This case study focuses on the challenges experienced by fashion retailers during and after the Covid-19 pandemic, with consideration of macroenvironmental and microenvironmental issues impacting current and future decisions in fashion offline and online retailing. It argues for continued development and investment in technologies such as augmented and virtual reality (AR and VR) as well as 3D, to enhance the customer experience while supporting the traditional high-street store and the virtual environment, as well as benefiting fashion retailing distributors and supporting a sustainable environment into the future.

The global fashion retail sector has been undergoing rapid, substantive and transformative change in recent years, accelerated by advances in technology, ever-evolving consumer tastes and growing expectations especially around ethical and sustainable consumption. However, the impact of Covid-19 forever altered consumer behaviour, eradicated the need for the ‘bricks and mortar presence’, boosted fashion e-commerce, empowered consumers to become more autonomous and, in turn, diminished the need for store assistants on the same scale as before (Grgic and Stipetic 2020). Furthermore, with the uncertain climate, the need for luxury fashion diminished. While demand for fast fashion may not yet be on the decline, slow fashion is becoming more popular with consumers, who are becoming more ethically and sustainably conscious in their consumption habits (Rauturier 2022). 

To effectively survive and compete brands must invest in a quality online, seamless omnichannel experience. Brands also must develop and maintain a visible stance on sustainable issues. Multiple channels and touchpoints are essential for a seamless customer experience: expanding customer engagement channels, adding more self-service options, merging data and personalizing communications and customer loyalty programmes (Lynch 2021). In addition, ever-increasing customer expectations in both offline and online settings must continuously be addressed and augmented, and include ease of access to products and customer service, a sense of immediacy, high levels of interaction and engagement, yet often in a contactless and frictionless environment with an optimal retail and brand experience (Amed et al. 2019)........

Questions

1. Discuss the challenges for both consumers and fashion retailers during and after the Covid-19 pandemic, in light of the microenvironmental and macroenvironmental factors. 

2. Identify what challenges can be addressed that will benefit the ecological/physical environment and a retailer’s corporate reputation, and contribute to ethical consumerism. 

3. Discuss how high-street fashion retailers scan the environment, and the various responses to environmental change they have had to adopt. 

4. Identify and discuss the wide-ranging political and legal forces that impact fashion retailers, and consider legal and regulatory responses to ethical and sustainable issues.