Bringing Order to Fashion Chaos
This is a writing sample from Scripted writer Kathryn Zwack
Bringing Order to Fashion Chaos
When you walk into a small fashion boutique, it can feel almost like a liberating experience. Although by nature I am not a shopper and small boutique prices terrify me, I do enjoy the pristine, sparse environs of an intimate and high-end boutique. Each garment is delicately hung several inches from its neighboring items, the displays are fastidiously placed in strategic areas of the store, and the hardwood floors have not a speck of dust. Even the store personnel are meticulous in their attire and comportment. Equally tranquil, it seems, is the transition from one season to another—the introduction of the new and the dismissal of the dated.
But is fashion retailing really that simple and tidy?
Despite this calming in-store experience, I would argue that retail fashion ecommerce and merchandizing resemble more the duck that is calm on the surface but paddling frantically underneath. Behind the immaculate façade of a department or chain store display may actually be organizational disarray and chaotic disparate sources of product data that result in "product content spaghetti." This breeds insecurity and doubt among marketers, who are left continuously searching for the latest version of a product's information, while worrying about the product information's accuracy, completeness, and appeal.
It is this content spaghetti that the team at inRiver seeks to address, store, and organize for our customers—to make the lives easier for fashion marketers everywhere. We are fortunate to have many customers who have benefited from this and are willing to tell their stories.
Join inRiver at Episerver Ascend!
One of these customers is Claire Sharp Sundt of Varner Group, who is joining inRiver's own Johan Bostrom at Episerver Ascend on Monday, February 27, 2017 at 3PM in Yaletown 1 for a session about how to streamline ecommerce processes from a product information perspective. The session is entitled: "Commerce: It Takes a Village. How Technology and Marketing Work Together for a Great Customer Experience."
Varner Group is a house of many brands, some of which compete with one another! They embarked on ecommerce in earnest in 2013, having installed inRiver PIM in 2012. Ms. Sundt will discuss Varner's journey from content spaghetti and organizational silos to empowered collaboration and information sharing. In addition, she will share how the marketing team built a partnership with IT to help bridge the gap between their marketers and their shoppers. Ms. Sundt will also describe the importance of key attributes for certain target segments based on specific customer needs.
Johan Bostrom will weigh in on how product information management applications, such as inRiver PIM, can be used to enhance product intelligence and rid organizations of content spaghetti once and for all.
Don't miss this exciting session at Episerver Ascend on March 1. Stop by our booth at the Show— Booth #15 —to discuss your content spaghetti or product information management needs. In the interim, please take a look at the Varner Group case study on the inRiver web site to learn more.
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