As bricks-and-mortar fashion retail continues to struggle, high street fashion must innovate to survive.
In the face of declining sales and an inventory crisis, H&M has made a move to try and engage with its savvy, online-only millennial consumers.
On Wednesday, it launched a platform (website and Instagram account) called “Itsapark” which facilitates peer-to-peer styling and shopping recommendations.
The platform, which is currently in Beta, is open for anyone to join (once registered) and ask questions, while answers are supplied by “assigned creators” who, Itsapark say on its website, are “rewarded by us to answer your questions.”
So far questions range in breadth from: ‘what should I wear on a first date?’ to ‘How do I dress for an important interview while still looking unique?’ as well as more straightforward styling questions such as ‘how can I make beige look cool?’
Anyone wanting to ask a question must post it on the ‘Discussion’ page, and Itsapark will then assign the question to three ‘creators’ to tackle as they see fit.
Answers come in Instagram post-style (either a video or picture) with accompanying blurb and product recommendations. Interestingly there seems to be no requirement for the answer to include H&M product, and often they include none at all.
In fact, in allowing their creators to recommend linked product from other retailers, Itsapark is directly driving traffic to the websites of H&M’s competitors. “All products featured in the answers are chosen by the content creators,” Itsapark says on its website.
The Berlin-based company, which describes itself as “a small group of creatives who see a need for people guiding and helping each other in the fashion world,” has not yet set a date for when the service will launch in full, but rather suggests we follow its social channels “to stay updated about events and workshops we hold in our physical spaces, and learn how you can drop by if you're in town.”
“Sometimes fashion can be rather confusing and time-consuming, but it doesn’t have to be,” says Itsapark. “Our mission is to create a meeting place where people can exchange ideas and advice around fashion. We'd love to invite you to join in the discussion and get answers to your most immediate style needs.”
