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To many scaling fashion brands, virtual clothing showrooms can feel either unfamiliar or entirely new. You might have legitimate questions about their effectiveness, their ease of use, or the return on investment they can deliver. But there’s a reason why so many established and impressive fashion brands are embracing them in their wholesale operations. So:
- If you’re interested in discovering the technologies empowering the world’s biggest fashion brands…
- If you’re exploring ways to make your business appear more professional to wholesale buyers…
- If you’re spending a fortune networking with peers and attending industry events but you’re not sure the ROI has been worth it…
- Or if you’re looking to enhance your offline offering to a larger network of international buyers and retailers…
This article will show you why the best virtual clothing showrooms can be the perfect way to complement physical events like tradeshows, providing a hybrid or phygital approach that maximizes your wholesale opportunities through both online and offline networking and selling.
But First… What Exactly Is a Virtual Showroom?
Let’s start at the beginning. Virtual showrooms are an increasingly popular tool of the industry’s biggest B2B fashion platforms. They are, in short, an online way to display fashion collections through a variety of media–including detailed imagery, dynamic video, interactive 3D images, audio, and traditional video.
High-resolution product visuals, interactive digital linesheets, and zoomable 360° imagery provide lifelike perspectives on quality and intricate details and are highly valued by retailers looking to find next season’s products.
The best virtual showroom examples offer a compelling way for a scaling fashion business to present their brand narrative. They also use cutting-edge video technology to replicate the essence of in-person appointments, with easy scheduling and commenting tools improving communication and enhancing the experience even further.
On the retailer side, personalization is also possible via dynamic presentations, with buyers able to quickly curate assortments and make informed purchasing decisions.
Why Virtual Showrooms Are a Must for Fashion Brands
In today’s digital-first industry, global buyers expect that brands should always be accessible to them. A virtual showroom is a great way to keep a consistent presence for buyers, with minimal effort required to maintain it. These digital spaces are open 24/7 and can be viewed by buyers from around the world at their own convenience.
3 Myths About Virtual Showrooms
As with any new technology, virtual showrooms have been the subject of some misunderstanding and fear. A few myths are already circulating around different areas of the fashion industry, including:
They totally eliminate the need for traditional live events
Virtual showrooms can actually complement and enhance an in-person experience when used in tandem. Brand representatives can use iPad apps in traditional sales appointments, harnessing interactive 3D displays to give buyers a closer, slower-paced and more detailed look at the products, compared to glancing at a passing-by model.
Orders can also be placed digitally either at the live event or at the buyer’s own convenience when they have returned home.
Virtual Showrooms are Complicate to Build
This is one of the easiest myths to dispel, because the best virtual clothing showrooms—like those provided by JOOR, for example—don’t need a developer or tech guru.
They’re as easy to build as a website developed on Wordpress, Wix, or any other modern content management system (CMS). Using adaptable drag-and-drop templates, you can build your virtual showroom in less than a day, and it’s probably much more affordable than you think.
Only Traditional Runways Make any Real Impact
Some people in the fashion industry are intent on sticking with traditional methods. They have worked in the past, so they will continue to work in the future: that’s their argument. But that logic misses huge opportunities. For scaling brands, choosing to stick entirely with traditional in-person selling strategies is leaving money on the table in lost orders and costing you money in terms of expensive travel and marketing budgets.
Used correctly, a virtual showroom is a great way to amplify your brand’s exposure and meet buyers you can’t meet in person. In an instant, your products are offered to retailers and buyers in previously untapped markets. The opportunities for growth are simply unrivaled.
How To Use an Online Showroom To Grow Your Wholesale Brand
Embedding virtual showrooms into your standard sales operations is a great way to help develop your wholesale presence across the fashion industry. Adopting this new technology and leveraging it to your advantage offers three key benefits:
Better Direct your Budget and Energy
If you don’t have the budget or the time to travel to every event (and very few scaling brands do), investing in a virtual showroom can help you in several different ways.
Instantly, you’re freed from the obligation to attend every event in a bid to win business and grow your brand. Instead, you can attend fewer shows in person, maintain fewer physical showrooms, and increase your sustainability by reducing both your real-world travel and the number of physical samples you distribute. All these changes can have significant positive impacts on your carbon footprint.
Virtual showrooms also allow you to extend the longevity of your collections. Instead of being limited to just one collection in a physical showroom, your buyers can now see your entire catalog of previous collections as well as your most recent products. Buyers and retailers can view and purchase these products anytime, anywhere—which is particularly great for brands with evergreen collections that appeal all year round.
Deliver Brilliant Offline Support
Virtual showrooms shouldn’t be seen as a way to minimize your contact with potential buyers. Instead, they’re a tool to facilitate even greater communication and collaboration. First, they’re an ideal complement to a traditional trade show. Collections can be organized with product details, pricing, delivery information, product photos and even 3D virtual sampling all included.
Buyers can then remotely revisit collections at their convenience and order whenever they’re ready (without the need for a sales rep present). Lana Rush, Head of Marketing and Communications at UK brand Brodie Cashmere, says:
“With JOOR’s iPad app, we can effortlessly create a complete customer profile right on the showroom floor in a matter of minutes.”
The professional product presentation offered by a B2B fashion platform like JOOR also increases client attraction and retention. Brands actively using JOOR are on average predicting a 27% growth in their wholesale businesses in 2023 and 84% say JOOR provides a better experience for their buyers. Brodie Cashmere says its decision to embrace virtual showrooms has led to an enhanced buyer experience, streamlined operations, and noticeable sales growth.
Reach a Global Network
As with anything digital, launching a virtual showroom quickly makes physical limitations a thing of the past. You no longer have to worry about not being where your client is: if they’re online, they can see and buy your collections from anywhere in the world. This opens the door to wholesale buying and selling on a global scale.
Remote/online ordering facilities accelerate your sales opportunities even further, especially with virtual showrooms being open 24/7 and not needing your staff to be available.
Technology Powering Virtual Showrooms
From video integrations to 3D and AR visualisations, there are endless ways to showcase your products in interesting ways using the latest technology. Innovations aren’t just changing the way buyers view collections, but also how brands put their linesheets together.
Data integrations with backend systems make it easy for brands to update their linesheets in real-time based on stock levels, with mobile apps and offline capabilities helping brands to do this on the go or when they are travelling for ultimate efficiency.
Data as a Competitive Advantage
Using a virtual showroom allows brands to collect valuable data that can help inform their pricing strategy and future collections. Data on how buyers engage with a showroom and how a collection has performed in terms of sales makes inventory forecasting easier, while geographic demand data can help brands determine which markets to focus on and where there is a demand for possible expansion.
ROI and Cost Savings with Virtual Showrooms
Virtual showrooms can be a cost-effective alternative if you cannot afford to attend a trade show in person. There is no budget required for physical samples or travel, as everything buyers need to make an informed purchase is available to them digitally.
Your use of a virtual showroom instead of traditional trade show attendance can also be marketed as a sustainable choice, as you’ll reduce your carbon emissions, something that buyers are increasingly interested in.
Collections can also be showcased for longer, and this increased lifespan will save you money as you are not tied down to producing new products seasonally.
Hybrid Showroom Strategy: Combining Online and Offline
Virtual showrooms can be used in tandem with in-person experiences in a highly successful selling strategy.
Before a trade show, invite buyers to connect with you using a digital lookbook. This will give them a taste of what they can expect to see in person and give them a realistic insight into what will be available to purchase.
At the trade show, have tablets with your virtual showroom open for buyers to explore at their leisure. With the opportunity to ask you any questions face-to-face, this can help to fill in any gaps or dispel any concerns they may have, helping you to secure the sale.
After the trade show, buyers can revisit your digital showroom in their own time to finalize their assortments and make purchases. This makes them feel more in control of the buying journey and makes them more likely to place orders as they don’t feel pressured.
Start Growing Your Wholesale Brand with Virtual Showrooms
In the US alone, wholesale fashion is expected to reach $1.8 trillion in value in 2023. For scaling fashion brands, the sheer volume of trade can feel daunting.
How can you reach your ideal wholesale buyers? How can you create the best possible first impression? And how can you enhance your offline offering with an online tool that drives ROI, streamlines your operations, and delivers a first-class customer experience?
Physical events are still important in fashion and nobody is doubting that. But there is a new way to complement those tradeshows by merging the physical and the digital into a single ‘phygital’ experience. Doing so with intelligence, foresight, and the very best virtual showroom tools creates a seamless selling experience that few can rival.
Contact JOOR today for a free, live virtual showroom demonstration.
FAQs
How is a virtual showroom different from an ecommerce store?
A digital showroom is more than just a virtual shopfront buyers can browse; it’s an immersive experience that can include interactive elements like 360° video, 3D capabilities and AR features to truly allow buyers to experience your brand.
Do virtual showrooms replace physical trade shows?
No, virtual showrooms can work in tandem with physical trade shows to enhance the buyer experience and allow retailers to complete sales in their own time for ease.
Can small fashion brands use virtual showrooms?
Yes, digital showrooms can be used by brands of all sizes.
How do virtual showrooms help brands save money?
Adopting a virtual showroom instead of a physical one can save brands money on rent, staffing and utilities. There will also be no need to create samples for a digital space, saving brands money on production.
What data can brands collect from virtual showrooms?
Brands can collect data on buyer engagement, collection performance and geographic demand when using a virtual showroom, which can help to inform their business decisions and overall wholesale strategy.
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