After the clothes are designed and manufactured, it is time to sell them. How do clothes get from the manufacturer to the buyer? Retail is the business of purchasing clothes from manufacturers and selling them on to customers. The initial purchase of clothes for resale by retailers is made three to six months before customers are able to shop in-store.
Fashion marketing involves managing merchandise flow from initial selection to presentation to customers. This is done with the aim of increasing sales and profitability for a company. Fashion marketing is about understanding the consumer and providing appropriate products. To provide feedback to designers or manufacturers regarding the type and quantity to be produced, marketers use sales tracking data and attention to media coverage. Marketers are responsible for identifying and delineating the target customers of a fashion producer and responding to their preferences.
Both wholesale and retail marketing are important. If a company does not sell its products at retail, they must offer those products wholesale to retailers such as boutiques and department stores. To find the right fit between the manufacturer's products, the retailer's customers, they use catalogs, fashion shows, and sales representatives armed with samples. For companies that sell their products directly at retail, marketing is primarily about matching products with their customers. Marketing activities include promotional activities, such as print advertising, that aim to establish brand recognition and brand reputation.
Marketing is closely related to merchandising. This involves influencing consumers to purchase products from a company to increase sales and profitability. According to the most common definition, merchandising is selling the right product at the right price and at the right place to the right customer. Therefore, fashion merchandisers need to use customer preferences from marketers in order to make decisions such as stocking the right merchandise in sufficient quantities but not too many, selling items at attractive prices but still making a profit, and reducing overstocked products. In-store displays and promotional events, as well as store windows, are all part of Merchandising. Specialists in Merchandising must be able quickly acquire new stock of the preferred product to meet surges in demand. A department store's inventory tracking program can trigger an order to a Shanghai production facility for a specific quantity of garments. The orders will be fulfilled within days.
The Internet was a major retail outlet by the beginning of the 21st century. This created new challenges for shoppers (e.g. the inability to try on clothes before purchasing, and the need for facilities that can handle returns and exchanges). It also opened up new opportunities to merchandisers (e.g. the ability to offer customers shopping opportunities 24 hours a day and provide rural customers with access to them). In today's world of increasing shopping choices and fierce price competition among retailers, merchandising is a key component of modern fashion.
Marketing and media
Fashion marketing is dependent on media of all types. In the latter half of 18th century, France and England saw the first fashion magazines. Fashion magazines, such as the French La Mode Illustree and the British Lady's Realm, flourished and proliferated in the 19th century. Fashion magazines, which featured articles, advertisements, and hand-colored illustrations (known collectively as fashion plates), played a major role in promoting the modernization of fashion. Fashion photography was born out of the development of inexpensive and efficient methods to reproduce photographs in print media. Magazine advertising quickly became the main marketing tool of the fashion industry.
With the advent of television and the creation of cinema newsreels (short videos of current events) people around the globe were able to view fashion shows and imitate celebrities' fashionable clothes. With fashion blogs becoming an important medium for disseminating fashion information, the dominance of visual media has continued into the Internet age. Celebrities can be photographed in designer clothes at red-carpet events like awards ceremonies, which provides valuable publicity for the designers.
Fashion around the world
The majority of people today wear "world fashion", which is a simplified version of Western clothing. It often includes a T-shirt, pants, or skirt that's mass-produced. There are many smaller, niche fashion industries that target specific markets in different parts of the globe. For example, saris are made in India, and boubous are made in Senegal. These industries work in parallel to the global fashion industry but on a smaller scale.
The widespread acceptance of the hijab (religiously appropriate attire for Muslim women) in the Middle East and throughout the Islamic world in the early 21st-century was a significant step forward in the field. There are many styles and norms for veiling, with millions of Muslim women living all over the world. Some people consider veiling a way to avoid fashion vicissitudes. Some women may choose to wear more European-styled clothes underneath their more conservative street clothing. Others have sought outlooks that are both stylish and modest. The international market for modest fashions was expanding at the start of the 21st Century. There was a wider range of styles and looks from Muslim and non-Muslim designers. Numerous magazines and fashion blogs aimed at Muslim women were also created. Designers and manufacturers had to deal with not only the aesthetics but also the practical issues associated with modesty. This was evident in the efforts to make modest, yet effective, swimwear and sportswear suitable for Muslims.
The fashion system
The fashion industry is part of a larger cultural and social phenomenon called the "fashion system". This concept encompasses not only fashion business but also fashion art and craft, as well as production and consumption. While the fashion designer is important, so is the individual fashion consumer, who selects, purchases, and wears clothing. All the factors involved in fashion change are part of the fashion system. Fashion has some intrinsic factors that allow for variation, such as hemlines rising after they have been low for a while. Others are external factors (e.g. major historical events like wars, revolutions and economic booms or busts as well as the feminist movement). Other factors include individual trendsetters like Madonna or Diana, Princess Of Wales, changes in lifestyles, and new music such as rock and roll and hip-hop. Fashion is complex and involves many motives. Fashion is a diverse and flexible industry that can satisfy any consumer's desire to embrace fashionability or reject it.