The online fashion industry is growing at a rapid pace and it is no news that every fashion company, no matter the scale, must have its own e-commerce platform to showcase and sell collections online.
However, challenges in the fashion industry are unlike that of any other customer vertical and topping this list is ‘seasonality’; growing an online presence as fast as possible, showcasing products as unique as possible and of course, making profits as much as possible.
To understand this better, let’s take an example of a company that offers more than 4,000 products per collection. To grow online, there needs to be a process in place, a properly initiated and well-drafted plan of shooting more than 200 products a day. The more, the merrier actually.
But, the question is, how to achieve a target like that?
Let’s get to the steps involved in the process:
The buyer identifies and orders the best-sellers of the season from each brand and notifies the back office.
The back office then receives the delivery notes and forwards the data to the warehouse management software (ERP/PIM/Database).
Once the delivery comes in, the stylist/photo-studio manager is notified to get the schedule of the shootings in place.
Stylist tools can be provided to assist the stylist with outfits combinations, different sizes and positions from different brands and categories, the models’ availability and their respective measurements and lastly determining the size and fit of the right outfit on the right model.
Then comes the actual process of shooting videos and pictures utilizing automated photo studio such as those offered by Styleshoots. With this you can create amazing photos and videos of your models in just a few minutes, vertical and horizontal photo machines to capture pack-shots and capsules that capture incredible pictures of products like shoes and bags.
Live machine for shooting models and product videos
Eclipse for shooting shoes and accessories
The process of shooting also includes marking each item by scanning their individual barcodes which will then save the photos under the barcode meant for that particular item, thus streamlining the process.
Then comes the real deal, the process of creating content to attract the buyer. This will include the process of using automation for sorting folders, updating shooting status, sorting videos and preparing annotations and instructions for post-production. Here is also where we give samples to copywriters so they can add product descriptions and talk about different product attributions that can be automated outside the box by unlocking the power of ERP and PIM systems.
A sorting tool can be used to determine which picture goes online. This will include adding model metadata such as size, height, etc. and giving instructions regarding cropping and other editing procedures. In terms of editing videos, industry tools such as Adobe Premier can be used for setting presets for specific categories and for using macro automation.
Upon the completion of this step, a clear order is sent to everyone, from the entire content team to the whole post-production team.
The post-production team is now all set and the production manager will review and decide what is good to go and what needs to be resubmitted for corrections, which includes both the descriptions and the images. This is the final quality check to verify if all the information about the product is correct and looks professional.
Lastly, while enabling a new product one needs to make sure that it is nicely sorted inside the website catalog and also push each product differently according to the buyer recommendation, using email automation. This can be done manually, through automation or by using personalized algorithms.
The process of content production in 2020 is a lengthy process made easy using special tools and applications. Automation, in the case of online fashion industries, has touched the sky and has become an integral part of the production line. Therefore, it has become all the more important to imbibe it in the company’s infrastructure. This not only helps in creating a gigantic online presence but also reduces the space for human errors. In Sharobella, we love giving you the chance to experience automation and digitization like never before. Our aim is to make you stand out by easing you into the process of integrating these ideas and automation into the e-commerce fashion industry.
In case you are willing to visit or simply coordinate with one of our specialists in Vienna, feel free to speak to our experts. We will be happy to help you.