Première Vision Paris September 2018

There was a buzz at the September 2018 edition of the Première Vision Paris trade show which attracted 55,497 international trade and professional visitors but it failed to match the figure of September 2017 which recorded more than 60,000 visitors.

More than 72% of the visitors came from outside France, with Italy being the largest registering at 11% of total, following by the United Kingdom (7%), Spain, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and Portugal. There was a strong presence of Swedish (602) and Danish (459) visitors, while Asia, which represented 14% of total visitors, including 3101 from China, 1610 from Japan and 1029 from Sourth Korea.

North America showed a slight decrease with 2,269 visitors, 1918 of whom came from the United States.  Although Turkey sent 5% of total visitors to the fair, it was a slight fall compared to previous years, due to its monetary and economic problems, according to organisers.

The 8.3% drop in total visitor numbers was down to a number of factors according to Première Vision, such as the clashing of dates with Yom Kippur (although the fair did open a day later than usual on a Wednesday rather than Tuesday) as well as a slowing consumption in general in Europe, uncertainties surrounding Brexit (as UK is one of the largest markets).    In addition to a critical monetary situation in Turkey, the organisers cited global growth weakened by US trade and economic policies had a contributing factor to uncertainties to the market.

The next edition of Première Vision Paris will be held from February 12 - 14. 2019.  Other upcoming PV events include Première Vision Istanbul October 10 - 12 2018,  the Denim Première Vision (December 5-6) in London, the Paris rendez-vous for pre-collections Blossom Première Vision (December 12-13), and Première Vision New York  will next take place January 15-16 2019.

Photos © Lucia Carpio 2018

 H&M and Klarna partner to elevate the modern shopping experience for consumers

Discussions among the visitors at the Première Vision Paris trade fair focused on how to introduce newness to entice consumers as brick and mortar retailers in all key markets are experiencing dwindling shoppers while online shopping is posing great competition and challenges to all in the fashion, interior and lifestyle industries.    Thus it is interesting to note that on October 8th in Stockhom, H&M - the world's second-largest clothes retailer together with Swedish fintech company Klarna announce that they have entered into a global partnership to further integrate H&M’s digital and physical stores to give customers a seamless, personalised and engaging shopping experience no matter where, when and how they shop. 

The deal will start in 14 European countries, starting with the U.K. and Sweden, but has the scope to expand to the U.S. and Asia, according to Klarna in a Finantial Times report, and promises to simplify H&M's returns and delivery processes which H&M.  It will power the H&M Club* payment programme, provide an enhanced omni-channel customer payment offering, a streamlined post-purchase service in the H&M app and many other service, and will deliver an unrivalled experience that will delight H&M customers across all touchpoints, according to the announcement.