The current digital retail revolution in fashion is every bit as transformational as the rise supermarkets were to food in the 1950s.

The current digital retail revolution in fashion is every bit as transformational as the rise supermarkets were to food in the 1950s.

Combined with a period of unprecedented economic uncertainty, online has hit bricks and mortar hard with tech-savvy screenagers bypassing traditional formats and all of us increasingly using stores as showrooms or returns centres. 

The future for fashion stores has felt bleak but there are a number of encouraging signs. Shop vacancy rates have fallen below 14% for the first time in four years and stores are beginning to see an upside from the impact of multichannel shopping. Click-and-collect is proving to be the most popular delivery option and retailers with a good store footprint are seeing click-and-collect exceed 50% of  total online volume.

As these volumes grow there is a significant opportunity for store delivery frequency to be increased to consolidate replenishment and click-and-collect volumes on retail delivery fleets. This offers the stores a step change in availability and flow without a significant increase in overall costs.

Many fashion retailers have enough total volume to sustain daily delivery five to six days a week in central regions or larger stores when click-and-collect volume is added and either parcel carriers or regional multiuser solutions can cater for the balance. As store availability and flow improves, so the ability to pick urgent click-and-collect from store stock grows, and a virtuous circle is created which gives the consumer the choice they crave at a cost the retailer can afford.

There is clear and growing evidence that a good online experience and integrated fulfilment offer builds store loyalty and vice versa and with stores now being credited with online sales in their local postcodes, the marriage of bricks and clicks is showing real signs of happiness.

  • Jonathan Pilbro is vice-president for fashion and beauty, DHL