article "Shifting paradigms for fashion: from total to global to smart consumer experience" (29th)

Clarisa Livia
16611022

In 2013, over 2.7 billion people, 39 percent of the world’s population, were using the Internet; a total of 31percent of this population was in the developing world compared to 77 percent in the developed world (ICT, 2013). By the end of 2014, it is expected that the global number of smartphones in use will reach 1.75 billion or one phone for every four people in the world (eMarketer.com, 2014). Emergence of this global techno-economic system is challenging academia and the fashion industry. This study discusses three shifts in fashion paradigms by proposing the Total (TCE), Global (GCE) and Smart Consumer Experience (SCE) concepts derived from the concept of The Experience Economy (Pine and Gilmore, 1999), Consumer Culture Theory (Arnould and Thompson, 2005), Social Capital Theory (Putnam, 1995) and Digital Engagements (Mollen and Wilson, 2010; Csikszentmihalyi, 1990, 1997).

The consumer experience is a pervasive new value orientation that is transforming how consumers think, gain information, and make decisions about consumption activities to maximize their total experience value. Moreover, the experiences, products and services that consumers seek are being defined with a global and smart perspective that is made possible by boundary-free access to information and sourcing of products and services. Specifically, the Smart Consumer Experience avidly advocates consumer participation by leveraging the power of communities and networks and enabling consumers to influence retail businesses and co-create future marketspace values. This phenomenon has important implications for fashion consumers and fashion retail industry business strategies since fashion is an emulated behavior. This study demonstrates how consumers, the retail industry and business strategies are strategically contributing to this shifting fashion paradigm.