Connecting Menswear Boutiques to Yummies Globally
I am Jarquevious and I am an entrepreneur and software developer. I am sharing with the world the idea I have been researching for a few years now. My idea is an online marketplace for luxury and street menswear. These two categories have been fast growing markets within the fashion industry. My hypothesis is an online marketplace or a subscription service could serve the needs of boutiques and yummies.
The term Yummies was created by coined in a HSBC report on menswear industry growth. The term refers to young professional men who cares about the way he looks.
This article will explain how I came across this idea, PEST ANALYSIS and competitive landscape analysis of the industry, user interviews and wireframes of a potential product.
The Beginning: How I Came Across This Idea
I was excited to enter Bangkok because I have always heard it was a trendy fashion forward place. Once I landed and settled into my hostel, I decided to trek across the streets of Bangkok. Naturally, I was drawn to fashion stores. Bangkok has tons of stores catering to the city’s gilt edge professional who traverse this bustling urban sprawl. The stores had amazing, unique and diverse selections. As I browsed store after store and compared items, I thought, “my friends would love to wear this shirt.” I took a picture and sent it to a few friends. They responded that they did like the shirt if possible bring it back and they will purchase it. I tried to find the store online, however, I could not. I realized that they did not have a website. I thought, “this store could make money from my friends if they had an online presence.” Days later, it dawned on me, that stores like the ones I saw in Bangkok could benefit from an online presence so they could possibly reach customers in foreign markets. I pondered on the idea on and off while I remained in Thailand. On the plane back home, I decided that I will create a website selling merchandise from Bangkok’s menswear boutiques to young professional men in Atlanta. After returning to the US, I begin to research online marketplaces for brick and motor stores. I came across innovative online stores such as farfetch, lyst, grailed, and fashion subscription services for men. In addition, I joined Joyful Frog Digital Innovation 3 weeks customer discovery course to help me discover if this idea could possibly work. The process and results of customer discovery will be discussed in the ‘User Research Section’.
While researching innovative online fashion tech companies, I came across Shoptiques.com. Shoptiques.com is a YC Combinator backed e-commerce start up that connects small boutiques located in cities across the globe to an online platform for women to shop for unique merchandise they can’t find anywhere else. Shoptiques caters to its boutiques partners by bringing boutiques online, which is historically an offline industry. Also, it helps women purchase unique merchandise found in boutiques located across the globe. What makes Shoptiques interesting is its value proposition it offers boutique partners: 1) it offers production i.e. photoshoots and videos, 2) the network effect it has when a new boutique joins the platform. The more boutiques join the platform, the more email it collects, which they can get more customers via email marketing. All this information made me think: “what if the Shoptiques.com model can be applied to menswear boutiques”? Or is there another business model that can best serve boutiques and menswear consumers? I begin a journey to discover if this is possible. Next, I will discuss the PEST Analysis to gain an understanding of the street and luxury menswear market.
P E S T Analysis of Luxury MENSWEAR
POLITICAL
The political landscape has no effect on e-commerce. It’s common for consumers to purchase goods across boarders. Although there are differences in political systems, yummies worldwide are still able to purchase products from foreign markets without much hassle.Therefore, nothing political interferes with online e-commerce or selling goods across boarders.
ECONOMIC
The economic landscape makes it possible for this company to succeed at connecting yummies to boutiques in fashion capitals. 19 cities are listed as men’s fashion capital. These cities have seen growth in menswear sales. This number differs depending on which news outlet one reads. The implication of news outlets creating content on fashion capitals validates the hypothesis of menswear is a growing market in urban settings. These cities have bustling industries where Yummies have high income. The number of fashion cities are growing because the growth of emerging markets. Consumers in these emerging markets have more disposable income to spend on fashion which is driven by social transformations discussed in the social section of this analysis. Increase in technology accessibility in emerging markets like China and India makes it possible for BOUTIQUES to reach audiences in far away places. On the flip side, internet accessibility has made it possible for YUMMIES to purchase goods across boarders.
Menswear is the fastest growing segment in the fashion industry. The following quotes illustrates: 1) the dynamics within the menswear market 2) substantiate the market has potential room for growth and 3) indicates this company has the potential to have impact.
“The UK men’s clothing market, for instance, is now worth £15bn a year, according to market researchers Mintel, and is expected to grow by 11 per cent over the next three years.”
“It’s more than a buzz. It’s a deeper trend,” Sidney Toledano, head of LVMH’s fashion group, said on the sidelines of a fashion show.
“There’s strong demand across the men’s fashion industry, in all its shapes and forms, and which comes in part from a younger clientele. We see it very clearly in the sales.” In the United States, men’s apparel sales outperformed womenswear last year, market research shows. Menswear grew 5 percent in 2013 to $60.8 billion, according to the NPD Group, a trend and sales tracking company. Womenswear retail sales grew 4 percent to $116.4 billion last year, NPD said
“The subject: Yummies. A YUM is a Young Urban Male who, according to the HSBC retail gurus, is transforming the luxury market. Once upon a time, older ladies represented the most sought-after demographic for companies like Burberry and Hugo Boss. Now there are Yummies — affluent, trend-conscious young gentlemen who would like you to know how affluent and trend-conscious they are.”
SOCIAL
Social trends have a huge impact on the menswear industry. Social media, changes in perception of self-care amongst men, and sexual fluidity in fashion preferences are contributors to change in consumer behavior globally. Below are statements from key players in the industry on how social contributors are changing consumer behavior in the menswear market:
“via magazines and latterly via websites and social media; that has generated an acceptability among men in having an interest in clothes”
“the grooming world has fostered an acceptability in looking after yourself — something that not long ago was considered suspect”
“The overwhelming influence of street and sportswear — notable even among the designer names — has made menswear both more urban, more approachable and, importantly for men, more comfortable too”
“This is due to men placing a greater emphasis on their appearance, fuelled by the rise of social media, and dress codes for men softening globally,” Marguerite Le Rolland, a consultant in beauty and fashion at Euromonitor, said.”
“I think men are experimenting a little more and caring more about how they look, the way clothes fit, the fabrication, the way they feel,” said Michael Maccari, the new creative director at Perry Ellis”
TECHNOLOGICAL
Technology makes it possible for this company to reach consumers in all fashion capitals. For example, over the years, menswear has seen growth explosion in online retailers without the crippling overheads of bricks and mortar stores. This dynamics has allowed for different populations to be serviced along with steady trickle of new, upstart brands, which in turn have been able to launch, market and distribute their merchandise affordably thanks to the internet. The consequence of this online explosion has created more competition for boutiques. Online subscription services, marketplaces and mobile apps have created a convenient way for yummies to purchase merchandise without going to the actual store. Independent boutiques can capitalize off this by joining an online platform that can market and distribute their merchandise to a global online audience.
Competitive Landscape of Online Menswear
The matrix above illustrates companies within the online menswear industry. All companies service both men and women. The upper right quadrant represents companies that service the luxury market and have high prices. The bottom left quadrant represents online stores that service the luxury market but tend to have lower prices. The upper right quadrant represents companies who are affordable but have high quality. The bottom right represents companies that are affordable yet have good quality.
User Interviews
Yummies
There are two users for this potential company: Yummies and Boutiques. Beginning with yummies, I decided to ask men who had the following attributes: working professional, age 24–40, live and work in inner cities. Firstly, I looked into my personal network and interviewed three friends. I asked the following questions: Where do you shop for clothes? Do you shop online? When was the last time you shopped online? Tell me about the last time you shopped online? Where were you, what time did you do it? Depending on the answer I receive, I may ask, the last time you shopped online, walk me through the process, what did you see and and what buttons did you press, step by step? I also ask them to pull out their phones and walk me through the process. Towards the end of the interview, I asked, how do you find out about the brands you want? Do you read fashion magazines, or do you follow stores on social media? Lastly, I asked, Do you know any other people who shop online frequently as you? Could you put me in touch with them? After collecting information on each potential customer, I created a customer persona:
Boutiques
Interviewing boutiques had it fair share of difficulties. Usually store owners are approached frequently by designers looking for distribution for their product. Therefore, they are very direct and usually don’t have time for customer discovery interviews. The questions I asked was about their online store? How are you getting customers online? What is the most frustrating about getting new customers online? What are you currently doing to get more online customers? The major hurdle I faced was getting in contact with boutique owners. I reached out to 50 boutiques but was only able to speak with 3 owners. The three owners did not give enough information to validate the idea. However, I did manage to speak with a few managers. It was easier getting in contact with them and the interviews did validate some assumptions. I learned that boutiques are limited to social media and email for interacting with online consumers. Most don’t take into account language barriers and currency differences. Also, boutiques focus is making sure the store is operating well and they have the latest brands that consumers want. They fall short at having skills to push their online store to consumers worldwide. This proves that an online market place could serve them by attracting more views on their merchandise.
Mind Map
Event
I went to a fashion event in Atlanta. I networked and met people in the industry. After explaining my idea, I was approached by several people who told me to contact them because they wanted to be apart of the company. Another event is ATDC Customer Discovery course at Georgia Tech. They challenged me to speak with 10 potential customers per week. I did speak with ten customers per week and created a business model canvas based on the information received.
Product Design
After much research, I decided to create a flash sale marketplace for luxury menswear boutiques and online stores. This help yummies, achieve shopping for unique merchandise on sale in boutiques located in fashion capitals. On the flip side, this helps boutiques and online retailers sale their “on sale” merchandise quicker. What distinguish us, is we are a curated flash sale site, which saves consumers money and gets them a deal on luxury merchandise. We curate sales pages from our boutique partners and expose them to a larger audience via online marketplace. The larger network we have is possible due to network effects. The more boutiques join, the bigger the network grows, giving us the advantage of offering merchandise to a large audience.
User Journey
I am Travis, I am searching instagram looking at fashion post. On my feed , I saw a post that I admired. I clicked on post’s page to see more. I scrolled down and liked a few post. I saw a sweater I thought was dope. I notice, once I clicked the post, a price sign popped up. I clicked on it and it sent me to the mfp.com to make a final purchase. Once I completed my transaction I signed up to get deals sent to my inbox. Three days later, I received it in the mail. I tried it on and it fitted perfectly. I wore it out with my friends and received several compliments and was asked where did I get it? The following evening, I received a text from mfp.com asking did I like the sweater? I answered back “yes”. They responded with a link gave me an additional discount next time I shop.
I am a boutique owner. I notice there has been an increase in online sales from an affiliate partner. I notice the merchandise that is selling quickly, is our limited new drops and our merchandise on sale. I was happy for the sale. I received an email from MFP requesting a phone call to meet the founder and hear how his vision for the company could sustain a high number of sales in those two categories.
WireFrames of Potential Site
