While technology has been progressing rapidly in a number of other industries, the fashion world is the new focus for high-speed developments that emphasize the creation of an enhanced, user-friendly experience.
With the shift from physical stores to online retailers solidifying, the internet is just one-way tech has changed the fashion game. Wondering what else technology has in store? Read on here to learn more about the newest fashion trend — tech!
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The Internet
The internet has provided a massive opportunity to businesses of all sizes. It allows even the smallest retailer to reach a huge audience on a national, and even a global, scale. There has been a surge in home-based sellers growing their fashion business through online sites that offer a much more polished platform for their customers to visit.
Recent research suggests that online purchases have more than doubled in just the last year alone! As the internet’s reach continues to grow and become more pervasive in everyone’s daily life, there is a high probability that soon, all retail sales will be made online.
Mobile Commerce
While most people have an internet connection at home, mobile commerce has also grown exponentially in recent years. With Smartphones so prevalent, anyone can shop from anywhere!
Even social media applications, like Instagram and Facebook, offer users a chance to buy products directly from their sites. Whether the site features clothing ads peripherally or new products for their followers to purchase, shopping has never been more targeted and more accessible.
Data Mining
Since everyone is turning to online shopping for their clothing needs, it should come as no surprise that many companies are shelling out big money to keep an eye on user browsing habits.
A number of companies collect user data, organize and analyze it, and then use that data to predict customer needs. Whether through cookies or search history, what people look at online is the basis for advertising, and sometimes, new product development.
Augmented Reality
While many times buying the perfect piece of clothing is just a few clicks away, there hasn’t been a reliable way to try on everything until it arrives at a customer’s door. With augmented reality, returning or replacing items that don’t fit, could be a thing of the past.
Apps allow an avatar to try on clothing with custom sizes, customers can take photos of themselves to see how a contact colour or lipstick shade will look, and people have a chance to actually see how a product should fit them before they buy it. AR offers valuable insights to retailers and provides a more personalized shopping experience for customers.
Printed Clothing
When 3D printers first came out, they were very limited in material choices and design software. Now, however, everything from shoes and gloves to dresses and jewellery has made their way down the runway after being designed and manufactured through CAD (computer-aided design) and CAM (computer aided manufacturing).
While most printers currently use very rigid construction materials, with creative design and developing technology, light, flowing fabrics aren’t as far away as people think.
Wearable Tech
What’s better than having a computer that fits in your pocket? Having one that fits on your wrist. Smart watches, BlueTooth jewellery, and Smart glasses are all the rage in the fashion world.
In an effort to mesh everyday needs even more seamlessly with technology, the race is on to develop innovative (fashionable) devices to streamline online access.
Also Read: 5 Android Wearables that Can Save Your Life
Smart Clothes
From biometric shirts to colour changing dresses, Smart clothes are an incredible novelty that’s becoming more widespread by the minute.
The worlds of silk and silicon are converging to create clothing and accessories that are meant to become permanently entrenched in every person’s life. As technology shrinks, companies will soon be able to fit hardware into the smallest diamond on a ring or a single button on a shirt.
While many of these advancements aren’t affordable or available for the general public, it’s just a matter of time before solar-powered fabrics, trackable clothing, and hydrophobic materials are prevalent.
Fashion Recognition
People don’t just find clothing and accessories they like by shopping online! Often, someone on the street is wearing something that catches the eye. Since it’s pretty rare for a random person to walk up and ask where that jacket or those shoes are from, you turn to technology for a solution.
While there’s no concrete fashion-specific recognition app yet, it’s the next logical step to helping people find the products they want. Currently, snapping a picture and hoping that Google Lens will recognize the item is the best hope of reverse image searching an item.
Tech + Fashion
Wearable technology isn’t always attractive or sleekly designed. Many times, tech designers are focused solely on functionality — and not so much about wearability.
Due to the rise of so much wearable tech, collaborations between fashion houses and massive technology conglomerates are becoming more commonplace. These associations will definitely affect both the technology and fashion industries and how they approach the products they design.
Consider an example of mobile devices and its cases, People are buying premium smartphones yet they want to enhance its look by adding beautiful mobile cases. Many online and offline stores sell fashionable mobile cases exclusively for women. Hence, there is a relation between tech and fashion which no can ignore.
Crowdfunding
Like the internet, crowdfunding has opened up new opportunities for small businesses or individuals trying to get their product off the ground. If they can generate enough interest in a revolutionary new design, they won’t need to hunt down investors or chain themselves to a contract to execute their vision.
Crowdfunding sites allow anyone to offer their ideas to the public, and with enough contributions, bring a new product to the marketplace. This unprecedented level of consumer involvement gives individuals more choice in the products, people, and companies they choose to support.
What Are You Wearing?
Whether you only blend technology and fashion for online shopping, or you’re a hardcore enthusiast that buys every Smartwatch and BlueTooth capable device, there’s no denying that technology has been a gamechanger for the fashion world. As the individual consumer becomes more powerful, you can use your preferences and opinions to completely customize your shopping experience — just keep an eye on the data mining programs your favourite apps could be running
