From the Sector

• Im Vergleich zu den Vorjahren weniger Business-Kleidung
• Warme, gedeckte Farben, um es sich in diesem Herbst zu Hause so richtig gemütlich zu machen
• Weiterer Trend: Nachhaltige Kinderkollektionen

Die Experten von Retviews haben die neuesten Online-Kollektionen der führenden Fashionbrands in Frankreich, Italien und Deutschland ausgewertet und prognostizieren, dass Activewear und Loungewear die wichtigsten Fashiontrends für denb Herbst werden. Zudem setzen die Hersteller im Bereich Kinderbekleidung vermehrt auf nachhaltige Kollektionen. Retviews ist ein kürzlich von Lectra erworbenes Start-up, das eine Technologie entwickelt hat, die künstliche Intelligenz und Big-Data-Analysen verbindet, um effektive Marktanalysen in Echzeit durchzuführen.

Bereits während des Lockdowns gehörten Activewear-Teile zu den meistverkauften Kleidungsstücken. Stay-at-Home-Styles und Wohlfühl-Kleidung blieben auch nach den Lockerungen ein Verkaufsschlager, während sich Blumenmuster zu einem beliebten Fashiontrend für den Sommer entwickelten.

Authentische Kollektionen überzeugen durch ein „cozy-comfort” Styling

Obwohl zu den saisonalen Kollektionen viele Kleider und T-Shirts gehören, überwiegen in diesem Herbst Sweatshirts, Strickjacken und Outdoor-Bekleidung.

Anders als in den Vorjahren wird weniger Business-Kleidung angeboten, wie Anzüge und taillierte Hemden, dafür aber mehr bequeme Kleidung. Diese Kleidungsstücke spiegeln die aktuellen Erwartungen der Konsumenten wider, die anscheinend eine lockere Passform anstatt beengender Kleidung wünschen. Die zunehmende Beliebtheit von locker sitzender Bekleidung erinnert an die Mode der 80er Jahre, die mit gerade geschnittenen Jeans gerade ein Revival erlebt. Werden Fashionunternehmen mit diesen Artikeln neue Trends setzen? Das werden die kommenden Wochen zeigen.

Gedeckte Farben

In diesem Herbst sind neutrale Farbtöne zwischen Braun, Terracotta, Kastanie, Rosa und Beige angesagt. Schwarz zählt nach wie vor zu den Dauerbrennern. Modezeitschriften präsentieren viele Kleidungsstücke in Rot, Orange, mit Karomustern, Zebrastreifen sowie im Leoparden-Look und mit Blumenmuster. Es bleibt abzuwarten, ob die Konsumenten die Loungewear in Herbsttönen bevorzugen oder Geschmack an den abgebildeten Prints der Zeitschriftencover finden.

Nachhaltige Mode, das neue Credo der Hersteller von Kinderbekleidung

Grelle Farben sind out. Auch bei den Kinderkollektionen wird genau wie bei den Fashiontrends für Erwachsene verstärkt auf Activewear gesetzt. Sweatshirts sind der Herbstklassiker schlechthin.

Neben den von den Fashionbrands präsentierten Styles gewinnt das Thema ökologische Verantwortung in diesem Herbst an Dynamik. Immer mehr Brands erkennen, dass für ihre Kunden Nachhaltigkeit zunehmend wichtiger wird, was mit den Ergebnissen der letzten Retviews Umfrage übereinstimmt. H&M und C&A haben beispielsweise Herbstkampagnen gestartet, die von der nachhaltigen Fashion-Positionierung inspiriert  sind. 33 Prozent bzw. 11 Prozent der Kinderkollektionen dieser zwei Brands sind Teil ihrer Initiative für nachhaltige Mode, was im Einklang mit der jeweiligen Gesamtstrategie der Unternehmen steht (dies entspricht 30 Prozent bzw. 9 Prozent ihres Gesamtangebots*).

Erwähnenswert ist auch der Start ins neue Schuljahr, der normalerweise das Konsumverhalten der Haushalte beeinflusst. Überraschenderweise hat keine der Kindermodemarkten hierfür Sonderangebote gemacht (wie z. B. 3 zum Preis von 2).

Partnership Provides Retail Brands with Omni-Channel Personalisation Platform

Fresh Relevance, the real-time personalisation platform for email, mobile and web, today announced its partnership with Contactlab, the leading engagement marketing platform for commerce-focused companies and fashion & luxury brands. The partnership provides retail brands with true omni-channel marketing by allowing to fully integrate insights from online and in-store customer behaviour.
Retailers now not only benefit from the rich insights regarding the online behaviour of a customer whilst on the website (what pages they looked at, the products they placed in the cart and the items purchased) and whilst engaging with marketing emails, but also when and how often they visited a store and the purchases they made whilst there. This is made possible by the close integration of the Fresh Relevance real-time personalisation platform and Contactlab’s engagement marketing cloud platform.

Eddy Swindell, co-founder and CRO at Fresh Relevance, states: “The ability to accurately join the dots of the customer journey as they move between offline and online has been the missing piece in the retail puzzle. Retailers using Fresh Relevance fully integrated with Contactlab can harness this valuable insight in real-time, to improve how they engage with every customer across all touch points.”
How Fresh Relevance and Contactlab deliver true omni-channel marketing:

• Personalise the web experience using both online and offline transactional data.
• Engage with in-store shoppers by sending them well-timed personalised emails that include the products they were interested in as well as relevant product recommendations.
• Drive customers in-store or online with personalised incentives and promotions based on the shopper’s behaviour.

Swindell adds: “True omni-channel marketing in this way not only improves overall sales. It enables you to better understand the journey your customers take, and in doing so engage them with personalised 1-2-1 communications and improve their experience of shopping with your brand.”

Stefano Lena, Chief Strategy Officer and VP Business Development at Contactlab comments: “This partnership is the coming together of two powerful real-time platforms that enable every retailer to have a clear and up-to-date view of how people are interacting and transacting with their brand online and in-store. The breadth of data capabilities makes it one of the most compelling propositions available on the market today.”

Fresh Relevance is sponsoring Contactlab's Conference”, which takes place in Milan, Italy, on June 19, where the company will exhibit its real-time personalisation platform and Eddy Swindell will present "Personalisation in an omni-channel world".

About Fresh Relevance
Fresh Relevance is the real-time personalization platform for email, mobile and web. We increase sales with personalized customer experiences and real-time marketing tactics across email, mobile and web. Our marketing hub unifies siloed systems without the need for an integration project. We deliver full control of real-time marketing tactics such as triggered emails and cross-channel personalization. Organizations using Fresh Relevance include: Rip Curl, Homebase, M&M Direct, Harvey Nichols, Thorntons, Cottages.com and White Stuff.

• Deep Insights into the Multifaceted World of Cotton
• Quality, Innovation and Digitalisation are Crucial

From the 21st to the 23rd of March, the international cotton industry came together in the historic Bremen Town Hall, under the motto "Cotton Insights". More than 500 participants from almost 40 countries came to exchange views on the latest trends in the natural raw material as part of the conference organised by the Bremen Cotton Exchange in cooperation with the Fibre Institute Bremen. The 34th International Cotton Conference provided a varied, in-depth programme which addressed the current and burning issues within the industry.

Summarising his visit to the conference, Kai Hughes, Executive Director of the International Cotton Advisory Committee (ICAC) in Washington said “The Bremen Cotton Conference is unique because it brings the diverse world of cotton together in one place. It is always a great opportunity to learn about the latest innovations, talk to cotton merchants and get an overview of the industry".

Sustainability and Cotton
This year, the conference developed into a whole week of diverse events around the entire cotton supply chain. With the “SUSTAIN” event, which was organised in cooperation with the Weser-Kurier newspaper, it was possible to build a bridge between the issue of sustainability and the end consumer.
With the focus on Africa, the emerging continent, which also has a special significance for cotton, became the centre of attention.

In his opening speech, Henning Hammer, President of the Bremen Cotton Exchange, made it clear that sustainability is also of great importance during the Cotton Conference: "The three pillars of sustainability – the environment, the economy and social issues – were already playing a role in the cotton industry when the word sustainability was far from being on everyone's lips.
Many changes that are being demanded in the sense of responsible agriculture and responsible trade take their time, many are already in the starting blocks and a lot already exists. We have a very alert, active agricultural research worldwide."

The Keynotes
The keynote session, moderated by the journalist Lisa Boekhoff from the newspaper Weser-Kurier, gave participants an overview, with an informative analysis of the current cotton situation. Kai Hughes, executive director of ICAC, emphasised in his keynote address the need to provide credible facts and figures which should be the basis for the entire supply chain. The marketing of cotton and changing consumer habits in a globalised and digitalised world were the subject of lectures by Mark Messura, Cotton Incorporated and Robert Antoshak, Olah Inc. Eugen Weinberg and Michael Alt from Commerzbank took a look at the raw material from a stock market perspective.

Traceability and Digitalisation
Digitalisation is also a cross-cutting issue that runs through the entire supply chain of the cotton industry. In his opening speech, Prof. Axel S. Hermann, Head of the Fibre Institute Bremen, emphasised the importance of digitalisation for the industry. “It enables new approaches in cotton cultivation and textile processing, but also influences consumer behaviour and thus the necessary changes in the textile industry.” The focus is on the status quo of the implementation, as well as the opportunities and risks of digitally controlled, vertically integrated procurement and sales processes and the associated challenges at retail level.

Another current topic is traceability, which is also closely linked to sustainability. More and more buyers want to know whether their suppliers are meeting the promised sustainability criteria for their products, also textile products. Consequently, the conference presented various techniques for testing the authenticity of a cotton provided in the finished textile, such as DNA testing, fingerprint analysis technique, marker methods and block-chain processes.

Cotton Quality
In addition to current subjects such as digitalisation and traceability, questions of cotton quality have traditionally been an essential element of the Cotton Conference, which was further reinforced this year with the "Spinners Seminar". The spinning mill seminar, which was carried out by the Cotton Exchange and the Fibre Institute in cooperation with the ITMF and IVGT associations, far exceeded expectations.

More than 70 participants discussed the handling of impurities in supplied cotton in the manufacturing process.
In addition, in a high-level expert session, there was an exchange of the latest research results which determine the future of cotton production and the processing of cotton into innovative products.