One of the most common reasons that people wear inappropriate attire is the concern about their appearance. This is particularly true of footwear. If you are simply heading out for a night on the town then you have no problems but if you are walking in the great outdoors or working in an industrial environment, then concerns over your appearance should really come second to comfort and safety. Continue reading Footwear for the Workplace
Monthly Archives: December 2014
How Best to Wear Jeans and Boots
Of all the outfits in our wardrobes a well-fitting pair of jeans worn together with the right boots is surely our most versatile ensemble. Dressed up or dressed down this winning partnership is just perfect for a shopping trip, the workplace or a casual night out and I, for one, can’t imagine what life would be like without my favourite jeans and boots. However, as with everything else in the world of fashion, you can still get it right or get it horribly wrong with jeans and boots. Continue reading How Best to Wear Jeans and Boots
How Many Bras Do You Need?
I think the short answer to this rather big question is quite a few! I can still remember the day that my mother bought me my first bra and looking back I had no idea at that point just how many of the things I was going to need in my lifetime! Continue reading How Many Bras Do You Need?
The Travel Wardrobe
Deciding what to wear can be difficult at the best of times but travelling throws up all sorts of extra problems. For one thing you have to decide well in advance what you might need. That can be difficult as there are so many unknowns when you are on holiday. You have to consider the vagaries of the weather, the possibility of impromptu excursions and the dress codes in any restaurants or clubs that you might want to visit. These issues are all the more problematic if you are travelling to somewhere you have ever been before. Continue reading The Travel Wardrobe
The Changing World of Kids’ Fashion
Years ago there was little choice when it came to kids’ clothes. The styles were limited, definitively for children and there wasn’t much attention paid to styling. Kids’ clothes were not subject to the current trends and youngsters didn’t pay much attention to fashion until they hit their teenage years. Things are very different now with even very young children taking an interest in their clothes. So how did things change so dramatically in just a few years? Continue reading The Changing World of Kids’ Fashion
Our Wasteful Ways
Sometimes my head simply wants to explode! It is not that I am suffering from some strange neurological condition. I just have a real problem with waste, especially when it comes to clothes. Don’t get me wrong, I love to get new clothes and I don’t believe there is anything wrong with having a great wardrobe. It is what happens to discarded clothes that gets my goat and it is time that this thorny issue garnered a little more publicity. Continue reading Our Wasteful Ways
We Love Wellies!
Many of our most popular fashion statements began life as practical clothing and accessories, often for the working environment. Take Doc Martens, for instance, which began life as comfortable boots for workers and then found themselves a special place in fashion history as the boot of choice for successive youth cultures. Now even the humble Wellington boot has somehow become be a fashion statement. Practicality doesn’t have to be at the expense of style and can sometimes even define it. Continue reading We Love Wellies!
What Your Footwear Says About You
You can tell a lot about a person from their choice of shoes but what people think about others’ choice in footwear is almost always coloured by their own tastes, opinions and experiences. They say that you can’t judge a book by its cover but in the case of shoes you probably can except that you will never see the whole story. Continue reading What Your Footwear Says About You
How Do they Do It?
Our shopping habits have changed dramatically over the past few years. Not so long ago shopping meant a trip to town and much frustration when you couldn’t find exactly what you were looking for. Now it is easy to source the things you need online and you can either order them right there and then or, if you need to try something on, you at least know where to find it. Whilst online shopping has been a fabulous boon for shoppers it has thrown up all sorts of complications for retailers, particularly those in the fashion industry.
A New World for Retailers
You may not have given the plight of the retailer much thought but it is a subject that is worth thinking about. It is hard for shops and brands to survive these days unless they have a presence online but imagine what it is like to have to manage all those orders and to keep accurate stock records when you are selling your goods both in store and online. You wouldn’t survive very long if you couldn’t fulfil your orders and if you couldn’t offer competitive prices. Competitive pricing is not possible if you are spending all of your potential gains on staff to manage the orders!
Complications
Things get complicated when you are selling both in store and online and even worse if you have more than one website or sell via eBay and Amazon. Retailers must maintain accurate stock records, order new stock before they sell out, fulfil orders quickly and maximise sales by contacting their customers with special offers and news of new arrivals. Fashion retailers have the additional challenge of coping with all those different sizes and colours!
Solutions
The big brands and chains are in the position to create bespoke systems that manage everything for them and have the financial clout to purchase amazing websites that have been designed to meet their needs. Independent retailers are in a different position entirely but they too can benefit from fabulous systems in the form of packages created specifically for their needs.
EPoS
EPoS systems (electronic point of sale) include electronic tills, software packages and websites that offer an integrated system to manage sales in store and online across multiple platforms. Stock is automatically updated when a sale is made and the best packages include a raft of additional features. These can help retailers to know and contact their customers, to upload their products to their selling platforms and to identify their best sellers. The software enables retailers to upload and sell items with variants in size and colour and sometimes even to sell variants that they do not hold in stock but which they can call down from their suppliers.
If you place your order online and you receive your goods in timely fashion, your choice is in stock for you and the right style and size is despatched, this level of efficiency is made possible by the sophisticated systems that retailers must use to run their businesses. Without these the world would probably descend into chaos and online shopping would not been the phenomenon that it is today. Your favourite brands may produce great fashion but without the best EPoS systems you wouldn’t be wearing it any time soon!
Article by Sally Stacey