Fashion Retailing

This paper explores consumer habits in the Republic of Serbia regarding the purchase of clothes. The aim of the research was to answer the following questions: where do the citizens of Serbia buy clothes most often, how often do they go shopping, how much money do they spend monthly and what is most important for them when buying clothes? A survey was conducted among 500 respondents by means of an online questionnaire using Computer Assisted Web Interviewing (CAWI). The fi ndings showed that about 40% of Serbian citizens buy clothing items once a month, while 36% of them buy once in 3-6 months. Clothes are most frequently purchased in branded shops (53%), while one third of citizens mainly go to smaller, local shops and boutiques with unbranded items. Citizens usually buy clothes in the city they live in or in the immediate surroundings. However, clothes are often bought in other cities of Serbia (29%) or abroad, most notably in the neighbouring countries (20%) if the off er is cheaper or for the purpose of purchasing the models and brands that are not available on the local market. On average, nearly 60% of Serbian citizens spend up to EUR 40 per month on the purchase of clothes, which puts them at the annual level on a par with the neighbouring countries that are EU members (i.e. Croatia and Hungary). The research also defi ned three diff erent groups of consumers (independently of demographic variables). Moreover, other interesting conclusions were drawn by analysing the initial hypotheses of the paper that better explain the market in the Republic of Serbia.
Keywords: shopping, clothes, brand, market

Since Harry Gordon Selfridge first opened his eponymous department store on Oxford Street in 1909, London’s retailing industry was then revolutionized as Selfridge “literally changed everything about the way Londoners shopped” (Woodhead, 2007, pp.1) – the artsy shop windows, inventive in-store promotions, glitzy fashion shows and other entertainment, as well as premium customer services and facilities mesmerize every elite consumer. In the adventurous American retailer’s vision, shopping is at once a visual and tactile, gratifying and pleasurable experience that can be best relished in “a moment of private self-indulgence and enjoyment” (Woodhead, 2007, p.34). However, in the late twentieth century, due to the unprecedented growth and changes in retailing services and consumption around the world triggered by the irreversible force of globalization, post-industrialization, urbanization, transnational mobility and money flows, branding and marketing, information and communications technology and so forth, rather than just a corner of the street, we witnessed the “malling” of a large portion of urban space and gradual standardization of cityscapes in rapidly developing consumer societies, particularly in China and East Asia – from multi-story shopping malls, flagship stores, concept boutiques to guerrilla pop-up shops. Meanwhile, more and more consumers are becoming addicted to online surfing and shopping, and marketers and retailers tend to explore the online sphere, building their brands and selling their merchandises, leading to the rapid “malling” of virtual space.

Does such a metamorphosis guarantee everlasting growth in sales and further perpetuation of consumerism in our society and culture? On one hand, the emergence of online shopping, reliance on global travelers’ and tourists’ impulse (or price-conscious) consumption in global cities, have created new challenges for brands and retailers improvising strategies to sell and impress the clienteles through their physical (also virtual) shops, no matter how enthralling they be; on the other, they are striving to adapt to/experiment new modes of brand and design communication. Now our society is already saturated with brand icons and images, online and offline, and then there are simply too many options – from promotional strategies, communication channels, product variety to ways of consumption – to dazzle and distract consumers at once and in every nanosecond. Placing all these as the backdrop of branding and retailing practices, several key questions emerge: is retail design still significant like in the good old days amid the new chances and challenges? What are the alleged changes and actual practices in the contemporary retail industry and retail design as a tool of brand communication that we, whether as a researcher, practitioner or even just an ordinary consumer, have to pay attention to? What are their immediate implications and divergent effects to consumers, culture and society? More radically speaking, for instance, can the evolving virtual shopping experience and its potential synchronization with 3D printing technology (i.e., “prosume” a piece of recyclable/reprintable luxury fashion online with just a click and within a couple of minutes when one has an “omnipotent” 3D printer at home) completely substitute and eradicate the offline one in the foreseeable future (Leopold, 2015; Lindgren, 2015)? In this chapter, based on interdisciplinary theories and recent empirical research in Hong Kong and Shanghai, we attempt to address the above questions, and the discussions will focus on the retail market conditions and their social, cultural and economic significance in the two locales within the East Asian market, providing insights to a wide range of audiences who are concerned about the future of the retail industry, as well as briefly discussing the impact of evolving retail designs, dictated by market trends, on the creative liberties of the designers.

Reference:
Leopold, C., 2015. Fashion designer makes entire collection using small 3D printers. Digital Journal, [online] 27 July.
Lindgren, T., 2013. Fashion system Shanghai: The advent of a new gatekeeper. In J. L. Foltyn & R. Fisher ed., Proceedings of 5th Global Conference: Fashion – Exploring Critical Issues. Oxford: Inter-Disciplinary.Net, pp.1-8.
Woodhead, L., 2007. Shopping, seduction & Mr Selfridge. London: Profile 2007.