How Stores and Brands are Adapting to the Pandemic with Small but Life Saving Initiatives

February 15 2021
How Stores and Brands are Adapting to the Pandemic with Small but Life Saving Initiatives
The ongoing COVID-19 crisis and continuing lockdowns are encouraging us all to be more creative than ever. In our personal lives we need to look for new ways to express ourselves and to keep being involved in the lives of our family and friends.
Robin MeijerinkFebruary 15 2021

The ongoing COVID-19 crisis and continuing lockdowns are encouraging us all to be more creative than ever. In our personal lives, we need to look for new ways to express ourselves and to keep being involved in the lives of our family and friends. Similarly in business, we must reinvent business models as this is not ‘business as usual’, we must find a new normal. Without downplaying all the disastrous consequences for businesses and individuals across our industry (and much more broadly), the past 12 months have also been fruitful in terms of new concepts and initiatives. Initiatives that have been developed without a guidebook or instruction manual. Initiatives that will help businesses through this current crisis and will thereafter be invaluable in our operating.

Adapting in Extreme Circumstances

Before we highlight a handful of these unique concepts from brands and stores alike, we would first like to mention some adjustments that were made in order to guarantee the viability of businesses in general. Call it foresight or luck that the first steps for digitization throughout the supply chain were put in motion during the last few years, as this has ultimately prevented our industry from a quick and disastrous knock-out during the first stage of the pandemic. The process of digitization, specifically in relation to web stores, social media, and online initiatives, has increased revenue and allowed the consumer ease of access to information and products. Up until February 2020, many traditional brick and mortar stores fully trusted their offline retail position and their experienced staff in physical stores. Selling online may not have been the priority for many traditional brick and mortar stores, and a sale via their web store an added extra. However, due to the pandemic and the change in customer behavior, this has changed dramatically in the 12 months. This in turn has led to enormous development in web stores, e-commerce, and stores actively using social media as an extension of their physical stores. By hosting online fashion shows, collection presentations, reaching out to consumers via Q&As, or fitting sessions via Instagram Stories, brands and stores reached out to their customers online more than ever. The direct engagement proved to be essential in these past months and it seems logical to predict that this will continue throughout 2021 and beyond. But adjustments were not limited exclusively to online and e-commerce. In the physical world, brands and stores tried to reach their customers within the parameters which were set (most often by governments). With initiatives like personal shopping, pick-up services, and same-day delivery, stores tried to simplify but continue offline activities without sacrificing professional advice and personal service.

Small But Significant

On top of the general adjustments which we’ve seen industry-wide, some stores and brands went the extra mile for their customers, and to keep all their employees on board. Within the past few months, unique concepts and smart decisions were the key to staying afloat. And interestingly, many of the initiatives go hand-in-hand with the concepts of responsibility and sustainability. In the following we’ve highlighted three distinct initiatives which we felt were worth highlighting as models of good practice and a fast response to addressing a problem during difficult times. They’re not world changing, but they’re changing the worlds of individuals, contributing to sustainability, and keeping up morale. Starting with the Amsterdam-based Tenue de Nîmes who released their ‘Summer Series’ in July of last year, which marked start of their ‘upcycling’ projects that followed. For the Summer Series, the store bought the remaining stock of Vans ‘Vault’ sneakers (which were already produced and sitting in a warehouse) as a result of Vans changing their shoe last. Together with Blue Print Amsterdam the store transferred these deadstock sneakers into several limited and exclusive batches of natural indigo dyed collectors’ items (that sold out within the blink of an eye). By strictly making use of natural dyes, the Tenue de Nîmes Summer Series were a textbook example of upcycling and uplifting existing items. Also in the Netherlands, “Why produce a new collection when the whole world has stopped?’” is what Sander van de Vecht, founder of Denim.lab thought when he decided to postpone the release of any new collections until further notice. Instead, the brand invested in smart and creative ways to sell existing styles directly to its customers, giving these items another chance to be sold. On top of that, Denim.lab is focusing on the DIY-consumer and is selling a complete jean, in parts. From a how-to manual containing step by step instructions to denim fabric, buttons and more, the brand is offering this clever concept via its webstore. Catching onto the trends of DIY and craft, this initiative is an apt response to the context of 2020. The third and last initiative we’d like to highlight is how the Japanese and Italian brand A.B.C.L. is working its way through the crisis. The brand, normally a wholesale brand, have been working on small and limited releases that have been sold exclusively via their own webstore direct to consumer. Instead of trying to sell their ‘normal’ quantity of product via retailers, the brand has re-focused on small scale, limited and unique batch production. This new approach has not only resulted in some of the best releases the brand has done so far, but it also underlines the sustainable and zero-waste approach of small businesses like A.B.C.L.

Initiatives for the Better

The initiatives noted above might not be as groundbreaking as you had expected. Individually they might look like another concept to sell or a marketing stunt, but they are serving two important missions. Firstly, they are helping growing brands and stores survive through a global pandemic, with all of its implications, and secondly, they are contributing to a conscious and reduced-waste denim industry. Before the pandemic, the industry had already reached a firm realization that we needed a cleaner denim world, and the current situation only underlines this sentiment. But with our handling of and response to the effects of the pandemic continuing to improve and with vaccinations on the rise, we can be confident that having survived through these difficult times and come up with unique initiatives to adapt, the future of denim looks brighter.

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