WEEKLY THREAD: EMERGING TRENDS AND WHAT TO EXPECT FROM THE NEW NORMAL POST COVID-19

What to expect from the New Normal? Emerging Trends post COVID-19

Written by Debbie McKeegan

EDITOR AND CEO TEXINTEL

For many businesses this will be a year like no other!…For the Fashion Industry - Lockdown, has transformed the offline high street into an old western, think tumble weed and deserted gold mines!! For gold mines they once were, Retail stores will never be the same again...gone forever?...Maybe NOT??

Does Covid-19 offer New Opportunities?

Online is thriving!!..But, the offline store needs to innovate to remain viable, can we reinvent the department store, adapt to offer omni-channel sales? An age where mass consumerism is redefined, and Fast Fashion gone for good. Where eco-systems exist online, and offline, spawning a new sector that rejects Amazonia? The supply chain is broken and reshoring print to reduce inventory offers new opportunities for the print industry.

Can the Micro-brand take flight?

Consumers are not sheep, for the last 2 decades the buyer, not the consumer held the power, that was the fast-fashion era, the future is now. Business that innovate will survive, those that reflect the past will not. Digital technologies facilitate new business models for entrepreneurial growth.

Evolving to engage with a new consumer mind-set is critical

Personalisation…builds brand loyalty, and lifestyle has never been so important. Social media is a powerful tool for Brands but it is also a powerful tool for consumer intelligence, analysing AI and data allows us to manufacture sustainably and supply the products that the consumer demands. Digital technologies embody personalisation, whether that's Fashion, Sportswear or Interiors, Decor and Accessories.

Head to the Coast?

Escapism won’t get us anywhere except to put off the inevitable…Commerce has changed….Consumers are splinked, those now going back to work anxious! But we have to move on…adapt to accept a new normal and forge our own path to success, embrace new technologies and deliver the democratisation of print within any marketplace.

Innovation is key to ongoing success

...and innovate we must, we must to share information, understand our consumers and meet their need to thrive. Within days of lockdown the Zoom culture emerged to facilitate communication, Microsoft teams connects huge organisations across the globe, and finally we realise that we don’t have to be in the same room to do business. We can be online or offline…but the customers experience is paramount, as is our online digital identity.

Social distancing is going to be tough? 

We are a tactile species and the future, for the time being anyway, will be cold and distant without the usual network of events, so how do we engage our clients?  Our messaging needs to change, and along with that our corporate body language, to express personality and trust. We all have to work harder to communicate!

Lets seek out the opportunities from the current crisis 

Resolve the challenges and adapt to a new normal, an era where Digital technologies deliver prosperous future growth for the print industries.

Last week I wrote a piece on the application of Antiviral textiles, it went viral, literally... 

Why?

Because the innovations made within our industry are now at the forefront of change. Digital technologies offer the supply chain the production diversity thats required for sustainable, profitable manufacturing, regardless of scale or location.

As we emerge from lockdown we also emerge into a new era of Digitisation...