Disruptive product development for online fast fashion retailers

Abstract

PurposeThis research critically investigates product development in the context of fast fashion online retailers who are developing “own label” fashion clothing. With a focus upon inputs, outputs, planning and management in order to comprehensively map the interplay of people, processes and the procedures of the product development process adopted.Design/methodology/approachQualitative research method was employed. Face-to-face semi structured in depth interviews were conducted with key informants from market leading fast fashion online retailers in the UK.FindingsThe major findings of this research demonstrate the disruptions in the product development process in contemporary and challenging fashion retailing and a new “circular process” model more appropriate and specific to online fast fashion businesses is presented.Research limitations/implicationsThe research has implications for the emerging body of theory relating to fashion product development. The research is limited to UK online fashion retailers, although their operations are global.Practical implicationsThe findings from this study may be useful for apparel product development for retailers considering an online and fast fashion business model.Originality/valueThe emergent process model in this study may be used as a baseline for further studies to compare product development processes.