Uri Minkoff, chief executive officer at Rebecca Minkoff, said that apparel sales in the brand’s freestanding stores are three times higher than originally anticipated.
“The experiences grow fonder, versus the product,” Minkoff said about his and sister Rebecca Minkoff’s decision to disrupt the “dictatorship” in the fashion industry when they joined forces 10 years ago to build the Rebecca Minkoff brand. “We were crowdsourcing product…. We started from scratch and had consumers pick the product, and then we put it on the runway and worked with retailers on making this product available.”
The attention the brand has always paid to the consumer led Minkoff to the next problem: what are the human- and social-related issues that will prevent a purchase? At the time, purchases could be easily tracked online — but in the store, not so much.
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Cut to November of last year. The first Rebecca Minkoff flagship opened on Greene Street in Manhattan’s SoHo — and Minkoff said the team isolated all the factors that could potentially hinder a transaction. This spanned human interaction with a sales associate (who can refer to the consumer by name and, if they’ve shopped before, suggest items based on their previous purchases), adding clothing to a fitting room from a connected wall at the entrance of the store and adjustable lighting in fitting rooms.
Also, he explained that everything in the store has an RFID tag, enabling automatic scanning inside the dressing room and showing every article of clothing on a smart mirror. With this technology, a consumer can request different sizes or styles with the tap of their finger, and when they’re ready to check out, they can do it on an iPad, without leaving the confines of the fitting room. If there are pieces they are still mulling over, the person can opt to text themselves the looks so they can revisit them online later.
“Thirty percent of people who go in the fitting room are asking for additional items based on recommendations,” Minkoff said. “Rebecca [Minkoff] is there in the fitting room guiding them.”