Between rapidly-paced chatter on TikTok and the emergence of ultra-fast fashion players like Shein, figuring out how to capitalise on trends has never been more complicated. That reality, in tandem, has made a fashion buyer’s job harder.
“Different shocks are happening to different parts of the system. The anxiety is at a fever pitch,” said Monisha Klar, director of fashion intelligence at trend forecasting company WGSN, who previously worked as a buyer at Gap, Amazon and Fast Retailing. “If something goes wrong, it’s the buyer’s head on the chopping block.”
To address these shifts, on Aug. 8, WGSN is launching a new platform for buyers that puts its tools — including its TikTok Analytics service, which launched in April and analyses what sort of staying power trends on the app have, and its AI features which use machine learning to classify trends — together in one place, so that it can provide forecasts for when buyers should phase items in and out under their typical commercial calendar.
The firm’s AI model works by first analysing years of data drawn from social media, runways and retail, and using statistics to weigh the importance of various factors (for example, it has found being on the runway is a strong predictor of the lifecycle of some trends, while social is stronger for others). Trend experts then review the data and account for outside factors.
Previously, WGSN’s products were mostly centred around designers’ process and workflow, providing inspiration through high-level reports. The firm saw an opportunity to speak directly with the buyers using its information, said Francesca Muston, WGSN’s vice president of fashion. The platform has been in the works for years and is part of a wider emphasis the company is placing on building products specifically for buyers.
“There’s this perception that TikTok is driving trends, what TikTok is really doing is marketing trends,” said Muston, adding that these changes have made many buyers feel unnecessarily helpless. “It’s not about going out and making a whole new load of product off the back of every single trend and hashtag … Our clients are chasing their tails the entire time and they’re compromising on quality, fit and margin. There’s a way to be much smarter about this.”
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