The future for fashion retailers is the cloud

With customer bases growing each and every day, many retailers are struggling to keep up with demand. This is especially true for fashion brands that started life as nothing but a physical store. Now, these companies are dealing with online sales from their own sites as well as third parties such as Amazon.

Put simply, retailers that are relying on multiple inventory and data systems are finding their methods to be time-consuming and ineffective. These processes lack in communication and require staff to look at multiple databases simultaneously, resulting in incorrect stock levels and unsatisfied customers. As time goes on, bankruptcy looms.

Luckily, technology has found a solution. A cloud-based system brings every data source together under one roof, providing retailers with a quick and easy way to ensure they have enough sizes and SKUs to fulfil all upcoming orders.

NetSuite has designed the first unified commerce platform using this type of technology. It rounds up customer, financial, inventory and order data, putting them on one screen. This helps in myriad ways.

Not only can it assist with those all-important stock levels but it can also create a more positive shopping experience for customers. If a customer cannot find an item online but sees it is in stock in a nearby store, they won’t be left disappointed when they turn up. And relevant email campaigns can be sent out to those who haven’t completed a purchase, encouraging them to do so at just the right time.

With cloud commerce platforms, retailers no longer need to worry about updating their systems. Everything is done automatically, meaning there can be no accidental loss of data thanks to a manual overhaul.

An outdated IT system just won’t work in today’s fashion climate. People want personalisation, they want simplicity and they don’t want to be told that the dream dress they ordered won’t be making it to their house on time. A fashion retailer that refuses to revolutionise behind the scenes is bound to get left behind.

Source: blog.decodedfashion.com