Editorial

Citation

Hayes, S. (2014), "Editorial", Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management, Vol. 18 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/JFMM-12-2013-0127

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management, Volume 18, Issue 1

I recently gave a guest lecture to our final year fashion marketing students here at Manchester Metropolitan University. The topic was technologies in fashion marketing, a true blend of my various academic interests (and those of this journal). When I started to put the lecture together I immediately focused on the attention-grabbing customer facing aspects because this is, by design, where one is drawn. E-commerce and m-tail front ends were the natural focus of my presentation and would surely appeal most to the 160 level six fashion students. There is no denying that the interactive and social sharing dimension of these platforms both engages and facilitates the marketing process (as evidence by my own use of a twitter wall during the 2-h class). As a starting point, I introduced the initial findings from one of our PhD students that would indicate most people making purchases through fashion apps use an apple device and are female aged between 18-34, the majority of people still preferring a web site (especially if they are an android user), perhaps these developments are not that engaging after all. As I continued my lecture preparation I began to focus on the more seemingly mundane technologies of the humble barcode and such organisational software as Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems and how they integrate through Electronic Point of Service (EPOS) – no longer just sales terminals. When I then went on to explore with the students detailed aspects of virtual fitting rooms, “magic mirrors” and body scanning technologies (a research area particularly close to my heart) I began to realise just how important these back office technologies truly are because of the limitations that still (and may always) exist with our approaches to measure, test and ensure fit in a virtual fashion market. In fact why should we invest such effort and money into solving these problems when it is possible – thanks to the tracking capabilities of the bar (unique product) code, the system integration driven by CRM and the distributed network facilitated by low cost EPOS terminals – to order several sizes of the same garment on-line, and have them delivered to you by the following day. Moreover, by the power of the barcode and the EPOS terminal, once you have tried them on physically (and asked your spouse if they think it fits and you look good in it!) you can pop down to your local newsagent to check the returns in for collection the next day! What I am driving at here is the need for the dull and the ordinary, not just the flash and the exceptional – symptomatic of the whole fashion business somewhat. Despite our technological advancements we still rely on the people we trust and the people we don’t even know, a virtual utopia is someway off still.

As ever, but more so through this volume, we are looking to push the influence of JFMM in research and wider society, and to do this we have put together an excellent portfolio that should contribute on both levels, containing the research of leading thinkers and relevant industry challenges and processes. This journal is committed to rigour and integrity through our robust peer review process, and presents innovative papers that can be applied to practice. 2014 will be the year in which JFMM's influence is dispersed to a wide range of readers through various activities, and we look forward to your (the readers) continued support and engagement with JFMM.

Steve Hayes