FASHION RETAIL NEWS UK
The popularity of second-hand fashion is rapidly rising with an array of online marketplaces, such as Vinted, reporting a 680% growth over the last 18 months.
Nowadays, fast fashion is frowned upon, with many consumers seeking more sustainable alternatives.
Preloved fashion, encompassing vintage, thrifted, and second-hand clothing, has emerged as a thoroughly modern way to shop, offering environmentally conscious consumers the opportunity to reduce their carbon footprint while still expressing their personal style.
Phoenix Style, a preloved luxury fashion retailer based in London, exemplifies the growing popularity of sustainable fashion. Owned by fashion enthusiast Paige Mengers, Phoenix Style offers a curated selection of preloved clothing, accessories, and footwear, catering to eco-conscious consumers seeking stylish and affordable alternatives to fast fashion.
Since Paige acquired the business in 2017, Phoenix Style has soared to new heights as they’ve grown from one store to two, increased turnover by 85%, and quadrupled their customer base.
This success, however, didn’t happen overnight. Once Paige had acquired Phoenix Style, she quickly realised she had run into a problem. Phoenix Style were using an outdated sales system that was, as Paige describes, “very clunky and very basic”.
After having to manage multiple different systems to do multiple different things that were threatening to dim the Phoenix fire, Paige decided to upgrade. “Since implementing our new ePOS*, it’s probably halved our admin time”, Paige said.
“It’s really interesting to understand the types of clothes that are selling well. For example, we didn’t realise that we don’t sell very many skirts, but we sell a lot of denim. Our new ePOS system has given us that information. It’s been able to really allow us to tidy up our stock and also make us more aware of where our better sellers are”, Paige commented.
The inventory management tool has come in handy, too. Gone are the days of late-night inventory spreadsheets and the dreaded “out of stock” sigh, instead, real-time insights flow seamlessly between their stores alerting them to low stock levels before racks start to become bare. “We can keep an eye on where things are, before we could never know that we had items in Wimbledon that we didn’t in Cobham. We might even have duplicates of stock”, Paige continued.
As shoppers become increasingly conscious of their purchasing decisions, preloved fashion is anticipated to continue to grow in popularity, with fashion forward people often looking for revived styles and the opportunity to capitalise on the latest ‘drops’ from mainstream fashion labels without the environmental footprint and price tag. After all, ‘fashion is what you buy, style is what you do with it’.
