I have been an avid listener to the RetailOasis podcast since it started in the depths of the pandemic last year. There have been some incredible brands and retailers that we have spoken with along the way including Shopify, Afends, THE ICONIC, Stylerunner, Upparel and many more, who are forging the future of retail. Based on these discussions with the most progressive and interesting established and start-up brands in retail these are some of the strongest themes emerging.

SUSTAINABILITY

The most overwhelming thematic coming through is sustainability, both from a retailer business and customer demand perspective. We all know sustainability is important, but it’s now no longer optional and must form a fundamental part of a retailers’ ethos. It’s not just about doing the right thing anymore either, many of our guests noted how being authentically focused on sustainability helped them grow their businesses rapidly and reach important millennial markets. James Chin Moody, Co-Founder and CEO of Sendle (Podcast 48), who are trying to reduce shipping and packaging waste from e-commerce, noted Millennials are 70% more likely to buy from a brand that shares their values, and Hannon Comazzetto, founder of AirRobe (Episode 44) noted there was a 2.5 times jump in consumers demanding sustainability offerings in the last year. Sustainability will form a key pillar of progressive and successful businesses going forward. Innovative fashion and culture brand Afends believe the solution is in becoming fully vertical and producing their own materials used to make their products – Afends (Podcast 45) noted that “the consumer is starting to care” and in response are intending to grow their own hemp to use in their apparel manufacturing.

SLOW FASHION

Looking at the sustainability ecosystem, it’s obvious to me that it has very specific impacts on the fashion industry, which is a huge contributor to global waste. A fast-emerging trend is the shift away from Fast Fashion towards Slow Fashion. Slow Fashion is the opposite of Fast Fashion, it considers the materials and resources required to manufacture clothing while advocating purchasing higher quality garments that last longer and can be directly reused and up cycled, thus eliminating the vicious cycle of quantity and waste fuelled by cheap and low-quality seasonal-based fashion. Michael Elias, founder of Upparel, summed it up perfectly in Podcast Episode 32; “it’s not just fast fashion that’s the problem, it’s a cultural problem – 65% of what we receive (for recycling) is fit for wear”. Favourable consumer attitudes towards Slow Fashion combined with new platforms is removing friction and information asymmetry in the circular economy (Upparel, StockX, AirRobe) should quickly see this trend becoming more prominent in mainstream markets.

ENTREPRENEURIAL DRIVE

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic the side hustle or gig economy has seen exponential growth in response to people creating their own businesses. Both Greg Schwartz of StockX (Episode 50) and Robin Merchant of Shopify (Podcast 49) noted they have seen massive growth in new entrepreneurial sellers coming onto their platforms throughout the pandemic. Although recently accelerated by COVID, this is not just a cyclical shift, but structural, facilitated by radically lower barriers to entry for entrepreneurial retailers with technology providers like Shopify and Sendle providing easy, simple and complete third-party solutions that level the technological playing field for smaller players. This implies there may be big future growth in hyper localised community-based merchants catering to very specific niches. If this is the case it may pose challenges to brand leaders and mass market retailers. However, innovative brands like Stylerunner are leveraging this trend by making partnering with emerging entrepreneurial retailers a core part of their strategy – Ryan Edelmuth, GM of Stylerunner (Podcast 42) said emerging brands are a core part of their brand partner strategy, demonstrated by the acquisition of Exie, an exciting new sustainable tights and performance wear brand, this year.

INTERSECTION OF CONTENT + FRICTIONLESS COMMERCE

As commerce becomes truly frictionless, with innovations like “Fast” facilitating Amazon style one-click purchases across digital and physical mediums, transactional friction will be largely removed allowing customers to purchase seamlessly across any web, social or even physical platform. This truly redefines the entire transactional piece in retail allowing customers to buy when they’re inspired and not having to navigate cumbersome checkout processes which often result in cart abandonment. In Podcast Episode 51, Domm Holland, CEO of Fast, illustrates the example of point; “if you’re reading an article about the five best running shoes of 2021, you’re able to purchase the running shoes you’re reading about instantly and directly within the article without having to go to the retailers’ website or enter any additional information.” Innovations that truly facilitate seamless transaction while customers are consuming their favourite content will revolutionise retail and the way we think about transaction.

CONVERGENCE OF RETAIL AND INVESTMENT

Supporting the circular economy and innovation in resale platforms, while spurred by the Slow Fashion movement with its emphasis on product, consumers, particularly millennials, are viewing retail purchases as an asset rather than pure expenditure. Hannon Comazzetto, founder of AirRobe (Episode 44) believes that younger generations view their wardrobe as an asset rather than an expense with the platforms like AirRobe that showing consumers the value of their wardrobe in real time. Greg Schwartz of StockX (Episode 50) references their customers buying sneakers as an investment supported by the StockX exchange platform providing real time prices of clothing items and collectables.

These are only a few examples of the themes our guests have been discussing on the Podcast. It’s clear to me that the future of retail will be a revolution rather than evolution spurred on by some core thematics around sustainability and slow fashion, the rise of entrepreneurial retailers and interesting technological innovation in the seamless transaction and retail investment space. It’s more important than ever to remain on top of these and other key changes and not only to adapt ourselves to these thematics but take point and forge the future ourselves.

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*This post is in no way sponsored by any of the above companies