Fast Fashion

Fast fashion can be defined as a business model that combinesfour elements:

§  fashionable clothes mostly for consumers under 40;

§  affordable prices in the mid-to-low range;

§  quick response;

§  frequent assortment changes.

Difference between fast fashion and traditional retailing is the way assortments are managed. For many years the industry has worked around the concept of collections. Assortments are updated twice a year: at the beginning of the calendar year, the Spring-Summer collection is introduced; at the end of the summer the Fall-Winter collection is released. This industry-wide pace of change has been supported by design (cool hunting), communication (catwalks and store mock-ups where media and wholesale customers are invited), sales and marketing (catalogs, advertising) that follow similar biannual patterns.

Retail product management

Retail product management is not just about making sure that the best product range is available in the store. Equally important to the customer is how products are presented to them.The way products are displayed, whether it is on a shelf in a store or on a web site, the logic of the layout, the relationship between one product group and another and the atmosphere created around the products, are all-important aspects of the retail product management process.

In a small retail organisation product management may be incorporated into the general running of the store. In a quiet moment an owner/manager may phone through an order to a supplier or stock up a depleted shelf display; but in large retail organisations product management is an extensive task, involving many different layers of management and dedicated teams of experts in massive central buying offices.