In recent years, digital transformation along with globalization have undergone a rapid acceleration, among many other changes in society, and this has led to changes in consumer behavior. Digitization is a big part of everyday life for fashion consumers. In addition, this digital transformation has changed the shopping experience, especially in fashion, it even affects the way in which users follow fashion and trends since now everything revolves around social media (Hagelberg & Tuunainen, 2017).
The attitude that mainly reluctant fashion brands had towards social networks has changed a lot in recent years. Social networks such as Instagram, Twitter or Facebook are used by fashion brands as a means of connecting with their consumers and are a great opportunity to improve their communication with them (Kim & Ko, 2012). As Bautista (2013) argue the new media often influence the consumer throughout the entire process from creation to spreading the brand message, thus creating an interaction with the consumer.
Another novelty that has reached the world of fashion thanks to social media are influencers. As Khamis et al (2016) argue, they describe themselves as a kind of non-traditional celebrities who became famous due to their content and presence on social media. Also, fashion influencers on social media are more reliable and valuable than commercial ads, as well as easier for companies to measure their benefits, due to their two-way communication, participating in online discussions motivated by social improvemen (Gummerus et al., 2012; Bernoff and Li, 2008). Influencers often help you decide on what clothes to wear and what not, but for this there are the stylists who have also had to be forced to go online.
Nowadays applications tell us where to go, what to eat, what to buy, … why not how we should dress? The remote services of ‘personal shoppers’, stylists and designers that have always been offered are now becoming a survival tool for these face-to-face trades (Perez, 2020). This is nothing new about online advisers but it has increased its activity. Through emails, video calls or directly from applications, the possibility of hiring stylists or image consultants to help you with your wardrobe was expanded.
Not everything is an advantage over social media. As Pollay and Mittal (1993) argue in their model about product information, beliefs of ambition and materialism, falsifications and beliefs of abuse of power are important factors related to the attitudes of users who dislike social media. Further, not all people have the skills to handle social media to the fullest (Chowdhury, 2017).
To conclude, it is obvious that the future of fashion is going through technological digitization. Personalized products, recommended by artificial intelligence, with automation in the purchase and delivery, with massive data working for consumers and, every time, with less need for physical spaces.
