TEXTILE MERCHANDISING IN THE FAST FASHION ERA: ADAPTING TO RAPID CHANGE IN CONSUMER DEMANDS

Abstract

Rapid changes in consumer preferences, technology breakthroughs, and mounting sustainability concerns have all had an impact on the fast fashion sector. This study investigates how textile merchandising is changing in this fast-paced world, with a particular emphasis on how companies are adjusting to meet customer expectations while maintaining speed and cost-effectiveness. By examining how these characteristics affect merchandising tactics, the study hopes to shed light on how fast fashion retailers can effectively negotiate the challenges of contemporary retail. The main goal of this study is to find out how fast fashion companies can handle sustainability issues and quickly adapt to changing consumer preferences by optimizing their merchandising strategies. The goal of the study is to comprehend how consumer behavior, sustainability, and technology interact to shape textile marketing techniques. To find new trends and best practices, this study uses a qualitative methodology to analyze secondary data from document analysis and scholarly literature. According to key results, technology is essential for enabling more individualized and flexible merchandising strategies, which enables firms to react swiftly to changing consumer expectations. Companies must manage this issue because the fast fashion model's emphasis on speed and inexpensive production frequently clashes with environmental objectives. Additionally, inventory management and coordination across many sales platforms are made more difficult by the omnichannel retail environment. The dependence on secondary data, which might not adequately reflect the subtleties of current customer behavior or the internal tactics of certain brands, is one of its limitations. Nonetheless, the results have important ramifications for theory and practice. The study theoretically advances our knowledge of how technology, sustainability, and consumer behavior interact in fast fashion merchandising. Practically speaking, it offers fast fashion companies’ useful information to improve their tactics, especially in the areas of inventory control, sustainability, and technological integration. Businesses can improve their competitiveness and long-term viability in a market that is changing quickly by implementing more adaptable, customer-centric strategies.