NY Women's: What the next decade of retail needs

NY Women's took place this past week from January 5 - 7. Under the umbrella of NY Women's this year included tradeshows Intermezzo, Accessorie Circuit, Fame, Moda, and Accessories The Show. The talk of the tradeshow circuit this year was what does retail need in this next decade to survive. 2020 might be cause for a celebration into a new era, but now that everyone is done celebrating, businesses are looking for how to adapt to a new generation and customers changing shopping habits.

"Retail needs to help bring smaller business owners up to speed," Laura Hernandez, sales representative for Frnch, said to FashionUnited. "Small businesses need to be up to speed to the retail e-commerce side. There's great boutiques and businesses, but they don't have the tools to compete with big e-commerce companies, which leads people to shop fast-fashion."

Brands are trying to figure out how to adapt to a new decade of consumers

Hernandez would like to see tradeshows give seminars to educate small companies on online ordering systems and even one-on-one marketing through Instagram, as that is what is driving consumer traffic. Brick-and-mortar stores doing buys at tradeshows have become much more cautious about acquiring new accounts, which makes it tough for new brands leaving very little room for growth. Buyers who have been around since before the internet have also been very slow to adapt, because they are very tied to the old school way of doing things, some of whom still haven't hopped on the social media train.

Kari Sheldon, director of sales at Amanda Uprichard, told FashionUnited that retailers need evolution and sustainability to survive in this decade. "People need to get creative and find new ways to retail," she said to FashionUnited. Individuality is also key to helping brands set themselves apart. At Amanda Uprichard the designs are often stay away from being too trend and focus on femininity and bright colors. This has helped the brand build a strong customer base, and they really know their audience.

Brands are also hoping retailers get more experiential, as customers don't just shop stores anymore, they want shopping to be a unique endeavor. "Retailers need to change up the formula, otherwise consumers are just going to shop online," said Juliana Sardo, account executive at Parker, to FashionUnited. "We at Parker are paying very close attention to what's going on out there in the market, and rather that leads us to doing things like creating more exclusive product for buyers, we try to stay on top of what's happening in the market."

Brands are also looking for a lot more novel products with the market being so saturated and it being difficult to compete. Buyers want products that they know consumers can't get anywhere else. Brands have to stick to their unique brand identities more than ever and be careful not to copy everyone else.

Adaptation will become the keyword for retailers in 2020. It's a whole new frontier as they try and navigate an increasingly challenging retail landscape.

photo: via nywomensfashionevents.com