E-COMMERCE IN FASHION INDUSTRY: A PHENOMENON BOUND TO CHANGE AN ENTIRE INDUSTRY CONFIGURATION.

Abstract

This paper is meant to describe and analyse the phenomenon of E-commerce within Fashion Industry. This sector represents an interesting study-case of the application of the internet commerce because of its peculiar characteristics such as the production and sales of items that reach a wide range of buyers’ categories and that usually need to be tried on by the customers before the purchase. It will be described how, after initial difficulties in entering the market, E-commerce established itself as one of the highest growing drivers of Fashion Industry. How its introduction forced to change many Companies’ Business Model and the overall sector’s configuration. E-commerce is not simply a new and different channel to reach customers, it provides them a totally different shopping experience comparing to the in-store one, with pros and cons. In that light it seems interesting to understand how this new tool affects both corporate strategic choices and customer’s perception, and how all the subjects involved are managing this phenomenon in order to keep old profit sources (in-store retail) and new customer needs (e-commerce experience) balanced. The final goal of this paper is to understand how we should expect the e-commerce to evolve in the next future, how is it going to redesign the fashion industry configuration.