3 ms·
There are only two decision points in daily clothing: (1) What to buy, and (2) what to wear. If you've bought correctly, the "what to wear" decision is 5-120 se
by _ah 7y ago
There are only two decision points in daily clothing: (1) What to buy, and (2) what to wear. If you've bought correctly, the "what to wear" decision is 5-120 seconds and no more. There's no pain to alleviate here... even a free service that told me what to wear today would be useless to me, and would take longer than just choosing myself.
This leaves the purchase decision, which is far more profitable and is (I assume) the focus of your venture. I see 5 primary market segments here:
1. Buy cheap, quick, lower quality. Any generic discount store or retail website fills this niche.
2. Buy cheap, higher quality (or better style), at the cost of time. Mid-tier retailers do well here, but it requires a heavy investment of time and mental energy to know what you want and find it on sale.
3. Buy quality, full price, auto selected. These are your monthly subscription box services.
4. Buy quality, full price, curated. Here you go to a store and someone knowledgeable helps select clothing that fits your requirements. Clothes may be tailored / bespoke. Nothing is ever on sale.
5. Buy quality, full price++, individualized. This is when you have a personal shopper / style consultant who knows you, knows your measurements, and shops at all the stores on your behalf.
If you're solving the question of "What do I buy? What is my personal brand?" then you're playing exclusively in categories 3-4. You want people who are bad at decisions, have disposable income, but also aren't ultra-wealthy and thus don't need the luxury human touch. I'm not convinced that this is an unsolved problem: you'll be competing with incumbents and need to be dramatically {cheaper, better, better marketed}.
Clothing, particularly men's clothing, is pretty darn simple. If there's any real edge left in the "what do I buy" business, it's probably fashion curation based on body type (especially women's body type) which can be quite variable. There are a number of efforts under way here but I don't feel like anyone truly owns this space yet.
And since you asked, my personal datapoints: I am in category #2 (I'm cheap, but I care about quality and am willing to put in the time). Once I feel comfortable enough in my income I'll move directly to category #4 (pay for quality + convenience). I don't feel that category #3 offers good value, and I'm a long way off from affording category #5. I have a curated wardrobe of ~10 very nice dress shirts for daily wear and a set of "black base" jeans / shoes, plus a set of "brown base" jeans / shoes to match with the chosen shirt. Each morning I look at my closet and am done deciding within ~1 minute.
If you think you have an edge here, I'm genuinely curious to know what it is :)