Fashion & Ecommerce – A look back at 2020 & 2021 Predictions

Our Recruitment Business Manager Sophie Parkin has been catching up with some of the movers and shakers in the eCommerce and Fashion industries to see how 2020 has affected their businesses and how they see it being impacted going into 2021. 

It’s been a difficult year for a lot of businesses, but for online and clients like I Saw It First who have contributed to this predictions blog, they’ve seen a huge rise in demand with most people being locked down during the pandemic at some stage.  More orders in sectors like homeware, loungewear and baking have created a huge demand in online shopping, all of whom need talented staff to deal with the surge. Then there’s the unexpected rise of Banana Bread, Zoom Quizzes & Joe Wicks’ P.E on YouTube which has collectively contributed to one of the most progressive years in online history which will impact us all moving forward.

Times are changing, we are seeing the rapid fall of retail more each week that goes by. People are expected to have products delivered straight to their door, and with lockdowns and restrictions this has been inevitable, but it has developed a habit that consumers will stick to. For Ecommerce & Fashion clients like Beautyworks there seems to be a renewed focus on personalization, digital marketing, automation and influencer marketing. Online shopping is at the touch of your fingers anywhere you go, it has become too difficult to avoid.

Some of The Candidate’s biggest clients like Rebellious Fashion are in Ecommerce & Fashion within the North West and beyond. We always see growth in these areas each year, and with no surprise, they have continued to grow in 2020. It was already hard to predict what 2020 could bring us, which we all got broadly wrong, but here are some of our client’s predictions for 2021.

Kicking off is Penelope Cheshire, Managing Director of the rapidly growing online beauty store, Beautyworks. Penelope gives us her thoughts on how ecommerce businesses are going to continue to thrive in 2021.

“E-commerce sites with the right teams and products in place will grow despite lockdown or tier restrictions. With fashion, beauty and health care brands it’s the perfect opportunity to capitalize on sales as High streets are becoming unstable.”

In a year that’s surprised us all, Penny mentions the massive changes she has seen this year, “Online sales and how quickly customers switch habits. With one of the most unexpected years we’ve had in our lifetime, people have had to adapt quickly to demand and supply."

2020 has been amazing for the Beautyworks brand, they’ve seen huge growth, worked alongside massive names such as Molly Mae and have really set their brand in one of the top tiers for the beauty industry. There’s been many positives for Beautyworks this year and Penny’s highlight is, “New Customer acquisitions speed. Covid has helped growth for online brands as customers have been only able to shop online.”

It’s clear that ecommerce companies can easily thrive despite a pandemic. Unfortunately, this spike of luck isn’t the same for traditional retail. “Unfortunately, I think it will only be getting worse for retail unless the high street comes up with a new way to attract customers in store. Crowd control and less stock in store is damaging even the very best high street stores.”

We also spoke to Christian Fildes (Head of Human Resources) & Sophie Rigg (Digital Marketing Manager) from I Saw It First about the impact they have seen in fashion & ecommerce during 2020. Demand for items has changed with people going out less and staying in more, they found that; “For us the main difference is the product that customers have been buying, we went from selling going out dresses and those always being our best sellers to plain joggers and hoodies constantly being in the top positions. Being able to adapt quickly such as our stock offering, how we organise the site and monitoring search terms each day has really helped us stay ahead of competition.”

Competition within fashion is tough. Every day a new brand or online store is evolving. Today it is estimated that ecommerce is valued around the $2 Trillion mark. With 2020 taking a huge turn towards online shopping, “Customers will be expecting more personalised messaging from brands next year, showing that they actually care about them and understand their needs. Instead of being blasted with products they might be interested in, we think it will be so much more important to ensure everything is data driven and based on what their interests are and what they previously bought. Also, with more and more customers now shopping online we think quicker delivery will be vital to stay competitive following the Argos/Amazon same day options.”

Very much catching up with traditional retail sales and depleting the high street, Fast Fashion & Ecommerce are seeing trajectory growth. Speaking to Rebellious Fashion’s Paul Oates (PPC Manager) & Hannah Magean (Digital Marketing Manager), we looked at how fashion will sway following on from 2020, “It really depends on what happens with the ongoing COVID-19 situation and the restrictions in place UK wide. After almost a year in full loungewear I think a lot of people are ready to get out and dress up a bit more so we might see more formal wear start to pick up in sales as restrictions are lifted. Now more people are used to ecommerce shopping I think there’ll be an initial rush to get out to brick and mortar shops but the general increase in ecommerce shopping is here to stay.”

With technologies playing a huge part in business, technologies such as automation & (AI) are having a huge effect on businesses across all industries, particularly fashion. “Automation is going to be a discussion point for a long time yet. Some automation tools are already there and working well, but there’s so much more that can be done. I’m excited to see where it goes in the next few years.” However, “Automation is increasing YOY but there's always going to be a physical need for humans.”

So maybe retail isn’t dead after all?

An uneasy year 2020 has been to say the least, but we’ve seen clients are still expanding digital teams throughout. “There was already high demand in digital skillsets, and this is only going to increase as time goes on. Everything from supply-chain, stock management, marketing and final distribution is now digitally controlled in some way so being able to work within these systems is a must.”

2021 is now upon us, and people cannot wait to see the back of 2020. A lean towards digital is now getting increasingly technical, automation is spreading, and online platforms continue to thrive. For some there is the argument that 2021 will see a further demise of most in-store shopping, especially for Fashion. But one thing is for sure, we all hope businesses can get back to business as usual and get through the back end of this pandemic.