I got an invite from Dream Assembly — the Fashion Tech Accelerator, powered by Farfetch— to come on down to Farfetch for a talk about Gen Z and how Fashion can innovate to cater to their needs.
Farfetch is literally a 10 min walk from my office. I’ve not mentioned this before, but I actually interviewed for a role at Farfetch around the same time as I interviewed for Depop – it’s quite weird to think how different things may have been!
There’s been a series of open events run between Farfetch and #Fashhack from Dream Assembly, which engages with the Fashion Tech ecosystem on a range of burning industry topics. #FASHHACK describes itself as “a dynamic community of entrepreneurs, innovators, retail strategy experts, technologists, investors and brands with a mission to redefine the future of fashion and retail by leveraging new paths and channels, innovative products, applied technologies and aesthetic smart clothing” – so yes, pretty neat stuff
I was joined by:
- Kirsty Emery-Laws, Co- Founder of Unmade
- Katie Baron, Head of Retail at Stylus
- Louise Barr, Senior Customer Research Manager at FarFetch.
The discussion was moderated by Carol Hilsum, Director of Innovation at FarFetch.
With Gen Z predicted to account for 40 percent of global consumers by 2020, it is a valuable but elusive audience for many companies worldwide. The panel discussed how much influence does Gen Z have on the fashion industry, and how is it exercised? How do brands stay relevant in an ever environmentally-conscious, ‘woke’ world? What do they really want from fashion brands?
The #FASHHACK team wrote a great post to summarise, with the key points being:
- Gen Z Know Their Tech
- Authenticity is Everything
- Personalise, Personalise, Personalise
- Community Matters — Gen Z’ers want to feel like they are part of something
- Sustainability is Important — But Economics Play a Role
- Celebrate the Democracy of Fashion
- Physical Spaces as Experiential Marketing
- Live Your Values — Gen Z’ers will hold you to account if not
I’ve held a number of roles at Depop, one of which involved 2 years of assessing user feedback and dealing with community support queries. I’ve witnessed first-hand the growing speed at which companies are expected to react and respond to their customers, particularly from the digital generation. When it comes to online transactions, I’m happy with a 24-hr response but now that expected response time for GenZ is more like 2 hours. And if you don’t respond within 2 hrs, you’ll get another question to follow up!
Companies are expected to be quick, act quick but also behave well. A mission is critical, but it’s equally critical to practice what you preach. This generation will spot an inauthentic gesture a mile away and they won’t be shy about calling you out on it. Social media storms and ‘cancellations’ are frequent these days. One of the biggest lessons I’ve observed is that sometimes it’s better to accept you’ve done wrong and commit to doing better – rather than trying to conceal a mistake and making the original problem worse. Something that applies both professionally and personally.