Archive for month: October, 2018

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Ackermans Fashion Design Competition Announces SA’s Trendiest Kids

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Article issued by Ackermans

 

Tshepo “Young King” Tau, 15, from Boksburg and Busisiwe “Busi” Maphalala, 13, from Pretoria West have been announced as the winners of the 2018 Ackermans Style Squad Young Fashion Designer competition.
Ackermans fashion design competition announces SA's trendiest kids

“South Africa is a country rich with talent and the kids were testament to that. They truly blew the judges away with their creativity, fashion genius and unique style,” says Tanya Ruiters, Marketing Specialist at Ackermans.

Tshepo’s minimalistic style of wearing simple fashion items in white and black with other toned-down colours like grey or denim, got him noticed. Inspired by fashion and music star Kanye West, he hopes to be in the entertainment industry as a music artist or behind the scenes in production.

Busi is an aspiring doctor and fashion designer. She is inspired by the chic style trend of pairing casual and sophisticated items together, such as her favourite fashion items; culotte pants and crop tops.

Ackermans fashion design competition announces SA's trendiest kids

“It has been an amazing experience learning different ways to express my style. I wish I could do it all over again,” says Busi.

Boys and girls across South Africa, aged between nine and 15 (at time of entry), were invited to enter the fashion design competition to compete in various challenges for the coveted top spot and a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to design their own girls’ and boys’ ranges. This year’s competition saw a knock out round format, where the public voted for their favourite’s until the top 10 were confirmed, internal judges then selected the winners from there.

Now that the two winners have been announced, they will be flown to the Ackermans Support Centre in Cape Town where the buyers will help them create their clothing ranges, which will be available in Ackermans stores across southern Africa in 2019.

“It doesn’t end there; each winner will receive R10,000 cash, R10,000 educational policy, R5,000 for their schools, branded gear, a fashion voucher and the grand prize of designing and being professionally photographed in their own clothing ranges. This will also include an all-expenses-paid trip to Cape Town for the design process,” concludes Ruiters.

About Ackermans

With over 700 stores across Southern Africa, Ackermans is a leading South African value retailer and stockist of affordable family clothing, footwear, general merchandise, cellular and value-added services. Call the Customer Care line on 0860 900 100 or (International) +27 (0) 21 928 1040 or visit www.ackermans.co.za for any queries.

Woolworths Announces ‘Plastic Bag Free’ Store

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Article from BizCommunity

 

Woolworths has announced that it is launching a new in-store reusable bag trial.

The trial aims to test whether, given a choice of a more affordable reusable bag, consumers will make the shift away from buying single-use plastic shopping bags.

Starting on 5 November 2018, these new, entry-level, reusable shopping bags will be made available in four stores across the Western Cape (V&A Waterfront, Palmyra, Pinelands and Steenberg). Significantly one store, Woolworths Steenberg, will be completely plastic bag free for the duration of the trial, with customers having the choice of either purchasing a reusable bag or bringing their own bags. In the remaining three stores, the current single-use plastic bags will still be available.

Zero packaging waste to landfill

In June, Woolworths communicated its vision of achieving zero packaging waste to landfill and its commitment that all of its packaging will be recyclable or reusable by 2022. This is an ambitious target as most international retailers and producers with a similar commitment have set their sights on 2025.

“This reusable bag trial is an opportunity for us to gauge customer reaction, feedback and input that will inform the greater phasing out of single-use plastics,” says Feroz Koor, Woolworths Holdings group head of sustainability. “There is a wide range of views and different levels of awareness of the issues which need to be understood so that we can take this journey to zero waste to landfill hand-in-hand with all our customers.”

While many Woolies customers give voice to their own plastic pollution concerns, South Africans, like the rest of the world, have been relatively slow to transform to the more environmentally-friendly reusable options. Research has shown that the lightweight plastic bag levy introduced in 2003 has not curbed the country’s plastic shopping bag consumption.

Helping consumers choose reusable bags

When you consider that Woolworths currently sells about 140 million plastic bags a year, which is between six to seven tonnes of plastic, helping consumers choose reusable bags will make a significant impact on reducing plastic waste.

The new R5.50 reusable, recyclable shopping bag is locally-made from recycled materials by Isikwama, Woolworths long-standing black enterprise development supplier, which has grown into a 100-employee strong organisation over the past eight years.

Woolworths Steenberg, surrounded by the natural beauty of the Cape Town southern suburbs, is ideal to test consumer reaction to the ultimate phasing out of single-use plastics.

“There’s an opportunity here for the Woolies Steenberg to play an important role by engaging with customers in a close-knit, eco-friendly community, gathering their views and having real conversations,” says Koor. “As South Africans, we ultimately all want the same thing – a more sustainable country that protects its extraordinary natural heritage in our lifetimes, and for future generations.”

Will Big Retail, E-commerce Kill Start-up Fashion Brands?

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Written by: Fuel4Fashion

Fuel4Fashion (know more)

The growth of e-commerce giants and their competition with traditional retail presents a challenge for upcoming and niche fashion brands. But with a strategic approach towards technology and a clear focus, niche fashion brands still have a lot going for them, says Fuel4Fashion founder Supriya Ghurye, fashion designer and brand consultant.

With the ongoing head-to-head confrontation between physical retail and e-commerce brands, the consumer has never had it so good. Both platforms have been aggressively trying to woo customers, invading the rival domain in the process. While physical retail tries to establish an online presence, online brands like Amazon and Myntra have been exploring options to create physical connection points with customers; the former by tying up with Shoppers Stop, and the latter by exploring mom-and-pop stores as potential sales points. Given the significant investments involved and the pace at which money is being burnt to acquire customers, the niche fashion brands – both online and offline have begun feeling the heat. Online niche fashion upstarts like Koovs and Limeroad are not only forced to compete on price, but also on visibility for their brand as the big brands spend heavily to acquire eyeballs and wallet share.

In such a scenario, what happens to the traditional and not-so-traditional boutique fashion brands? Upcoming fashion designers seeking to establish their brand through physical retail and with an online presence are seeing immense challenges in creating a loyal audience and keeping sales high enough to sustain the business. With the advent of artificial intelligence (AI) and analytics, big e-commerce brands and retail chains have started acquiring better understanding of the customer, and are therefore able to predict trends and saleable design styles more accurately, aiming at mass audiences, backed by the ability to manufacture in volume at prices that a smaller brand cannot match. So where do niche and start-up fashion brands go from here?

One possible scenario is that niche fashion brands become subsumed into the larger e-commerce or retail space, becoming a quasi-private label offering of the latter. HRX is a successful example of this strategy. If a brand has a loyal audience that these larger platforms would like to target, this might be a profitable opportunity. However, the risk of losing the identity that makes the brand unique may keep designers wary of such a step.

Niche fashion brands have little margin to invest in tools such as AI and data science, since their consumer base is also relatively small, but there are a few ways that these brands can experiment to find their niche audience and focus on them.

While developing a niche, look for one that is dedicated and more comfortable with buying specialised products than going in for generalised versions that may not necessarily serve the purpose as well. This requires a strong focus on the audience you are looking to cultivate and creating designs that will not only appeal to the core, but also attract buyers from fringe and adjoining categories. Buyer-centric designs are now here to stay.

Creating a unique experience through your app or website is another aspect that start-up fashion brands will have to give special emphasis on. With a smaller variety of products, niche fashion brands can create a better buying experience through the use of technology like virtual trial rooms and augmented reality, bringing the buyer closer to the brand. While the investment may seem high, getting there early will build fan following (and sales) much faster.

Investing in building a presence on social media is a strategy many smaller brands have adopted successfully. But few have created a completely thought-out structure that is designed to take a viewer from interest and sharing through the journey to purchase. Being Human has proven this successfully with its omni-channel strategy. This is now a must-do if smaller brands want to continuously attract and build customer base for the long term.

Another critical area is customer relationship management (CRM). Technology is now widespread and common enough for brands to find niche solutions. These are relatively low cost, yet yield great returns when used judiciously. Limeroad’s email strategy focuses on this aspect, bringing curated lists of viewed products back to the visitor’s mailbox for possible conversion to purchase.

An integrated approach towards the business using some or all of the above means that fashion brands have to move beyond the realm of design and into technology, but the transition is one that will keep your brands alive and well even in the face of competition.

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