e-Commerce meets Fashion in Ticino: Carlo Terreni explains the importance of digital in fashion
MarketPlus will be a media partner to the event e-Commerce meets Fashion in the “Ticino Fashion Valley, which will be held in Lugano on March 13th. Carlo Terreni, co-founder and board member of NetComm Suisse Association, explains in this two-part interview what the world of fashion is learning from e-commerce, and viceversa.
Where did the interest to promote an entire event on fashion and e-commerce come from?
The interest mainly stems from a fact: in the last twenty years, Ticino has seen its economy grow due to the large fashion companies in the area, which became the first contributor to the Canton in place of the banks. The Ticino Fashion Valley is a place full of opportunities and I think it is vital to increase the awareness of the economic importance that these represent for the Canton.
In addition, according to the latest data collected by NetComm Suisse, in 2016 the turnover of e-commerce increased by 21% compared to 2015. This means that if in 2015 in Switzerland were spent 9.1 billion francs in total, in 2016 were spent 11.2 billion. To be more specific, the field of fashion is where the biggest online purchases are made, with a share of 56% with 605 francs per capita.
The event scheduled for March 13th will allow us to shed light on both sides and above all on the interactions that are being created in these years, to symbolize a path of innovation, which we hope will attract interest and investors.
What is the challenge to digitalisation?
Digitalisation is a challenge that is played on different terrains and e-commerce is definitely among the most important. Our association involves more than 180 companies, from the smallest to the largest, and what we have learned is that each of them always presents new needs. The fashion industry is no exception and NetComm Suisse is delighted to be a partner on the road to digital commerce.
In this regard, we note with pleasure that fashion companies were the first to have invested in this type of transition by offering the possibility to buy online. However it lacks a major technological dynamism as there is high demand from users but still little offer by the companies.
Applying e-commerce to the fashion field can, for example, help companies save some costs, without considering the fact that with e-commerce many barriers (geographic, time and cultural) fall with consequent reduction of costs.
Are there many companies that have yet to take full advantage of this opportunity?
If we consider all the companies on Swiss soil, only a small percentage (3 to 8%) provides an online trading service. This means that many businesses in the coming years will be able to convey more of the digital resources to develop their own sales channel on the web.
Although for fashion companies that are already active in e-commerce the web is the largest store available to them, often the figures and profiles suited to manage digital skills are lacking. NetComm Suisse therefore hopes that ad hoc training courses will soon be developed: fortunately there are already some examples within some institutions in Switzerland.