Vertical vs Horizontal Mindsets: The Fashion Tech Horserace

This evaluation of the media industry sounds eerily familiar to the fashion industry, and how technology is reshaping it. Generally speaking, the industry continues to look at businesses and technologies through individual channels, trying to maximize sales across the board. Everything from stores to social media to fashion shows needs to individually show top line revenue, or it’s not worth it, according to this line of thinking. This vertical approach—the idea that each distribution method needs to prosper on its own—is increasingly limiting. A fashion brand is an organism made up of dozens of different atoms. Looking at a brand on the micro level only provides a small picture, compared to looking at the brand on the macro level. The same goes for how new technologies interact with a brand. Social media is really powerful for building brand awareness, but less so for commerce. Buy buttons have so far failed because they tried to stick a conversion tool in a channel built for awareness. The same goes for the mobile web, native apps, physical stores, on-demand delivery and so on. The quest to have each new technology be everything to everyone is sure to be a let down. Read more at Loose Threads.