Ready to ‘where’: Getting sharp on apparel omnichannel excellence

Brands and retailers are moving quickly to provide more seamless omnichannel shopping experiences—but your customers are moving faster. Tectonic forces are roiling the apparel landscape, overcoming companies that can’t keep pace with digital competitors or the customers whose behaviors and expectations are evolving faster than ever. Six out of ten people now use at least one digital channel in their shopping journey for an apparel garment, which has major implications for physical stores. In 2017 and 2018 alone, US retailers vacated a quarter of a billion square feet, and they have announced more than 6,000 store closures so far this year. For most apparel companies, however, brick-and-mortar stores are still essential. That is because more of the best customers are using a combination of offline and online channels when they shop. Our new Apparel Omnichannel Survey of more than 3,000 US shoppers reveals why these journeys are so important: the average omnichannel customer purchases 70 percent more often than an offline-only shopper and reports spending more than $2,000 on apparel each year. Read more…