We are pleased to announce the creation and beta launch of a new digital tool for the denim industry. We are starting an ‘ Online Denim Show’ which will help denim mills to show their collections to their own buyers as well to new buyers around the world.
Having worked in the denim industry for a long time, it is easy to understand the complexities involved in the process of new fabric developments and their marketing to buyers. Companies develop many fabrics and the time taken thereafter in arranging them to be sent to right customers in desired number of washes and looks is not very short. It is often felt that it is not practical to do sampling of all new developed products to most of the customers – for the reason of time and costs involved . Often , a customer may not end up looking at a fabric which a mill developed and which he wanted , for the simple reason that the fabric was either not sent to him or the right washes or styles could not be sent due to physical limitations.
Often, I have seen that the mills have beautiful fabrics which are lying down deep in the heap of R&D department because the marketing deptt and the buyers are overwhelmed by many other latest developments and often they themselves lose track of all developments that the company has done before.
On the other hand , the buyers normally find it difficult to browse through a large number of samples sent by mills. Also, the buyers need some basic sorting of products on the basis of which they can go through various products. We provide various options in this regard. Would a sourcing person from a large brand be happy if he/she is able to browse through denim products of 5 denim mills in over an hour and make a shortlist of the products that interest him/her so that in the upcoming meetings those products could be focused on ..????
Another reason for this development is that we strongly feel that the world is getting digitized – no aspect of our life is being left untouched by digitization. Every industry is gaining from this process and improving efficiencies and so should the denim industry. So , we decided to create an online tool to help create more efficiencies specially in the process of product marketing . This ‘ Online Denim Show’ has been developed over a long period of time keeping in mind the considerations and concerns of the people working in the industry specially the denim mills and buyers of fabrics. The features of this show are listed below :
For Exhibitors / Mills
a) Display in Multiple Forms: The mills can upload the details and the photographs of their fabrics . Each product can be displayed in a number of ways eg in pure fabric form , different washed looks , different styles eg jeans/jackets etc . So each product can be displayed in 10 or more different ways. This enables a buyer to have a very good idea about that product .
b)Categorize products : Strictly denim specific categorization of products helps the buyers to understand products under one category. The exhibitors can create their own categories for products besides using the ones that we provide ..
c)Close Physical View: If the photographs are taken as per our guidance, then we can surely say that the buyers would get the intricate looks of the fabrics/garments due to the software used by us. The product will be visible as it may be at different physical distances and almost give the Feel and Smell of the fabric!!
d) Old and New Buyers : The exhibitors can not only show their products to their existing buyers, but also will be able to get to show their products to new buyers who register at our site from around the world. This will open up the possibilities of getting New Buyers for the exhibitors. But hey, will the products be visible to everyone ? What about privacies of products of each company ??????
Well, we have taken care of that. No buyer can enter the showroom of a supplier unless he/she is
- First approved by us .
- Secondly approved by the exhibitor .
Thus we have kept two stages of checking and filtration to ensure only the really genuine buyers/agents/sourcing guys etc can enter our show and only those whom the company wants to show its products to. This show is ONLY FOR SERIOUS DENIM PEOPLE.
e)No. of Products: For initial few exhibitors, we have not kept any limitation on the number of products they can upload and display. This gives the flexibility to these exhibitors to bring out all of their products to the attention of the buyers. I think it would be interesting for even the marketing guys from these companies to see how their products look when seen in different categories/washes/styles in a continuous loop form.
f) Communication on each product : If the buyer and exhibitor want, they can have a communication on our site related to Each Single Product. The exhibitor would come to know what kind of products are more popular and who is visiting them more and liking them and also check out their comments. This would help them to get speedy feedbacks on their products. Thus they can generate database on the kind of responses they are getting on different products and take their development accordingly. They can also understand which products are more popular.
g)Privacy Ensured: We know the sensitivity of mills in sharing their information related to pricing , product details etc. On our site, they Need Not make any mention of prices and only show as much details of their products as they would like to . They can easily take their communication offline with the buyers once they have initial contact and responses on products. Hence, this is not a cause of anxiety at our show.
h)Continuous Evolvement : The show shall receive feedbacks from the exhibitors and buyers and continuously develop new features to make the interaction as close to real as possible . Having our own development team gives us that strength to develop features in shorter time and with more flexibility.
i)Twice a year collections launch: We will actually have a period of about one week every six months when the companies can launch their collections online. We shall be promoting these events and ensuring buyer participation so that these collections are specially viewed by the buyers. These seasonal offerings would be one of the key strengths of our Online Show.
j)Customized Homepage: We shall create a customized homepage for each exhibitor. This homepage will include info from the company as well as any videos, presentations, and news from the company. This homepage will enable the companies to have their own unique vibe to their show and will be visible to all visitors.
We shall be further providing to our exhibitors :
- Continuous and unlimited email /phone support for 365 days.
- Admin facility where they can themselves upload and track their products and buyers. Alternatively , we will do it for them if they want.
- For the first 5 exhibitors , we will also provide support of shooting their collections in the right format if they want.
- Guidance on how they can make their showrooms more attractive and display their products properly. Since this is a new concept , we shall be literally hand holding them through the entire processes until they can do it themselves.
- Creating their customized Homepage on our site where their own photographs, info , videos and any other details may be displayed.
Buyers/Visitors
The buyers can easily register FREE on our site at this page . Our only requirement from those registering on our site is that they should be people from the denim brands/ retailers/ trading houses etc who are involved in the denim selection and purchase activities. They could be designers, sourcing guys, buyers, account managers ,agents etc. We shall individually verify each registrant to ensure that we are getting the right people in. While this may cause a little inconvenience , it will make the further process of visiting showrooms and interacting with exhibitors seamless.
The buyers can save and like the products they like and initiate dialogue with the suppliers on individual products. They will find the process of browsing through the products easy and enable them to quickly scan hundreds of products and shortlist. Imagine – sitting at the airport , waiting for the flight , and being able to go through the collection of a few companies and sending them the comments so that when they come for a meeting in the next few weeks, they could bring more samples of pieces selected .
Demo Of Show Functionalities
Since this is a private show, it will not be completely visible to general visitors. For those who wish to know more about the show and understand it , we would be giving a one to one online demonstration over the skype . We have also created ‘Test’ exhibitor on our site with a showroom to enable the companies to see how a typical showroom would look like and to understand what kind of looks denim products may have on our site.
Contact us at this email address if you wish to know more about the show or want to have a demo.
) . Let me have suggestions , if you have any and do not forget to bookmark this page or to just add “latest†to our website address Denimsandjeans.com/
