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Ferragamo Partners with Farfetch to Grow Online, Reach Younger Shoppers

A pair of shoes of Italian luxury shoemaker Salvatore Ferragamo is displayed in the window of the company's store in Zurich, Switzerland, April 25, 2019. (Reuters)
A pair of shoes of Italian luxury shoemaker Salvatore Ferragamo is displayed in the window of the company's store in Zurich, Switzerland, April 25, 2019. (Reuters)
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Ferragamo Partners with Farfetch to Grow Online, Reach Younger Shoppers

A pair of shoes of Italian luxury shoemaker Salvatore Ferragamo is displayed in the window of the company's store in Zurich, Switzerland, April 25, 2019. (Reuters)
A pair of shoes of Italian luxury shoemaker Salvatore Ferragamo is displayed in the window of the company's store in Zurich, Switzerland, April 25, 2019. (Reuters)

Italian fashion house Salvatore Ferragamo said on Thursday it had struck a partnership with online luxury shopping retailer Farfetch to expand its digital presence, targeting younger shoppers.

Ferragamo said it would use Farfetch's platform for its e-commerce and look to engage with a global Millennial and Gen Z luxury audience.

"Ferragamo has a wonderful heritage of creativity and craftsmanship and I am hugely excited about the opportunity to take it to a unique new audience globally," said José Neves, the chief executive of Farfetch.

"Ferragamo's outstanding product and creativity, coupled with our marketing capabilities and innovative digital experiences will captivate that audience."

Ferragamo, whose shoes have been worn by Hollywood legends such as Audrey Hepburn, has struggled in recent years to rejuvenate its image and appeal to younger luxury shoppers.

In its latest turnaround attempt, Ferragamo hired former Burberry Chief Executive Marco Gobbetti in January.

Gobbetti has pledged to double Ferragamo's sales to nearly 2.3 billion euros ($2.4 billion) in 2026 from last year by investing more in marketing and communication, renovating stores and improving technology and the group's supply chain.

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Fashion

Zalando Uses AI to Speed Up Marketing Campaigns, Cut Costs

FILE PHOTO: A person with a shopping bag of Zalando outlet walks along Kurfuerstendamm shopping street looking for bargains in Berlin, Germany, December 3, 2022. REUTERS/Lisi Niesner/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A person with a shopping bag of Zalando outlet walks along Kurfuerstendamm shopping street looking for bargains in Berlin, Germany, December 3, 2022. REUTERS/Lisi Niesner/File Photo
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Zalando Uses AI to Speed Up Marketing Campaigns, Cut Costs

FILE PHOTO: A person with a shopping bag of Zalando outlet walks along Kurfuerstendamm shopping street looking for bargains in Berlin, Germany, December 3, 2022. REUTERS/Lisi Niesner/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A person with a shopping bag of Zalando outlet walks along Kurfuerstendamm shopping street looking for bargains in Berlin, Germany, December 3, 2022. REUTERS/Lisi Niesner/File Photo

European online fashion retailer Zalando is using generative artificial intelligence to produce imagery faster for its app and website, it said on Wednesday, as AI shakes up the fashion industry and cuts costs.
Zalando, which sells branded clothes, shoes, and accessories across 25 markets in Europe, is using AI to produce imagery quickly enough to respond to short-lived fashion trends spread on social media. It is also developing AI-generated "digital twins" of models to use in its marketing.
"We are using AI to be able to be reactive," Matthias Haase, vice president of content solutions at Zalando, told Reuters in an interview.
Using generative AI cuts the time needed to produce imagery to around three to four days from six to eight weeks, and reduces costs by 90%, Haase said, adding the AI-generated content drives greater engagement from customers.
"It's not because of AI content that is better than human-created content, it is really about how new, how relevant it is to our customers," Haase added.
Around 70% of Zalando's editorial campaign images were AI-generated in the fourth quarter of last year as it has increased use of the technology. AI-generated images illustrated Zalando's recap of the year's biggest trends, including "brat summer", "mob wife", and double denim.
For an industry used to costly, meticulously planned fashion shoots on sets or in far-flung locations, the prospect of using AI to speed up production and use marketing money more efficiently is of particular appeal to retailers with far smaller budgets than the big, luxury players.
Zalando is the latest retailer to try out AI-generated digital twins of models, after Sweden's H&M in March said it created digital twins in collaboration with a modelling agency.
The AI-generated three-dimensional replicas enable Zalando to feature a model in a campaign and show an exact replica of that model in the app's product pages, without needing to take hundreds of photos.
Asked how generative AI could affect job prospects for fashion photographers, Haase said traditional fashion shoots will still be needed, but that photographers and other creatives will also have to adapt to using AI tools.
"Creative people fear that AI makes creatives redundant," Haase said. "I don't see that at all, to be honest... I see it rather that creative minds have now, instead of two hands, six hands."