Benefits of Omnichannel over Traditional and Pure E-Commerce Approaches to Sales on Foreign Markets in Fashion Industry

Nowadays, in the era of digitalization, fashion brands have a range of distribution opportunities in both online and offline channels. With the sharp growth of online sales during last several years, there emerges a possibility to enter foreign markets without physical presence but with full control of the business. However there is a pending issue for companies in fashion retail industry if the future of shopping is exclusively online and what strategy should they choose in terms of prioritization of different sales channels in general, and on foreign markets in particular. While some traditional luxury brands are shuttering brick-and-mortar boutiques, several of the most successful digital-born e-commerce opened not only temporary pop-ups but also permanent showrooms and physical stores in 2018. With the complication of customer journey affecting on different stages and channels, companies need to rearrange their strategy in order to catch their customers at all product purchase touchpoints. They need to adapt their customer service and sales strategy to the trend of blurring distinction between online and offline channels for customers. New opportunities are emerging to bridge the gap between digital and offline retail. Traditional retail brands and digital retailers converge towards a universal strategy, offering a seamless shopping experience. The problem of approach to sales choice surfaces not only on domestic company’s market but in the context of foreign company’s outlet. Despite the fact that all three approaches have their own benefits omnichannel strategy to international sales brings the broader and stronger range of benefits. In this paper we are going to study the topic of the benefits of omnichannel over traditional and pure e-commerce approaches to sales on foreign markets in fashion industry, and to conduct a research on factors affecting customer purchase decision in terms of brand exposure in different channels.