Choosing a digital showroom software that’s right for your fashion brand

You have decided to digitize your wholesale selling experience. Congratulations! That is a major step towards a better, faster and more sustainable fashion value chain. But now, you’re facing a tough decision: which digital showroom software do you choose? To help you compare different technologies and providers, here is a shortlist of things to look for:

Six areas to consider when choosing digital showroom software

1. Fashion knowledge

Fashion is a unique industry. It really helps if your Digital Showroom provider understands the issues you might face and challenges you want to solve. Consider: 

1. How experienced is the team with fashion?
2. Do they have experience transforming sales teams from the traditional way of selling into a digital one?
3. Which other brands have successfully worked with them?
4. Does the company offer specific services to help you get the most out of the software?

2. Usability of the product

Change is hard enough already. If the digital showroom product is not intuitive enough, it will be even harder to convince them to sell digitally. The software needs to be incredibly easy to use. Even better: it needs to be a joy to use for your sales teams!

3. Customer experience

This is an area that is often overlooked when deciding on digital showroom software. It’s important to consider: what kind of experience do you want to offer your customers?

1. Is it the branded environment & storytelling?
2. Is it engagement & relationship building?
3. Or is it purely transactional?
4. Where will these connections take place: in-showroom or remotely, or maybe a combination of both? 

The answers to those questions will be key in deciding which software to go for. 

4. Price vs value

Price always matters, yes. But if you ask us, what is more important is the value that the technology will bring to your business. Put extra effort on mapping the value of digital transformation for your wholesale business. Optimize for value potential, not price reduction. 

5. Innovation

You want to choose a Digital Showroom software vendor that will continue to innovate. The world is changing at such a rapid pace, innovation needs to be baked into the culture. What are the areas the company is looking to innovate in? How does that match your business objectives? Which painpoints could the company solve for you? And how willing is the company to work together with you to innovate on that?

6. Credible technology

You want to go for a company that takes technology seriously, with the focus on value creation for you, the brand. Some handy questions to consider here are:

1. Can the software run on different devices? 
2. Does it enable in-showroom appointments as well as virtual selling appointments? 
3. How will you be integrating with the software? 
4. How often does the company release new features?

Choosing a Digital Showroom can be daunting. Go for the company that can be a real partner to your business. Transforming wholesale selling is not just about the technology, it’s also about the human change that fuels it. Your Digital Showroom provider should be able to help you in both areas.