What is fit-tech ?

It is a technology that helps customers to try & buy clothes based on their body types.

It all started in 2021 when Walmart bought a fit-tech startup called Zeekit.

The objective at that time was to integrate a new virtual try-on feature to encourage more e-commerce sales in the future. 

Secondly, to equip the trial rooms with this technology so that the customer’s experience in trying out the garment and social sharing could be integrated into one wholesome experience.

Following that acquisition, Walmart introduced the “Be Your Own Model virtual tool”, which lets users upload images of their bodies to virtually try on clothing.

To learn about Category management, click here.

Why Fit-tech is useful?

The category was born out of a need during the Pandemic when the trial rooms were closed for preventing the spread of covid-19. Also to encourage online shopping of fashion apparel, alongside bringing everything under the Omni channel platform.

Having a virtual try-on feature gives consumers a better idea of how a clothing item fits them and whether it matches their features — a solution to what has historically been a problem for many online brands.

Secondly, fit-tech adds a social element to the digital experience, allowing customers to bring their unique personalities and preferences to shopping, both online & in-store.

Case study:

Savage x Fenty by Rihanna, a celebrity brand catering to women’s lingerie & men’s innerwear needs.

The fit-tech has come as a boon wherein they are encouraging both virtual trials-on and in-store trial rooms trials of the merchandise.

Savage X Fenty has partnered with fit technology company Fit: Match to launch a new iteration of Fit Xperience, an in-store digital fitting tool that scans customers’ bodies and provides product recommendations. The brand debuted the latest version at its Lenox Square Mall store in Atlanta, Georgia, US.

Mechanics:

Within 30 seconds, the fit-tech scanners map shoppers’ bodies and create an avatar of their body type. Avatars are very popular with GenZ shoppers and build engagement and social sharing.

 It then compares that avatar with a database of similar previously scanned bodies to recommend Savage X Fenty products ideal for the customer’s fit.

To learn why the Ulta beauty loyalty program is the talk of the retail fraternity, click here

Challenges in implementation:

1. The Privacy issues, as the customers are very conscious of privacy issues.
2. Hence the new version of Fit-tech doesn’t use cameras instead they use scanners to scan the overall body.

In a study conducted by Cisco, one of the major insights that were revealed is that today’s consumers believe in “ Transparency”. 

Today’s customers want retailers to share clearly how their provided information/data would be treated or used by the retailer in the future.

Gen Z is more demanding and more aware when it comes to Privacy issues.

Early adopters:

Social media brands like Snapchat have also embraced this fit-tech technology.

Brands like Gucci and other fashion brands are fast testing this technology.

Advantage of fit-tech for D2C fashion brands.

The technology will reduce the cost of returns which is of utmost importance for D2C brands and can make or break an e-commerce brand.

If you are a retailer and want a fresh perspective on scaling your business then feel free to reach out to me at riteshmohan786@gmail.com

Email me if you are a beauty brand wanting to enter the middle eastern retail space.

Watch the Lidar tech working

About the author:

Ritesh Mohan is a passionate retail professional with over 22 years in the Retail sector, handling some of the biggest brands in the beauty, fashion, and fragrances retail & FMCG sector.

Ritesh specializes in Retail management, Product development, Brand Management, Retail Operations, Sales Management, and Franchising & Business Management.

He strongly believes in empowering business owners with his wisdom & experience of around two decades in the industry

What is House-money effect?

It is one of the most powerful tools used in marketing.

Let me narrate the concept through a story.

First scenario:

Consider you have worked very hard the whole year & saved USD 12000 at the end of the year. What would you do if given the option to use this money?

1. Deposit in a bank account
2. Invest it
3. Fulfill your desire i.e. buy phones, gadgets, cars, etc.
4. Buy a ticket to a luxury cruise.

Most of us would choose option (a), (b), or (c)

Now, in The second scenario, if you win a lottery of USD 12000 where would you choose to spend your money?

Most of us would choose options (c) and (d).

Researchers coined this behavior as the “House-money effect”

We tend to be more frivolous with lottery or inherited money rather than with hard-earned money.

To learn growth hacks for supermarkets, click here

How does “house-money” used in Marketing?

Marketers use this phenomenon to their advantage.

Ask me how?

Have you noticed credit card companies giving you a preloaded card of USD 100 for your initial purchase or your telecom operator providing you the first month free when you subscribe to their data plans for the year?

In India Jio telecom used by giving the first 6 to 9 months of free data and calls in their spree to acquire customers.

All the above examples get you on the temptation hook and make you habitual with the product or services thus driving the usage.

That’s why I always say,

“Business is all about understanding human psychology and behavior; If you don’t understand customers, you don’t have a business”.

My book “How to be a shark salesman” is full of real-life anecdotes, Grab your copy today from amazon & Flipkart.

(The Header picture is clicked at a new retail incubator store that I have co-founded, giving a retail platform to beauty brands willing to enter the middle east market. At Adhara we build retail as a more collaborative platform. Visit us at Wafi Mall, ground level near Carrefour, Dubai)

About the author:

Ritesh Mohan is a passionate retail professional with over 22 years in the Retail sector, handling some of the biggest brands in the beauty, fashion, and fragrances retail & FMCG sector. He has been instrumental in the growth of some of the regional brands as well as in the Middle East region. Ritesh specializes in Retail management, Product development, Brand Management, Retail Operations, Sales Management, and Franchising & Business Management. He strongly believes in empowering business owners with his wisdom & experience of around two decades in the industry

Retail & Metaverse, what’s the relation?

Do words like sandbox, Roblox, and Decentraland sound familiar to you? 

There is a high probability that you would have heard or come across these words in tech seminars etc; Yes, they are all platforms in Metaverse which is a kind of virtual world that promises to change the world and the way we interact or engage with each other.

The retail sector is one of the oldest sectors known to mankind and is also not far behind this race to make its impact in the metaverse.

Brands like Balenciaga, Nike, Adidas, and now Forever 21 are the newest entrant to the meta world.

Myth- Why there is so much noise about Retail & Metaverse?

Piper Sandler’s research done in the US covering a 7100 Gen Z sample base brought out some astonishing facts.

• It suggests that Gen Z isn’t into the metaverse. 
• The survey found that 26% of teens own a virtual reality device, but only 5% use it every day. Plus, just under half (48%) are either unsure of or not interested in the metaverse.
• A 2021 report from Wunderman Thompson Intelligence found that only 38% of consumers worldwide knew what the metaverse was. 

Despite the given above statistics, retailers, and brands are all pushing their initiatives into the Metaverse to catch the new audience and remain on top of the mind recall of millennials which are flocking to the meta platforms.

Roblox may be one of the biggest platforms with 58.8 million daily active users, a 24% increase from a year ago, according to its latest earnings report. The platform is resonating with younger users as well: As of Q2, 24.2 million daily active users were under the age of 13, according to Statista.

Metaverse Retail examples :

Brands like Gucci, Gap to Walmart, all have launched activations on Roblox, ranging from well-designed virtual pop-up stores to interactive games.

The mantra is “Be present wherever the future customers or future money spenders are present”.

How brands are using Metaverse?

Mainly brands and retailers are using metaverse for:

1. Interactive engagement
2. To build a community of engaged customers using games, and making the community earn virtual tokens which are then redeemed in physical stores.
3. Product trials and fashion forecasting (used by fashion brands)

Product testing of fashion apparel using environments like Roblox, where dressing up avatars is a fundamental part of the experience.

Brands keep track of how consumers are reacting to each avatar and its dresses and based on the popularity decide on the quantities of the garments to be procured from the factories.

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What is ROI for Retail brands on metaverse?

In its most recent earnings report, the virtual world showed revenue was at $517.7 million, up 2% year over year.

But whether brands can monetize their campaigns, is yet to be seen.

According to McKinsey, the metaverse would have a $2 trillion to $2.6 trillion market impact on e-commerce.

This impact may be direct or indirect because of engagement on metaverse driving purchases or top-of-mind brand recall resulting in purchases.

If you are a Brand custodian and believe that putting your brand in the metaverse adds 5% to your brand’s profits, then let me be blunt here, that is not going to happen anytime sooner.

But yes, being present on Metaverse can increase your brand’s salience.

One of the key skills that would put you stand apart from the rest in the digital era is your Selling skills.

A must-have skill for any entrepreneur.

“If you cannot sell, you cannot build a business.”

Grab a copy of my new book, “How to be a shark salesman”.

Now published across eCommerce platforms.

for purchase from Amazon.ae, click here.

About the author:

Ritesh Mohan is a passionate retail professional with over 20 years in the Retail sector, handling some of the biggest brands in the beauty, fashion, and fragrances retail & FMCG sector. He has been instrumental in the growth of some of the regional brands as well in the Middle East region. Ritesh specializes in Retail management, Product development, Brand Management, Retail Operations, Sales Management, and Franchising & Business Management. He strongly believes in empowering business owners with his wisdom & experience of around two decades in the industry

What makes dollar store concept successful?

The Dollar store boom in the United States during the economic downturn time is a known retail case study taught in several B-schools on how these convenience stores reinvented the retail landscape of the US retail sector with their convenience & discount centers that mushroomed in tier 2 and 3 cities and towns across the US.

How does a dollar store stay in business?

The promise the Dollar store concept made at the start was “convenience” and “low price- everything under a dollar” but with time they have evolved and introduced categories like food on the go, household, and gifts which are more impulsive in buying nature.

With times of inflation, the dollar store concept evolved to “5 Below stores” and attracted discount-seeking customers towards them. 

According to US research, stores like Dollar Tree, Dollar General, and Family Dollar made up to 50% of the new store openings in 2021 in the united states.

Watch the video below

Taking cues from the retail comeback & success of the dollar store concepts, the Asian dollar concept stores like Miniso and Daiso has also made leeway into the US retail landscape.

These Asian brands have slightly tweaked their proposition by focusing on impulse purchases like snacks, toys, gimmick items and decorating doodads instead of household consumables & basics.

Core areas of differentiation from traditional dollar stores:

Miniso:

“$10 N’ Under” concept which keeps virtually all its merchandise below that pricing threshold.

Miniso’s strength lies in its original and localized designs. The retailer’s Miniso Design Academy is made up of designers from Finland, Denmark, Spain, Korea and other parts of the world and “it localizes its products by collaborating with renowned local IP license-holders to release co-branded products.”

Special emphasis on toys, housewares and home décor accessories.  It has new convenient multipurpose gadgets (Bluetooth speakers, selfie sticks, selfie lamps, headphones and mobile accessories) assortment mix which is quite popular amongst millennials and GenZ.

It takes the treasure hunt experience that is a foundation of some dollar stores up several levels.

Miniso operates over 5000 stores over 100 countries across the globe.

To Learn why Ulta beauty loyalty program is a big hit on tiktok, click here.

Daiso:

Like China-based Miniso, Daiso has a very large international presence, with 3,600 stores in Japan and another 2,300 worldwide in 24 countries and regions.

 It’s when it comes to pricing that Daiso (the name roughly translates to “big making”) takes a different tack. Its roots in Japan are as a “100-Yen” (72 cents at current exchange rates) store, although many prices are higher – sometimes doubled –, given the added costs of selling Japanese-made products overseas.

The merchandising line-up encompasses literally thousands of skus from apparel to food to home, beauty, kitchen and traditional Japanese paper and craft items. All of it has a classic Japanese design aesthetic.

USPs of Daiso

The mix is much more geared towards household products, toys, home accents and just about anything along those lines you want to buy; Impulse buying is the secret tool used.

As the retail sector is back to pre-pandemic levels and brand Daiso is reinventing itself and coming out “ Just another cheap or dollar store” concept to “Reasonably Priced” positioning.

Check out their new Singapore store at Jurong Point store also features the company’s two other brands – Standard Products, which describes itself as having an environmental focus and is making its debut in Singapore, and a newly-rebranded women’s line Threeppy.

Both the brands are re-building their retail concepts into Experiential centers which is clear from their assortment mix which as well now caters both sustainable products (under brand Standard Products) and Threeppy- which attracts Tiktok’s Genz fashionistas to try out various fashion accessories.

Challenges that dollar store concept /specialty retailer would face

1. Rising cost of logistics operations would force the retailers to increase their prices
2. Cost of Manpower in running the retail operations – every store need to become a profit centre in true sense.
3. Continuous evolution of assortment mix to cater to the ever changing preferences of the customers.

My Learning:

Retail Business is like flowing river, it continuously must evolve itself into new formats; experimentation is the key & staying close to your brand’s DNA ensures that the brand’s success. The dollar store concept holds a strong promise for growth specially in the times of economic challenges.

Is customer acquisition a new name of retail? click here to find out.

Loyalty programs are not only sales drivers but also a strategic tool for retailers to retain their customer base.

Loyalty programs- not defined objectively.

“Ritesh, can you help us in developing our Loyalty program?”

This was the question asked me by one of the upcoming retailers.

I asked them – “why are you planning a loyalty program- is it for incentivizing repeat customers or just because you want to stay updated vis-a-vis your competition?”

The question made my client think…

I asked them another question, “what is going to be one major hook in your loyalty program?”.

The meeting ended as the client needed more time to brainstorm internally and come back.

Most loyalty programs are mere discounting exercises without even keeping track of the customers buying behavior i.e. on what items are they accruing the points and on which item they are redeeming the points.

Personally, speaking I am the biggest fan of Amazon Prime which according to me is a masterstroke when it comes to the Loyalty program which is coupled with a subscription model. 

For your information, it has over 80 million subscribers worldwide.

Do what you do so well that they will want to see it again & bring their friends.

Walt Disney

Loyalty program example – Ulta beauty’s ultamate

Another brand that is going big on loyalty programs is Ulta beauty whose loyalty program is called “Ultamate”.

At the outset, their loyalty plan seems more like incentivization but once you peel the layers of the program, one realizes that the loyalty program is based on “Honest incentivization”.

Your spend of USD1/- gets you 1 point.

But what is remarkable about the Ultamate plan is that they use multiple mediums to reach out to their customers, via email, via messaging services.

They track every customer purchase and try to personalize incentivization for each customer by giving them 2x or even 5X points on their spending.

Traditionally loyalty programs form “Buckets” of customers based on their spending at the store i.e. grouping of customers and then cross-selling them their products.

But Ultamate is different as they hyper-personalize the incentivization and entice their customers with 5X points or sometimes 10X points of special promos either online or offline.

A lot of Ulta beauty locations have awesome salons.

 And they always have offers for 2x, 3x, 5x points. That means, for every dollar you spend, you’re actually getting $5 worth of rewards. 

You also get 2x the points during your birthday month, and they send you tons of other offers throughout the year.

The rewards program allows Ulta Beauty to garner a loyalty most retailers can only dream of. 

Sephora, on the other hand only redeems the points in terms of sachets or smaller packs of beauty products.

To learn more about Hyper-Personalization, click here

So how did Loyalty program Ultamate go viral on TikTok?

On TikTok, customers and fans have taken to educating one another on how to make the most of the retailer’s famous Ultamate Rewards program.

Check out the video.

the actual customers are posting videos of how they have got their favorite beauty gadget or product using Ultamate points.

Videos on TikTok emphasize “ the tailormade” experience of being an Ultamate Rewards member, teaching other users how to stack coupons and maximize points.

Remember, it is not paid influencers campaign but the actual customers who are using their loyalty points are sharing their experiences.

Ultamate performance indicators – 

• 37.7 million members i.e. around 10% of [the population of] the United States, or the size of Canada. 

• Ninety-five percent of Ulta Beauty’s sales come from its members.

Moreover, the program has garnered millions of expressions on TikTok wherein the customers are sharing their opinions on the loyalty program and encouraging their friends to try the ultamate loyalty app.

Do loyalty programs excite millennials, click here to learn more.

About the author:

Ritesh Mohan is a passionate retail professional with over 20 years in the Retail sector.

He has been instrumental in the growth of some of the regional brands as well in the Middle East region.

Ritesh specializes in Retail management, Product development, Brand management, Retail Operations, Sales Management, and Franchising & Business Management. He is the author of two books mainly ” Simplifying Retail” and “How to be a shark salesman?”