There’s no avoiding it currently, the dreaded ‘r’ word, whenever you turn on the TV news it’s there alongside ‘the energy crisis’, the ‘cost of living crisis’ and the ‘COVID crisis’. A constant reminder that we live in difficult times. I’m talking unfortunately about ‘recession’, the specter of which is hanging over us like Marley’s ghost haunting Ebeneezer Scrooge or, for the less literate, a bad smell in a confined space.  

The last time we experienced a recession was in 2008 following the global financial crises. I must admit that at the time I was in denial. I remember being in a meeting and warning that the biggest danger was of “talking ourselves into a recession”. What rubbish. Despite my self-deluded hopes there was a global recession and the UK suffered alongside everyone else. This time around I am not going to be so hopefully or hopelessly naïve. There is going to be a recession, it’s going to be tough and for the retail sector it’s going to mean another period of uncertainty and change. 

So, what can be done by clothing and fashion retailers to mitigate the impact. In truth not much. If your business is not in good shape, then there’s no short-term miracle potion that I can offer that is going to stave off this particularly nasty beast. Certainly, I am not going to say that offering your customers a virtual fitting room and virtual try on platform is immediately going to solve all your ills. I wish I could, I really do. In the short-term it’s all about managing your costs and your available cash. In my past life I would argue until I was blue in the face that cutting the marketing budget was entirely the wrong thing to do (in the face of a recession) but inevitably this is what companies do to survive and I don’t necessarily blame them or think they are wrong.  

So, the only words of wisdom I can offer that will help businesses in 2022 are these: cut the marketing budget (but not necessarily people as you’ll need them to help you build back stronger -and there is a particularly vicious war for talent going on at the moment) watch your costs like a hawk and lastly scrutinize every aspect of your current business to ensure that ‘next time’ you are in a stronger position. 

So, let’s think about next time. What can you do now to ensure that your business is in better shape going forward? Now, this is an area where I do think a virtual fitting room and virtual try on platform can help you. Let’s look at our three areas of focus: 

1 – Cut the marketing budget – with its focus moving to hyper personalization and the benefits that it brings in terms of customer loyalty and repeat purchases then a virtual fitting room platform can result in a permanent reduction in marketing investment, particularly in the cash intensive areas of marketing (advertising) but also in other areas such as model, on-location and product photography.  

2 – Watch your costs – we all know returns are the bugbear of the online clothing retailer and reducing them can have a positive effect on a myriad of different areas of the business. An improvement in the comfort of the customer, when ordering online, around size and fit will bring a huge improvement in return rates and increase conversion of net sales. This will result in several positive knock-ons inside the business from simply reducing postage and packaging costs to the ability to re-focus people on money making activities rather than loss-making returns. 

3 – Scrutinize your business – are you giving your customers what they want? Are you as digitally elegant as you wish to be? Is your multichannel approach as seamless as you and the customers want it to be, or are there potentially big improvements that can be made?  

Through implementation of the platform accelerator modules that be Retail Social has developed it’s possible to transform the customer experience resulting in more people, more spend, more often and, in truth, these are the only factors that will make your business more resilient for the future.