Integrating the online and physical apparel shopping experience

Integrating the online and physical apparel shopping experience

Huang, P.R.Y.S.

Christiaans, H.H.C.M. (mentor)
Pasman, G.J. (mentor)
Schiet, R. (mentor)

Industrial Design Engineering

Design Conceptualization & Communication

2012-08-30

The assignment was to study both the physical and the online shopping channel in order to design a concept integrating and thereby enhancing the physical and online shopping experience of Denim+ as a brand. The integrated solution must be intuitive in navigation and easy-to-use for the future customers of Denim+. Denim+ is a denim lifestyle brand store, set-up in 2010 and is located in Bussum. Denim+ sells jeans, basics and accessories. Next to the physical shop, the web shop was launched in November 2010, selling the same products. The report describes two major phases: the analysis phase and the synthesis phase. The analysis phase explores Denim+ internally and externally. The synthesis phase describes the process of idea generation, concept development and the final concept named PLUS. The internal analysis describes Denim+’ online and physical store marketing mix and branding. Both are evaluated and lead to strengths and weaknesses. Denim+’ most important strengths are the practical fashion and retail knowledge, large assortment with distinctive products and flexible and ambitious mentality. Denim+’ most important weaknesses are the lack of vision, objectives, strategy and differentiating features, slow online channel development and incompatible channel branding. The external analysis consists of three sections: consumer, competitors and environmental factors also known as trends. These sections issue various threats in the market, Denim+ should not ignore, and opportunities Denim+ could grasp. The media and technology opportunities show chances for Denim+ in the social and mobile media, enhanced by the use of intuitively operable screens and consumer data. The opportunities within the brand and product category show a retail environment based on engagement and interaction. This trend highlights that retailers should offer multiple brands and extend their assortment with non-core products. Mass-customization, self service and providing recommendations are shopping trends giving Denim+ concrete opportunities on how to serve the consumer. The fashion opportunities lie within facilitating consumers need to experiment with look and style, share and DIY fashion. The threats show changing ways of shopping online with high return rates and physical with changing store roles. The growing consumer power through technology shows threats for Denim+ which are: consumers’ ease to find substitute products and suppliers, short attention span and demand for ethically principled brand policies. In the synthesis phase I generated ideas based on search fields coming from the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. The ideas combined lead to six concepts of which the concept based on product scanning scored the best for integrating the online and physical apparel shopping experience. The final concept is named PLUS, which stands for Personally relevant, Look-based inspirator, User convenient Shopping experience. It clearly describes the goals of the concept. PLUS is based on a mobile application that can read product information. This aspect leads to five new features for the consumer: tangi ble POS material, fitting sessions, smart wish list, online clothing closet and online-only items available in the physical store. Roy Schiet (one of the owners of Denim+ and retail expert) says the concept will be appealing to consumers. This will emphasize that Denim+ is innovative, and creates awareness for the physical store, online and vice versa, which is what this assignment is about.

Multi channeling
Omni channeling
Online store
Physical store
Denim lifestyle
Fashion
Retail
Consumer experience
Shopping experience
Denim+

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:6cfbb3e6-8a2d-44fe-8c6c-7beb1cbd0f2a

Campus only

Student theses

master thesis

(c) 2012 Huang, P.R.Y.S.