Honestly – Winner takes All?! It just is. According to a McKinsey Report in 2017, 20% of Fashion Players created 100% of Economic Profits for the preceding 10 Years.

At first glance, the fashion industry looks like a nightmare in a nightmare. Outlandish clothes floating up the ramp, a million suggestions and styles prowling the interwebs and a winner takes all margin.

Honestly – Winner takes All?!

It just is.

According to a McKinsey Report in 2017, 20% of Fashion Players created 100% of Economic Profits for the preceding 10 Years.

Which simply begs the question – how do you start a business in this pool of sharks?

How do you sell?

And most importantly how do you survive? Interestingly, when you hold a Microscope to them – certain patterns become clearer. And that should set your spidey sales sense tingling.

Reacting to the Market

One of the consistent winners in the Fashion Industry is Zara and they have a proven time-tested technique. Their store managers give feedback on what types of clothes or ranges are picked up by the day.

This goes right to their designers straight away and that gets their production line whirring to bring out the next line.

The magic here is that they emphasize the speed with a limited production run to get the clothesline into the market and sell it when it’s hot. This is the exact same philosophy that Amazon employs in its mega virtual marketplace.

They use raw data to figure out what sells most and simply do virtual wizardry to highlight these sellers to guide their selling and buying strategy.

This is where social media acts as a boon. For personalized products like clothes, the market is very fickle – just like fame.

So keeping an eye out on the trends can inform the discerning entrepreneur on how to tackle the evolving tastes shaping up in the landscape.

The Plain Jane Sister

Chris Benz, the Creative Director of Bill Blass gives an important insight – “I always talk about our customer as being not the coolest girl in the room, but she’s the second coolest girl.

She doesn’t want to be full-sequined-glitter-boot, but she wants a little glitter heel”. The idea of getting out the show-stealers or star performers out there basically is to sell the less-expensive plainer lines of their famous siblings. It seems like a no-brainer.

Actors do their highbrow movies to get their credentials in and finally land the summer blockbuster for the masses that rake in the money for their fashion. Motorcycle Marques build brutes that burn the race-track just to get their name out there and sell their wallet-friendly rides.

People love winners and want some of their sheens but without burning their pockets. That’s where the plain Jane scores and sells in bulk. Case in Point – iPhone XR sold much more than iPhone XS & iPhone XS Max, just because it was the cheapest though the other two had the bleeding edge tech.

Plugging the Holes

If there is one outlier that you need to sit up and take notice, it is Under Armor. Kevin Planck who started it came from one of the unlikeliest locations – he was an athlete. He was neither the biggest nor the fastest in American Football but he had an issue – he was drowning in sweat and wanted stuff that could wick it away.

He developed a product out of his grandma’s basement and sold it to the University itself, which gave him his start. Athletic Wear is a niche – what’s great about identifying a niche is that once you solve or simplify a pressing issue, you can grow stratospherically. Quick Example – Compare the growth rate of the HAGI Index (Historic Automobile Group Top Index – the Index that keeps track of vintage cars) to Frankfurt’s Deutsche Borse DAX (the regular share index) and you will find the HAGI soldiering even during the 2008 crisis.

Techno-Classico is one of the largest events showcasing Vintage Cars (1920 – 1940s) and it has everything of memorabilia connected to it. This is an enthusiast market, a niche market if you will and if you have a genuine product in your hands to exhibit, there are clients willing to buy it.

For example – you have this Vintage Car which does not have the appropriate soundbox – you find it there. Car Radio Dealers sell their complete stock in just that one day during the exhibition.

Research simply shows that the enthusiast market is always far more stable and resilient than the everyday market. This is also why as Malls close down by the truckloads in the US, the Luxury Mall niche keeps thriving.

In the main segment, when you identify, cater and cultivate a particular niche – you get a dedicated client base that respects you for meeting and addressing their needs just how they like it. In short, even in the most cutthroat industries – there are timeless guidelines to live by.

And it’s sometimes adherence to these that separate the wheat from the chaff. Just like there are unique challenges to Luxury & Art, there are unique solutions. But the entrepreneurial zeal and spirit that drives it is the same one you and I know.