Designer Furniture Is Also About Instant Gratification

CAN THE DESIGN INDUSTRY ADOPT THE SEE NOW BUY NOW LOGIC THAT IS INCREASINGLY PERMEATING THE FASHION INDUSTRY? TO ANSWER, YOU HAVE TO CONSIDER THE ROLE PLAYED BY TRADE FAIRS AND HOW DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY IS ALTERING THE SUPPLY CHAIN

by Gabriella Lojacono
Translated by Alex Foti

For some time there has been discussion about the future of the catwalk, also in the light of the digital revolution. In a world where fashion houses themselves upload fashion shows in real-time on their sites and bloggers publish fresh footage on social media, leading fashion items enter the minds of fashion addicts before they can be seen in luxury stores. Does it still make sense to wait for so many months before the latest object of desire becomes available? With its 'no' answer, the See-Now-Buy-Now tendency (also called Ready-To-Buy) is spreading across the fashion industry: new collections (or at least some pieces) can be purchased immediately after the fashion show. This was a choice made by Burberry, Michael Kors and Alberta Ferretti. As always, those who first break with the status quo in the industry enjoy media exposure and lead others to think about changes undergoing in existing business models. Innovation in business models has always been the basis of the survival of any industry. However, it is recurrent to hear entrepreneurs say that there is a good reason not to innovate since "we have always worked this way." Others underplay the excessive enthusiasm for the See-Now-Buy-Now revolution, by underscoring the need to act first on the manufacturing side of the product chain, in order to avoid completing a mere marketing operation.

➜ Mobile logic
Is the See-Now-Buy-Now model transferable to home furniture and interiors? The debate on the analogies and differences between fashion and design is always open and the view that the two worlds are leagues apart from a managerial point of view is widespread, because of the differing nature of products and structural processes for purchase and development. Why then does it offer an important element for reflection for the Italian furniture industry in the aftermath of Milan's Salone del Mobile? Let's first see what the dominant logic at work is. The designers and R&D centers of furnishing companies work for at least one or two years (in the optimistic scenario) to finally present their latest pieces of designed furniture at the Salone. Product development times are therefore long and marked by the occurrence of this event. Furnishing companies operating in kitchen and lighting are luckier because they deal with biennial rather than annual trade fairs.
At the Salone what is often presented are prototypes that are subject to changes after the trade show following the input received to arrive at the finished product. Another reason for revising the model is price-related, in order to make the design item more accessible to the customer. Design companies must therefore engage value engineering, that is to revise the process of manufacturing product batches to reach a more affordable production cost and final price. This is true also for top-range design furniture. Once the changes are implemented, is the product ready to be displayed in the shop? Not yet, you still have to see if the retailers like it and send in a sufficient number of orders to start production batches. At best, what we see at the Salone in April, we will find it in the store in September-October.

➜ Technology to the rescue of production
Is the time-to-market shortening considerably? I talked to a dozen entrepreneurs and they are of divided opinion on the issue. First of all, See-Now-Buy-Now needs to be contextualized to take into account the specifics of products that have very long lifecycles (years, sometimes decades), have continuous sales across time (in furniture and design there is no concept of the season's collection), and are purchased with low frequency in a consumer's lifespan, thus leading to high customization. There are great expectations about shortening production times thanks to new technologies (3D printing, technological advancement of machines). Design and manufacturing could be accelerated by Industry 4.0 models. However, the See-Now-Buy-Now model has some limitations related to the need of many design products to be showcased in a proper set up. Things are different in the case of design and furnishing accessories where a single piece designed by a top designer can be an object of impulse purchase by customers. Kartell is definitely an excellent example of the fashion logic applied to design, in terms of launch timing, product portfolio enlargement, collaboration with stylists, periodic flash product launches to refresh exposure and attract the consumer.

➜ Beat the iron while it is still hot
Having the models shown at fairs immediately available for production or warehousing would help install products quickly and efficiently in showrooms around the world by beating the iron while it's still hot. However, some point out that the problem is represented by stores which renew the products on display slowly because they need time to assess what is to the market's liking, and also you have to wait for already purchased samplings to be amortized. On the other hand, you cannot expand online sales, since in design the role of e-commerce is mostly limited to small items. Interesting in this regard is the latest Sky-Line project by Molteni, a capsule of digitally printed fabrics designed by Marta Ferri to cover chairs, tables and pillows that are exclusively on sale at luisaviaroma.com.

➜ An inspiration to wake up the system
In the end, it seems that fashion and design can find a point of convergence: a better organization of the upstream and downstream supply chain and a wiser use of digital technology not only to reduce costs, but to increase customization opportunities and shorten time-to-market and product delivery times. And despite the fact that many think it is difficult to break with the traditional logic of the industry, everyone recognizes the importance of squeezing the phases of production and marketing, and, fortunately, the first experiments in this direction are being seen. Let's hope these pioneers will drive a renewal of the fashion & design industry, while respecting the industry’s characteristics.