’, ‘Last chance’ and ‘Last day’ plastered on neon signs have peppered the windows of discount stores as long as retail cares to remember (all are phrases we’ve spotted in email campaigns in the last week). What is new, is when luxury and branded retailers activate the emotional response too. Neiman Marcus frequently send out ‘Midday Dash‘ and ‘Evening Dash‘ campaigns – in fact two this week. And customers love it. In the past quarter, Neiman Marcus sent out 46 such emails and grew their online fanbase by 41,653 new followers.

Neiman Marcus have clearly latched onto a formula which works for them. But how about the boys? Surprisingly, menswear retailers renowned for their marketing don’t touch the tactic: neither Bonobos or Mr Porter have tapped into the panic purchasing method. Men being far less impulsive shoppers perhaps suggests fear/guilt isn’t a motivating factor for them. Some menswear retailers however, have played up the ‘sport’ in this kind of shopping. Both Burton and Topman have flash sales and offers for their subscribers – interestingly, a tactic Topshop doesn’t employ.

It’s not just discounted stock the reaction can apply to. How can brands tap into the psychology of purchase without compromising their aspirational image? Actually, it’s being done pretty well already. Burberry offering their new season product online in a limited time frame post-show, does exactly this and other savvy sites have latched on. Moda Operandi are one of these, with ‘trunk show’ previews of new season collections available for pre-order. Their “Don’t miss out! Each collection is available for a limited time only” says it all. As the e-tail battle gets ever-fiercer, you can expect to see more and more of these emotional tactics coming into play.

Everyone knows that ASOS have it pretty sussed when it comes to product range and pricing. Just last Monday, the Independent’s Harriet Walker wrote a piece on how they’re riding the recession successfully. Then this week, ASOS shares slumped, closing the week with a 12.7% deflation. But perhaps traders are missing a trick. Is consumer sentiment so invested in the brand that they will continue to ride high on the crest of recession? We set about analysing just how recession-proof their collections are, and whether customers are biting.

A decision every retailer has to make during a recession is whether to play it safe and risk boring customers, or be bold and risk alienating them altogether. We can judge the risk-taking by looking at which of the season’s trends a retailer or brand subscribed to, and to what extent. Topshop chose to pay homage to four for SS12: festival, girlish-femininity, sports-luxe and the print-laden retro holiday. Zara have created a couple of statement pieces from the aquatic and 1920s trends, with the majority of their SS12 offering sitting within the boundaries of sports-luxe, florals and soft-tailoring. Forever21 are offering six themes: festival, grunge, floral, body-con, metallics and safari. All are familiar and on the consumer radar. Many were around last summer, and perhaps the one before that: consumer comfort blankets.

So what are ASOS offering? Their SS12 Trend Guide presents a total of nine trends, which cover safe ground like lace dresses, sports-luxe and femininity. There are trends which aren’t going to terrify consumers, yet feel seasonally fresh, such as 1920s, bold colour and print-clashing. And then there’s the downright bold, which only hard-core fashionistas and bloggers have been attempting: pyjamas as daywear, mermaid with its challenging lengths and shimmering fabrics and ‘Freak Like Me‘ which name checks Meadham Kirchhoff and Tavi as inspiration – brave stuff indeed. Add to this the launch this week of the latest ASOS AFRICA collection – think African prints clashed to dizzying effect, peplums galore and reversible features – and it looks like ASOS are up to something.

What’s more, that something works. Assessing their own-brand designs is the best indicator of how brave they have been. Take their bright yellow Lace Jacket with Embellishment priced at £120 – a strong price point for the competitive retailer. Well, since its arrival at the start of the new season, it has sold out in 4 sizes. More? Look to their Pencil Skirt in Rainbow Sequins for a statement. One that has sold out in five sizes. ASOS AFRICA arrived instore yesterday and has already seen size sell outs across many styles including the tricky Mombasan Print Tulip Dress and Zebra Print Midi Dress. The split-level skirt has received a hard time in the press, yet they not only tackled it with their Maxi Skirt in High Low Hem, but they paired it with another tricky trend, pastels, running it in soft green. It has sold out in all but one size.

Should we really be surprised that such unique and cutting-edge product sells? With ASOS’s online fanbase up by nearly 10,000 new followers on Twitter alone this month, and sentiment towards the brand up by 7.6% in the same time frame, customers get what they do. In fact, customers asked for it. Last September, whilst the SS12 collections were shown internationally, 2807 influential people mentioned the mermaid trend online. There may be bigger trends, but with so many retailers addressing the middle ground, customers can be selective about where they shop. In a recession, more than ever, there has to be a USP in order for customers to bite. This can be scary territory for a brand or retailer, but data makes these ‘risks’ an option. There’s a lot to be said for the brave. Let’s hope those traders hear it.

On Monday our CEO, Geoff Watts, will be speaking at Decoded Fashion‘s Fashion and Technology Forum Series. The groundbreaking, all-day event takes place in New York’s Lincoln Centre and aims to shine a light on the ways technology is, and will be, empowering fashion, retail and luxury. We’re really excited to be discussing the ‘Crystal ball approach to consumer behaviour‘ on a panel comprising of Stylitic’s CEO, Rohan Deuskar and Fashion Snoops’ President, Lilly Berelovich. The jam-packed bill also sees appearances from luminaries such as Instagram‘s founder David Karp, Bonobos founder Andy Dunn and Deborah Lloyd, President and Creative Director of Kate Spade. Topics will cover:

• - How to deliver better payment processes
• - How to improve the instore experience with tech
• - Harnessing the power of video
• - How online can conquer fit problems
• - The rise of the fashion tech startup
• - Council of Fashion Designers of America & tech innovation
• - The role of consumer within product design

It’s set to be a day of fashion geekery that we’re thrilled to be a part of, and the good news is there’s still tickets available for those of you in town. We look forward to meeting you there!

Can’t make it? Catch the key themes and comments by following us on Twitter @EDITD, as well as the event via @DecodedFashion and #DecodedFashion.

Gone are the days when apparel discounting took place mid-season and end of season. With the constant influx of new stock and challenging retail climate meaning year-round sales, consumers are used to being bombarded with discounting offers. But how well do they respond to the price slashes?

We turned to our data to investigate if brands who heavily market their sale lines win customer favour, or do they prefer full priced product which isn’t pushed too hard? By assessing the visibility of a brand or retailer’s sale offers in their merchandising output and comparing this to online fanbase increases and sentiment changes, we can get a good picture of what consumers think.

Highly visible online discounting

Debenhams

With 10 email newsletters so far in April alone promoting discounted stock, Debenhams don’t shy away from pushing their sales. Of the 36 newsletters sent out since new season stock arrived in February, 80% have promoted sales. Sentiment towards the retailer is high – in the last 30 days, 47.95% of online conversations have been strongly positive. And it appears to work, with both full priced and sale stock selling – the floral shell top promoted in the sale is out of stock in six of its seven sizes, whilst the full-priced Matthew Williamson linear top sold out in five sizes, was restocked and subsequently out again in three sizes.

ASOS

ASOS, known for their competitive pricing and high rate of new product drops, are very vocal about their sales too. 71% of the 35 emails they have sent out since the start of the SS12 season have referred to discounting.  With the power to attract 69,939 new online followers since February, everyone in the industry knows these fellas mean business. Does their strategy work? Their 12th April ‘Sale Steals’ newsletter featured River Island’s striking Leopard Print jeans discounted to £24 from £40. They have now sold out in five of their seven sizes. Though the full-priced items featuring in ASOS newsletters are few and far between, they fare well too. Their Rocco Crop Top which featured in a Mexican themed email in February, is out of stock in all but the largest two sizes, without having seen any discounting.

Full priced product pushed

All Saints

Since their SS12 collection landed, All Saints have sent out 24 newsletters – none of which have had any discounting offers promoted. In fact, unlike the majority of online retail sites, the premium high street brand does not keep a sale section on their website year-round. Instead their newsletters focus on ranges within their collection or pull together outfits for inspiration. The featured products aren’t seeing overnight sellouts, but they are shifting, and that’s no mean feat at the premium price point. A newsletter pushing the ‘Temple Range’ on the 2oth April has seen its featured £195 Temple Dress sell out in two sizes already. Since the SS12 collection arrived, All Saints’ online fanbase has grown by 5.39%: a higher growth rate than ASOS.

Zara

It isn’t a huge surprise that premium retailers like All Saints chose to keep discounting low key, but it is interesting when retail giants such as Inditex do. For a retailer churning out vasts amounts of new product, Zara don’t churn out newsletters on a scale to match. In fact, they’ve only sent out 6 since their SS12 offering started coming into stock, and none of them have mentioned discounting. Fanbase continues to grow at a healthy rate (11.3% since February) and 34% of online mentions have been strongly positive in tone. Looking into Zara’s commercial data shows that price ups and price downs are minimal (only 75 products discounted in the last 30 days, compared to 492 new products arriving), yet sell outs are high. For Zara, this is a model which clearly works. Their product assortment and pricing is spot on – requiring minimal merchandising and little adjustment.

Conclusion

Interestingly, the data points to little difference between brands and retailers who turn up the volume on their sales promotions, to those who chose to talk about full priced stock. ‘New Season’ items which land at the start of the season and sit tight for the whole season are now redundant. It is the seamless filtering in of new products or moving around of existing products which attracts consumer attention, because it gives them something to talk about. So long as there is a constant stream of newness, product shifts. Post-recessionary spending has been hyped up to give the impression that consumers only want discounted goods. Not true, they just need pointing to what to buy. Does this mean retailers are sacrificing margins needlessly?

Images above right
From top – Zara sale newsletter Dec 2011
EDITD Debenhams Consumer Sentiment
Debenhams Newsletter April 2012
EDITD ASOS Consumer Sentiment
ASOS sale newsletter April 2012

No doubt you’ve caught up on our fashion week reports for AW12/13 New York, London, Milan and Paris, assessing the online consumer buzz surrounding the key new trends. But how valuable is this sort of information? Do the trends consumers talk about at show time actually translate into sales when they land months later? With our data we revisited our SS12 report findings, to investigate which retailers backed the big trends and how they’re now selling.

During SS12 fashion month last September, we analysed consumer and influencer chatter on Twitter, Facebook and blogs. Retro and feminine styling proved to be the most popular themes whilst florals emerged as the top print, racking up some serious online airtime, with explorations in digital and painterly styles. Retailers, both on and off the highstreet, reacted. Our Visual Merchandising tool captures a snapshot every time a brand or retailer updates their homepages, category pages or sends out a newsletter. The archived library is a really useful way of determining which trends are being backed and assessing if they’re working. We recorded that Net-a-Porter launched a floral assault on the 9th March with a full homepage update – and it worked! The featured Elizabeth and James floral print silk jacket, priced at £280 is now out of stock in four sizes. The accompanying palazzo pants, which also featured, have sold out in two sizes.

Selfridges also put their energies into floral prints – on the 15th April they sent out a ‘Print Mash-up’ newsletter, featuring designs from Peter Pilotto and Sportmax. Pilotto’s Botanical Print Dress at £495 , sold out on their online site in 3 sizes, as did the £485 Coloumn Top. Matches, meanwhile, plumped for two of the season’s killer trends. On the 6th April, their ‘How to rock print’ email featured Matthew Williamson‘s Floral Ikat Print Trousers. Just ten days later, they had sold out of 2 of their 4 sizes of the £375 trousers. The following week, they launched their ‘Line of Beauty’ newsletter which heavily subscribed to the feminine trend with floaty fabrics, whimsical prints and soft palette. Cue two killer success stories. Both the £3,113 Alexander McQueen Anemone print dress and Erdem‘s £3,500 Roxanne dress saw size sell outs with days of the email’s launch.

So buyers chose the right trends to back at premium retailers, but which retailers followed the crowd, and were they led up the right track? H&M‘s Trend Update was full-on retro, with nipped waist dresses, pencil skirts and blouses. For them, it worked. Their £34.99 pastel coloured dress sold out in three sizes in 8 days earlier this month. Topshop took the feminine trend to girly extremes with their ‘Pageant Princess’ newsletter shopping edit. The featured Premium Bonded Lace Dress, priced at £75 sold out of three sizes in two weeks. River Island made a more unusual choice, opting to back paisley prints. This was a wise move, as paisley was the second most talked-about print at London Fashion Week (after florals) and plays directly to River Island’s local customers. Their 10th April ‘Tailor Made’ email featured a £45 paisley print blazer, which sold out of all 7 sizes within three days of the email’s online launch. The featured trousers, at £30, had also sold out of 6 sizes on the day of the email.

Pretty impressive stuff all round. And guess what? The evidence is all there. Consumers really do know what they want to buy, and buy it they do. It even boils down to localised demands, as UK retailer River Island showed. So, listen to customers and stay ahead. They speak, we measure. Get yourself over to our Autumn/Winter reports sharpish!

Images above right
Top – Net-a-Porter homepage update 9th March
Bottom – River Island newsletter image 10th April

The Autumn/Winter season is an interesting one: more textures, more garments, more layers. The design input has bags of potential to ramp up – but less time. Between Spring/Summer shows in September and the Autumn/Winter shows in February, there are five months, compared to the Feb-Sept gap of 7 months. No biggie? That’s 28% less product development time.

With fashion show stagings getting ever more elaborate and new emphasis on covering digital eating into team time, how are brands and designers coping?

The time pressure and shorter window to capture sales means it often makes sense for brands to rework success stories from the previous season. Switching colourways or reworking fabrics on items which attracted buyer’s attention is commonplace, and will become more so, as the ‘extra’ duties a brand is expected to subscribe to increase.

As the garments haven’t hit stores by the time the A/W collections need working on, and therefore there is no actual sales data, brands currently rely on the expertise of the buyers who placed orders after the shows. At 3.1 Phillip Lim, the demand for the satin crepe panelled cigarette pants was proven when they were snapped up for online sale by Matches, Shopbop, Ssense, Browns, Net-a-Porter, Selfridges and Farfetch. Phillip Lim were able to react in time, including the trousers in their AW12/13 offering – which was a wise move. SS12′s arrived last month and Net-a-Porter, Shopbop and Farfetch have all seen size sell-outs already.

No different at Acne, who have rerun their SS12 Leather Moto Trousers in a change of colour after Matches, My Theresa and Net-a-Porter bought in. Preen‘s Faithful blouse was bought by Shopbop and Boutique 1 after SS12 and made a reappearance in a new fabric for AW12/13. Then there’s Isabel Marant, the queen of hype garments and reruns. Those AW10/11 red leather Sok trousers, which were splashed across magazines and blogs, sold out at Net-a-Porter in a season at their £1200 price point. Four seasons later, they’re back, reworked with a new laced fastening. Her tasseled knits and bomber jackets are other examples of shape repeats which see success.

So, it’s all very well relying on the insight of seasoned buyers who have a knack for preempting what consumers want post-show, but how sustainable and scalable is it? Wouldn’t it make more sense to go direct to consumer without being funnelled through buyers, whose own tastes and whims may affect their choices?

By tapping into consumer interest year-round, we can determine which trends will prevail and which will be old news before the next collection lands. Combine that sort of intelligence with access to sales data, and brands can see when their retailers go out of stock in each size, colourway and when they discount. We can pinpoint specific items and trends, allowing design teams to see exactly how demand fluxes. This is a scalable way of ensuring garments sell and it frees up development time to work on the innovative items in a collection. Fixing the perennial problem of understocks and overstocks makes a pretty powerful tool, right?

So, Mr Lim, if you’re listening: those cigarette pants rerun for AW12/13? Well, they attracted 133% more online mentions from fashion’s influencers than the SS12 version. Keep them right where they are!

Images
Top – 3.1 Phillip Lim L: SS12, R: AW12/13
Bottom – Acne L: SS12, R: AW12/13

If you made it through the AW 12/13 shows without getting fashioned-out, then well done. What you most likely need is a holiday, but second best is our end of season review which recaps the month’s most notable moments, designers and trends. Digest these key insights and you’ll be on top of all things Autumn/Winter.

We’ve been analysing data from across the month, which has meant digging into a stream of tweets and updates from each of the fashion capitals as well as analysing every single show. The neat bit about the information we offer, is that it’s consumer-driven, and isn’t dependent on a few coolster editor’s whims. So, Gucci being the most-talked about designer, vintage being the top theme and stripes being the most-liked print should send pretty strong smoke signals to the fashion industry.

Read the report for yourself right here!

Last week Macy’s announced they will be setting a new strategy for Generation Y shoppers. The news could raise retail eyebrows – a Gen Y-specific strategy may seem drastic, but Macy’s make a pretty mean case for the cause.

Macy’s press release identified a series of initiatives they hope will capture the ‘Millennial customer’, who they estimate have spending power of $65 million a year. The two-tiered process will aim to affect product offering and organisational structure.

Macy’s identified two customer types, the ‘mstylelab’ customer, who is aged 13-22, and the Impulse customer, aged 19-30. Macy’s already cater for the Impulse customer, with dedicated instore space and product offering, but hope that a bigger push on omni-channel will appeal more directly to the complex needs of the new generation shopper. Their commitment to speeding up internal decision making and product development will help Macy’s compete with fast fashion retail competition, for which Generation Y is hungry.

So who exactly are these Generation Y shoppers and from where have they sprung?

The concept isn’t new, first appearing in the early 90s in reference to the children of the Baby Boomers. What may be new is the dawning realisation of just how different this tribe of consumer is. Speaking at the L’Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival, Mike Shearwood of Aurora Fashions (Oasis, Coast and Warehouse) succinctly outlined the key characteristics. Being stimulation junkies, whose social lives are cemented in technology, this is a consumer group who don’t seek uniqueness, they aim for acceptance. Gen Y-ers thrive on control and instant gratification and their friends are their key influencers. The relationship between Gen Y and their parents is interesting too: children treat their parents more like friends, sharing tastes and seeking approval. The effect of this close communication is that Generation X is picking up Y’s characteristics – doubling the importance of retailers and brands to be Y-savvy.

So how do brands respond to this stimulus-hungry group? Actually, many are doing it pretty well already. Look to ASOS‘s multi-faceted output: blog network, Fashion Finder, social presence. Add in their video-catwalk, Skype driven stylist appointments, constant stream of new products and Facebook ‘Like’ functions, all of which appeal to the characteristics identified, and you have a Gen Y-ready model. Topshop excel too, with their Tumblr, instore pop-ups and events. Aurora have exciting plans up their sleeves too, in which they will seamlessly blend customers’ social data with their instore experience to create a truly stimulating offering.

The high volume of product output from key retailers caters directly to Generation Y’s need for newness. Using our product database, which tracks over 8 million product SKUs, it becomes apparent that in the last 30 days both Zara and H&M dropped around 700 new products. Topshop, dropped 1,351 new products in the same time frame but the crown goes to ASOS with their 6,217 new arrivals in the last 30 days.

This market, with its demand for product deemed ‘acceptable’ by friends, pays close attention to changing trends. Happily for us at EDITD, they’re the most vocal online fashion commentators around, providing a wealth of information that drives our data! Brands and retailers had best get tooled up in the battle to win Generation Y round.

Making his first not-so-tentative steps into online retail this week is Karl Lagerfeld. When Karl backs something, you know it’s going macro; he’s a master of zeitgeist and champions newness. His interactive site packs in blogs, lookbooks, “Karlisms” (words of Lagerfeld wisdom) and, most crucially, an e-shop.

Karl isn’t the only designer embracing online sales. So too this week is the Alexander McQueen McQ line, offering womenswear, menswear and accessories. Roksanda Ilincic have their e-commerce offering in the planning while 3.1 Phillip Lim launched their site this year. “As a young company, when you are working with wholesalers, a lot of times you can be victimised,”  said Phillip Lim in conversation with the Business of Fashion last October, prior to his business’s e-tail launch. “[Direct to consumer retail] is a way we ensure that the family we have built can move on tomorrow”.

And why wouldn’t a brand harness the ability to appeal to the online shopper? Having seen their products enjoy rapid sellouts at sites like Net-a-Porter, my-wardrobe and Nordstrom, brands are keen to get a slice of the rent-free action. What’s more, with the mainstream adoption of social networking sites, it’s no longer just teens and nerds online: it’s their customers. Having watched their online fanbases soar dramatically – Alexander McQueen’s has increased by 23.36%, with over 170,000 new followers in the last quarter – brands don’t want retailers being the only ones lucking out on all those eyeballs.

Could this be the death of B2B? Selling direct to consumers seems to be the future and, when the benefits are spelled out, it becomes even more appealing.

Why B2C works

Invaluable customer feedback

Some would argue that customer feedback is all that matters in good product design and, with this route to market, the communication channels between brand and customer are wide open.

Better control of brand experience

Online has never been able to compete with the instore brand experience but that’s not necessarily important to an online customer. B2C gives labels a powerful way to control all parts of the purchase process, and keep it on-brand, so packaging and customer service are in line with the company image. The ability to build a newsletter subscriber list cements brand loyalty. All of which are steps to tailoring that pampered, individual and boutique experience, digitally.

React to social

Pouring resources into upkeep of Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest really becomes worthwhile when e-commerce is able to react swiftly to customer comment and interaction. When followers are roaring about the latest release of digital print scarves, for example, the e-commerce team can push these to the front of the homepage and capitalise upon online interest at retail price points.

Improved margins

Not only does the non-wholesale pricing mean improved margins across a range, but the format also allows greater scope for products which just wouldn’t be viable within the wholesale framework. By offering a different product range to that which retailers may have bought into, the brand’s presence is always the definitive one when customers are seeking inspiration. It sounds simple, but until recently this hasn’t been the case.

More drops, greater control of stock

Not all of the benefits move away from the retail relationships brands have built up. Being able to bring product in and out of stock with ease, and holding stock that’s not sitting on a shop floor, means that brands can react swiftly to retailers’ mid-season buys and sell outs. Having access to a platform which doesn’t rely on seasonal budgets means that near-continuous drops can be worked in, building steadier relationships with manufacturers.

Cast the net further

E-commerce can act as a great way to test new markets before establishing a bricks and mortar presence. Offering shipping to buoyant markets isn’t a bad idea either!

So the evidence is stacked up and, as each week brings new faces to the e-commerce table, the message is clear. Brands, go straight to your eager consumers!

Last week, EDITD were in Melbourne for the L’Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival (LMFF). The event is consumer-focussed, with a supporting schedule of thought-provoking fashion forums for industry insiders. Tuesday’s forum schedule included ‘What’s the Industry’s Verdict?‘ and ‘The New Consumer‘, both of which raised very important questions about the future of the Australian fashion industry.

Problems facing the Australian fashion industry:

1. Opposing seasons

The most obvious difference, and the one that’s entirely unsolvable. For an industry which revolves around seasons, experiencing summer when the Northern hemisphere is in their Winter, is a big deal. Add to that the difference in the weather of those seasons. For many Southern hemisphere designers, there’s just no need to incorporate outerwear into their ranges, which can alienate international buyers looking for thorough range planning.

2. Timing of fashion weeks and trade events

At the two points in the year when global buyers from international stores have the most money in their purses Australia, and other Southern hemisphere fashion capitals, aren’t showing. Australian designers wanting to attract  international sales have to stump up the cash, and time, to show on the other side of the world from their studios and staff. Although LMFF runs a week after Paris Fashion Week, it’s a consumer event showing collections already available for purchase. The Mercedes-Benz Australian Fashion Week at the end of April, sits out on it’s own in the fashion calendar. Australian designer, Megan Park, who spoke at Tuesday’s “What’s the Industry’s Verdict?” forum explained how she designs primarily for the Northern hemisphere and shows to international buyers there as opposed to staging runways on home turf. She then refines the collection for the Australian market, which she shows to local buyers six months later.

3. Distance from the rest of the world

You only have to glance at a map to understand the isolation Australia experiences. Being such a huge land mass, so far from its neighbours has all kinds of business limitations. The cost of importing components and shipping product is a big concern. Staff struggle to attend key trade events in the US and Europe, and comp shopping can be a costly investment. And on a simpler level, being up to 11 hours out of sync with the Northern hemisphere isn’t ideal – business transactions can lose momentum when not dealt with swiftly.

4. The high value of the AUS Dollar

Whilst the country has emerged from the global recession valiantly, the high value of its currency acts as a turn off to international buyers and carte blanche for local customers to shop from overseas. It becomes more crucial than ever for Australian brands to identify and emphasise their unique selling points in order to justify the investment.

5. Changing legislation

The government in Australia is on the verge of bringing in controversial legislation which will mean any outworkers a brand sources must be guaranteed work for a minimum of 20hrs a week and will need to be paid for their services within a week. Whilst the framework this provides for outworkers is beneficial, it comes at a time when the industry is struggling to grow it’s manufacture and imposing these restrictions will seriously hinder young businesses.

So the difficulties stack up, but Australia also has its own advantages, which fashion businesses need to embrace and flaunt.

Competitive advantages:

1. Localised skills set

The distance instils a need to develop internally and gives Australia’s industry a chance to develop a cost-effective skills set responsive to its own needs.

2. Isolation as an advantage

Being an island means that the easiest option for its native consumers is to shop from brands within Australia. Although retailers like ASOS and Topshop have landed on Antipodean shores, the continent is relatively unscathed by international attention. Australian brands and retailers need to use their understanding of these customers and their demands as an advantage against their competitors.

3. Out of sync seasons actually fit

When Australian Fashion Week shows its Summer collections at the start of May (which is of course Winter in the Southern hemisphere) they are actually in line with the seasons in the Northern hemisphere. With the rise of buy-it-now collections and the huge consumer interest in catwalk, the fit-for-season showing sits in line with the industry’s future. If Australian designers can speed up their supply chains and have product near-ready by showtime, they could reap the rewards of showing closer to Northern hemisphere seasons. What’s more, being six months delayed offers a good opportunity for the Southern hemisphere to analyse and improve trends that have worked commercially in the Northern hemisphere.

4. Rapid growth in Asian market

The bulk of online growth predicted for the next year, comes from Asia. Australia’s proximity should make this market easy-access and a wealthy source to tap into.

5. Natural resources

Having access to one of Australia’s primary industries, wool production, should be harnessed by designers. Merino wool and shearling incorporated into collections will be a draw for international buyers, adds seasonal appeal to ranges and supports the local economy.

Best way forward

Australian brands may have to speak loudly to get noticed by international buyers and consumers, but global ambition is more easily achieved now than ever before. Brands and retailers in the Southern hemisphere need to get onboard with digital and social media. They need to consider tweeting to far-flung corners of the world to grow their fanbases or generate digital catwalks which have the potential to reach more consumer’s eyes than any spot on the Paris schedule could. By embracing the difference and by thinking creatively about how to tackle challenges, Australia could not only step up to the bar, but get one step ahead.

Yes Karl, go right ahead and smile smugly, you deserve it. Like Marc Jacobs in New York, and Burberry in London, Karl Lagerfeld managed to keep Chanel at the top of his city’s most-talked about designer’s list this AW12/13. Our Paris Fashion Week Report has just gone live and in it we explore the week’s top designers, prints and themes. We also explore the season’s most-used colours and the largest fanbase increases across the month.

Perhaps one of the month’s most interesting insights comes from noticing that the way people were tweeting from the Paris shows differed greatly from the start of the month in New York. Having been tapped into an endless stream of tweets across the month, we observed in early February fresh-faced front rowers enthusiastically analysing the shows for their trends. Cathy Horyn from The New York Times tweeted from Prabal Garang “Dark, knife-sharp Prabal, with sheer cutouts, wools that shine or neoprene that looks like a petrol stain, white satin w gold for night”. Four weeks later, by the time the fashion-pack had made it to Paris the tweet content had changed. Daphne Guinness‘s “On my way to Paco Rabanne. I think it will be very good” is less inspiring!

While this means the buzz surrounding Paris isn’t as rich, Paris’s timing also means that the buyers have really tuned into the season’s key trends and palettes and will be making more confident decisions. Which keeps that smile on Mr Lagerfeld’s face.

Read our Paris report now!

Last September, it came as a surprise to see Gucci absent from SS12′s Milan Fashion Week top designers list. They had made all the efforts – timing the Gucci Museo opening with fashion week, when editors were sent down to Florence on a chartered train for a lavish party. But the Art Deco collection with it’s cruise-liner holiday styled garments just didn’t push the right buttons with the public.

Frida Giannini has shaken things up for AW 12/13, and how well it’s worked! Our MFW report, which has just launched, sees Gucci top the week’s most talked-about designer list. So how did she navigate this about-turn?

By reverting to popular culture it seems. When Lagerfield enlisted Florence Welch to perform at Chanel’s SS12 show, he knew he was onto something. Gucci felt it too, annoucing her as the new face of the brand last summer. The penny has finally dropped in the Gucci design room – it’s not Florence’s face the public crave, it’s her ethereal and vintage-inspired clothes we’re keen to get our hands on!

So Gucci’s AW 12/13 collection tapped into this, with its pre-Raphaelite velvet gowns, the sinister feathered dresses and other-worldly capes. All carried out in a palette befitting of the alabaster skinned songstress. It was the perfect marriage, embracing Gucci’s sensuality and night-time pursuits whilst injecting a bit of Welch’s literary romanticism. The modern day muse shifts records, so it follows that interest will surround her and get people talking online.

See what else got people talking during MFW – read our report here!

The bomber – a perfect transeasonal piece. Tougher than a cardigan, less investment than a leather jacket and certainly not a coat. It came as a welcome surprise when it turned up on catwalks last September, cutting a masculine shape reminiscent of the 90s. SS12 gave us a silky number in painterly checks at Roksanda Ilincic and a mustard version in buttery leather at Akris.

Written off as a faddy, fast-fashion trend, many buyers won’t have have forseen the commercial success of the garment. Yet it’s onboard for another outing come AW 12/13. Present in shows at each of the fashion capitals to have shown thus far, the bomber jackets may well be moving to staple status. Kicking off in New York was Derek Lam, with a wallpaper floral bomber in silk satin. Taking the torch across the water to London, were Christopher Raeburn with tweed and piping, Mulberry with their hip-hop-homage in quilted orange and Peter Pilotto‘s scaled-up puffer versions. Then this week, in Milan, Etro got all grown up with a fur interpretation. That’s a wide remit which could appeal to a vast array of consumers, but does the garment sell?

There have been 247 bomber products dropping in the past 30 days across the hundreds of online retailers we monitor, compared to 685 cropped jackets and 321 biker jackets, a sign perhaps that buyers are reluctant? When you start looking at consumer sentiment, a different story emerges. In the past 8 days amongst fashion influencers, there have been 1541 online mentions of bomber jackets compared to 830 people talking about biker jackets and a measly 210 mentions of cropped jackets. People are clearly enthusing about this garment, but do they invest?

Looking at products across three price levels is a good way of telling the trend’s longevity. If the garment has been adopted at each level, and is selling well, it’s a sure sign that the trend will be here to stay. We saw this in our skinny vs flared jeans investigation – it was flared jeans’ lack of price spread which meant the trend never fully kicked off.

At high-street level, Topshop have been successful with the bomber jacket. Their Crocus Print Bomber at £45 dropped on the 11th February and was sold out in three sizes within 8 days. It has since been restocked. At £345, Sandro’s Virevolte leather-trimmed bomber sold out in two of its three sizes within 2 months at Net-a-Porter; a slower sell than Topshop’s garment is to be expected at this price point. Proving that this trend isn’t just for the ladies is the £1,865 Alexander McQueen bomber at Mr Porter. It sold out in three sizes within three months of its November drop.

We’ll be keeping our eyes peeled for bomber appearances as the next round of shows start today. Though we don’t need to place bets when the data speaks so clearly. Mark our words, bombers will be making waves in Paris too.

Want to know why statistically this outfit should be one of next season’s best selling? Then you need to read our just launched London Fashion Week digital round up. We’ve been working our way through 17 million tweets, updates and influential blog post from across the week to compile the data-driven review. It’s the only trend report which takes consumer sentiment into account, so serves as a great indicator of what we’ll want to wear next season!

So what did we find?

For the second season running Burberry are the most talked-about brand of LFW. Will anyone ever topple their digital savvy? Raise your game London designers!

Aquascutum enjoyed an enormous 63.7% fanbase increase in the month building up to LFW, with a clear leap on the day of their show. Harry Styles’ front row presence may have more than a little to do with it!

Checked prints are the most talked-about print online this week. That makes it a double whammy, having also ranked top in New York.

Vintage styles just won’t go away! Despite the myriad Russian references and military looks storming down the catwalk, vintage is still the most talked about theme of the week. Milan! Shake it up next week please!

London’s AW12/13 palette was one of the most balanced we’ve seen. Designers didn’t hold back in pillaging the art cupboard. Quite literally in the case of Mary Katrantzou.

Our reports are free for all, so go on, delve a little deeper!

It’s been a bumper week at NYFW and a stream of data has been pouring in. We’ve compiled the first of our four fashion capital reports, which is now live. Take a look at which were the most-liked prints and styles, which brands grew their online fanbase the most and full analysis of all the colours used by designers in New York.

It’s no surprise that Marc Jacobs has kept his crown as New York’s fashion king. Jacobs came out as the event’s most talked-about designer, for the second season running. His brand’s appeal is vast; the two opposing collections he showed in the week hammered the point home. From whacky and fantastical, to militant and uniform, Jacobs has showed the fashion world who’s boss.

Our reports are entirely based on data which is drawn from online reaction. They demonstrate exactly how our model of fashion analysis can be used to make better decisions: decisions which reflect demand and interest. Read the report now, it’s free for all!

Stay tuned for next week’s London round-up.

Victoria Beckham; popstar, WAG, mother and bona-fide designer. She’s wowed the critics and silenced the nay-sayers – brand Beckham have earned the latest skills on their power-couple CV.

Sunday’s runway marked Victoria Beckham’s 8th season showing and with it came the kind of execution expected of a confident designer. The eye-watering fits were a lesson in the female form, and the sports luxe theme didn’t feel hackneyed. Husband David’s charming front row behaviour didn’t do any harm either.  Meanwhile, the first collection from the more affordable sister line Victoria by Victoria Beckham is set to land in stores next week, with a party at Harvey Nichols during LFW being planned. In November of last year she scooped the British Fashion Award’s Best Designer, pipping Burberry, Tom Ford and Stella McCartney to the post.

So, it’s been quite the rebirth for VB. It wasn’t all that long ago that her public persona focused around football match attendances and now she’s selling big. In the last 90 days there have been 229 Victoria Beckham product SKU’s in our database. 51% of those were new products and 29% sold out. The brand’s commercial success spans its product’s price points; with sell outs  of £2000 dresses down to £100 jeggings.

Top success stories include last season’s belted silk-gazaar dress, exclusive to Net-a-Porter priced at £1950 which sold out in 5 sizes with at least two restocks. The formula is working at Shopbop too; last month they sold out of the $350 Clean Shift Blouse across three sizes and two restocks. The lower-priced Victoria Beckham Denim line at The Outnet flies out too. The £134 creased jersey leggings were placed on promo and sold out in five sizes in a day.

Why does it work so well? Because VB knows what her appeal is. Having generated vast global celebrity, she knows the cache that her taste level garners. By making sure she wants each item, she in turn knows her customers will. And she’s aware of the scale of her potential customer’s interest. In the past quarter, she’s attracted 512,039 new online followers – an increase of 13%. Fourth child Harper’s birth in July of last year saw her online mentions rocket to an all-time high. Two months later her SS12 nearly got as many hits. David packs some clout too – coming 12th in the global charts for most-talked about person.

What’s interesting is the amount of control there appears to be in the online discussion – with clear spikes at key dates in the Beckham’s calendar, but then very little in the way of unexpected or malicious chatter. In fact, the most negatively received event in the last year was VB’s daring to wear flat shoes when she’d slipped a disc – an unplanned hiccup in a perfectly executed marketing strategy!

The fashion industry is drawing a collective deep breath as fashion month kicks off today with the AW12/13 shows. At EDITD meanwhile, we’re cracking our knuckles in anticipation for all the data the month creates, because we do something quite special with it. Last season, we launched our digital fashion week reports which went down a storm. And now we’re back to do it all again!

So the graphs may look pretty, but what is it we actually do? Where does that data come from?

EDITD’s Fashion Week Reports

1. Reaction to shows

We monitor exactly how popular each and every show is with users of social networking sites. With the huge volume of industry professionals and fashion spectators now vocal online, this provides an excellent insight into how well the collections will be received, and sell. Archiving our data means we can see how well a designer’s collection has fared against previous collections. We’ll process close to 30 million tweets and updates across the month. Wish us luck!

2. The trends that will sell

Not only can we measure the volume of online chatter surrounding a topic, we’re also able to analyse the sentiment towards it. This comes into its own when we start looking at the emerging trends across the month; from styles and prints to textures and shapes. Just because a bunch of designers all back a trend, does not mean consumers will bite. Last season, a proliferation of retro styles were sent down runways, but consumer sentiment was overwhelmingly negative. Buyers can then use this sort of data to decide which items to buy into their stores, avoiding any mistakes from editorially over-hyped trends. Makes sense, right?

3. The colours we’ll be wearing

Those clever bods on our team built a way of looking at every single collection to pull a colour palette from it. Simple enough, but when you pool all of that data you can see which colours were used most often and then the trends start to emerge. We build a colour wheel for each city, and then take all that information to generate an overall season wheel. The more often a colour was used, the larger it’s representation on the colour wheel and the more likely you’ll be wearing it next season!

4. Who attracted followers

Another good way of analysing the success of a designer’s collection is seeing how their online fanbase increases. It’s an indication of the remit of their customer base made up of Twitter and Facebook followers. Again, our archived data enables us to see a brand’s progression. We can even break that information down to see the countries those followers are from, which buyers and merchandisers use to better understand their customers.

5. The key looks

When we pull out the week’s key looks, we don’t go for the outfits we want in our wardrobes. Our decisions aren’t based on whim, but fact. Our trend analysts apply the data we’ve uncovered about the week’s top designers, most popular trends and most-backed colours to discover the most influential looks. And then we want them in our wardrobes…

We put these free reports together to showcase the kind of data we collect and the fashion industry uses to make decisions. They also raise awareness that fashion’s audience is now global and vast. Everyone has become a critic with a constant fashion dialogue, and as you can see, applying metrics to that conversation offers a wealth of information.

Our reports will launch on the last day of the New York, London, Milan and Paris shows. Better still, sign up to our newsletter and you’ll be notified as soon as they arrive. Hope you’re excited, because we are!

Zara is one of the world’s largest retailers, with over 5,000 stores in a mammoth 78 countries, and separate websites representing each. Due to it’s vertical integration and just-in-time manufacturing structure, Zara has one of the speediest manufacturing turnarounds in the fast fashion industry. Their ability to respond to new trends and consumer demand is unbeatable, with product available in store 4-5 weeks after design. With such a sophisticated and all encompassing set-up, it seems bizarre that there’s one major arena Zara have totally avoided: Twitter.

Zara’s Twitter absence stands out. Not only because nearly all major brands (and most not-so-major ones and probably even your dad) have grasped the social importance of the format, but also because they have tackled Facebook so well. Their Facebook brand page has over 11 million fans and encourages interaction with street style submissions (albeit heavily edited). They clearly grasp that social is of huge importance, so why the radio silence on the Twitter front? Could it be that the company is too vast to make their communications relevant on a large-scale?

Other global brands have commandeered the Twitter-sphere well. H&M, who have over 2,000 stores in 48 countries, have amassed nearly nine hundred thousand Twitter followers, with a 40% growth rate in the past year. They approach their fragmented markets with a number of country-specific accounts (UK, Japan, France, and Germany) as well as a main profile, @HM. Their digital marketing reached new heights with the hype-storm they created surrounding the Versace collaboration. Topshop, too, manage their multi-national markets with custom accounts for New Zealand, Australia and Canada, as well as their main site and an American HR account. Their online fanbase has grown by 29% in the last year. Having recently launched German and French retail sites, it will be interesting to see how quickly they launch their first non-English language Twitter accounts. Regional accounts would be a good option for Zara, appealing to their whole market with language-specific updates.

And then enters Adidas, who have an impressive 20 million opt-in followers. They tackle their broad market not by region, but by sport. With three Twitter accounts and four Facebook pages, their fanbase has grown by 39% in the last 12 months. This too could be an option for Zara – with a presence for each of their accounts; Women, Men, Kids and TRF.

Inditex, the fashion group which owns Zara, isn’t opposed to Twitter. Other brands they own have presence on Facebook and Twitter, including Pull & Bear, Stradivarius, Massimo Dutti and Bershka. Interestingly, Zara Home, which runs as a separate website and often based in stand-alone stores, does have a Twitter account. With over sixteen thousand followers, the communications are in both Spanish and English.

Zara’s absence needs addressing, and quickly. It is possible to tweet links to garments from the Zara online store and the Zara hashtag (#zara) is used continually. Enabling potential consumers to create conversation about your brand without being involved, and in control, makes little business sense. Owning your online presence should be top of all brand’s priorities. Just imagine if Zara applied a little of that same polished execution we see across their manufacture and marketing offerings to a Twitter output…