E-business In Apparel Retailing Industry - Critical Issues

The apparel industry has, like most other industries quickly started using the Internet to gain improvements in the efficiency and effectiveness of operations and marketing. In this report we briefly overview the developments of electronic commerce in apparel industry. We try to develop a framework for choosing the right technology and development options based on the business model and business orientation chosen. We illustrate the framework by four case companies, which have adapted different basic strategies and business models. The cases include companies with traditional operations with also physical retail outlets, as well as companies operating only on the Internet. There are still a number of unresolved problems related both to consumer-oriented e-commerce in general and to apparel industry in particular. Nevertheless, consumers are increasingly using the Internet to do extensive amount of research on products and fashion trends before purchasing through any media, also making more and more online purchases