Analyzing the Effect of the Internet on Fashion Companies
- Written by Eric Horowitz
The modern era has seen an innumerable amount of changes in only a few short decades. One of the driving forces behind these changes in recent years has been technology. Tech has affected almost every industry, from local small businesses to massive corporations. While there are numerous aspects of the economy that have been altered by the rise of tech, one of the largest changes has been the rise of online shopping, known as ecommerce. While many industries have seen the effects of ecommerce, one industry that has been seen some of the greatest adjustments has been the fashion industry. It has become ubiquitous to purchase clothing online, and analyzing the results from this massive change to the industry is incredibly interesting to look at.
The Effects Social Media
Fashion has always been a massive market since the rise of consumerism. People of all shapes and sizes have to wear clothing, and most people like to look the best that they can while keeping their budgets as low as possible while still looking good. In the era before the advent of the Internet, fashion brands, both large and small, would market through traditional mediums of print, in-store promotions, and television ads. The rise of the web completely changed this with ecommerce and social media. Social media, while not as old as the Internet, has greatly impacted the ways that people connect with one another and the world around them. The entire retail clothing industry has been transformed by the rise of social media, as seeing social media influencers promote brands, as well seeing what peers are wearing, has determined what is popular and what is not.
The Influence of Ecommerce
An even greater influence than social media has been the impact of ecommerce. People no longer need to go into physical clothing stores to see what they want. Gigantic clothing companies have large-scale enterprise ecommerce platforms on their websites in order to sell massive amounts of their products. Users can surf the web for different styles, different brands, and different prices, all from the convenience of their screens. Ecommerce has made it so people do not even need to leave the house and can get their products almost as quickly as if they had gone to the store, with features like next day shipping and free shipping. While some people still like to go into the store to purchase their clothing, this is a dying trend and will only continue to diminish as time progresses.
Final Thoughts
Fashion is an incredibly large and influential industry throughout the world. Like almost all fields in the 21st century, it has been greatly affected by the rise of the Internet and will only continue to change even more in the future. Understanding the effects that social media and ecommerce have had on the fashion and clothing industries is essential for realizing what the Internet has done to change our world and for comprehending how the economy in the 21st century works as a whole.