Good retail timing requires introducing each fashion when the store's or department's customers are ready to buy it, and keeping it in stock as long as they remain interested in it.
Introducing a fashion too soon for one's customers may pave the way for later sales, but is not likely to bring immediate response. It is sometimes done to reinforce the store's reputation as a fashion leader, or to expose a new idea and give customers time to get used to it.
Continuing to emphasize a fashion after customers have tired of it gives department staleness and puts the store's fashion image in jeopardy. Usually, customers will accept such a fashion only at prices below former levels.
Customer attitudes toward specific fashions reveal themselves in such things as rising or dwindling sales of a look; response to advertising and display, and reactions to merchandise on the selling floor. The things customers say, and even their facial expressions as they view the merchandise, can tell a great deal about whether a fashion is too new or too old for them - or just right.
Because the customer is the prime source of information on timing, managements usually urge buyers to spend time on the selling floor for first-hand observation, and to establish the closest possible rapport with salespeople. No useful indication of customer reactions should go unnoticed and unreported.
Signs of change in fashion are usually clearly foreshadowed. Watch for such clues as these:
- a new look in accessories, which may herald a new look in apparel
- a change in trim or detail of apparel, which may pave the way for a change in silhouette
- strong acceptance of a new and still experimental look in higher priced departments or stores, which may indicate the possibility of acceptance in medium-priced and lower-priced departments
- broad, almost universal acceptance of a look or specific style at all price levels, which may mean that boredom with that look is soon to set in.
Check your opinions. Get the opinions of your merchandise manager, your store's fashion coordinator, other buyers, your resources, fashion consultants, publications, and your store's buying office. Observe what other stores are doing in promotion and display to ward featuring (or ignoring) the trends you believe you see developing. By watching for clues, checking out your opinions with others, and observing whether or not events take the pattern you though they would, you sharpen your ability to forecast fashion and develop a surer touch.
Fashion Leaders and Followers
In fashion, a few individuals lead and the rest follow. The leaders are those who are looked up to -locally, in their own small circles, or on the national and international scene, as the case may be. They are women who like to differentiate themselves from others by their dress.
When a fashion leader accepts a new style, her admirers copy her. When too many of them do so, she turns to a still newer style. Followers are women who are socially, emotionally, or financially unprepared to risk adopting the new until its acceptance among people they respect gives them the reassurance they need.
Knowing what is worn by fashion leaders on the national and international scene is simply a matter of studying the fashion and general news columns of publications. The press reports what these women wear and do, and such reports have impact upon the general public. Identifying local fashion leaders requires observing the local scene thoughtfully, and paying particular attention to the women's pages. Usually the fashion pace-setters are also prominent in community activities — chairmen of committees, presidents of organizations, and so on.
Fashion leaders are not always the first to sample the new, but when they do accept a look, they thereby encourage others to accept it. If you can identify the leaders in your community and observe their dress, you will have valuable hints as to when most of your customers will be ready to accept an incoming look.
Youth-Inspired Fashions
No matter what age group your department serves, keep an eye on youth. A good deal of fashion influence today is exerted by the young. When a youth fashion lights a spark of interest among adult fashion leaders, the chances are that general and widespread acceptance of the look will soon follow.
Examples of fashions that started with the young include the mini skirt of the 1960s, the Edwardian influence in men's suits; long, straight hair with center part for girls; luxuriant hair and beards for men; beads and pendants for both sexes; bell-bottomed slacks and trousers; maxi-length coats.
Fads
Fads are miniature fashions that are not so much concerned with a total look as with some detail, such as a blouse or glove. The cycle is extreme: wild popularity almost overnight, and sudden death. High school girls are particularly susceptible to fads, but adults are not immune.
Fads present a ticklish merchandising problem: first, obtaining supply while the fad is strong; then, disposing of any leftover stock when the fad dies.
Signs to watch: When fad merchandise is offered for sale in stores of all kinds, and at constantly lower prices, the end is near. The wise buyer usually forgoes the last few drops of volume and profit and cuts a fad off early.
Suggestion: If you are merchandising a department that serves a fad-prone group, such as teenagers and pre-teens, keep in the closest possible touch with your customers. You will get from them early indications of incoming or dying fads. Customer advisory panels, club groups meeting at the store, customer-reporters who write about fashions in school papers, are all helpful toward giving you the much-needed inside view.
