On Could 13, the Portuguese Footwear, Parts and Leather-based Items Producers’ (APICCAPS) hosted a day-long collection of panel talks and keynote discussions as a part of the Digi4Fashion undertaking, which helps native Portuguese footwear and trend manufacturers with the implementation of superior digital applied sciences. There, audio system dissected the digital alternatives for this viewers — in addition to regional manufacturing and manufacturing specialists — in the present day.
Entitled “Find out how to Create the Excellent Digital Technique”, the occasion was held on the Tremendous Bock Area in Porto, Portugal. All through the day, world trade specialists offered on well timed and sensible options for the ever-evolving digital business panorama, and legacy and rising Portuguese labels spoke on navigating the digital panorama in the present day. Greater than 200 professionals from throughout design, manufacturing and manufacturing, advertising and marketing and PR have been in attendance.
APICCAPS sought to offer this programming as an entity that launched 50 years in the past to characterize and assist Portugal’s conventional leather-based items and footwear manufacturing corporations. At the moment, it consists of greater than 1,900 Portuguese corporations that make use of over 40,000 individuals.
“Digital is a gateway to new markets — and methods of making worth. It serves to amplify what we do finest: creating high quality merchandise and sharing them with the world,” Luis Onofre, president of APICCAPS, advised BoF on the occasion. “That is how nice alternatives come about.”
Over the following decade, the Portuguese authorities has pledged an funding of over €600 million for technological innovation within the Portuguese provide chain, to optimise manufacturing and add to the aggressive benefit of Europe’s second-largest footwear exporter.
On the occasion, The Enterprise of Vogue‘s (BoF) business editorial options director Sophie Soar offered on alternatives and innovation in e-commerce. The discuss lined evolving shopper behaviour, learn how to construct the right e-commerce website, and a number of the next-generation applied sciences shaping on-line retail in the present day.
The viewers additionally heard from leaders at Condé Nast and Lisboa Vogue Week, in addition to entrepreneurs, creatives and content material creators throughout the Portuguese industries.
Beneath, BoF shares a number of the most pertinent challenges and alternatives shaping digital methods for Portuguese footwear and trend retailers in the present day — as knowledgeable by interviews with executives at manufacturers together with Luis Onofre, Formidable, Sanjo and Lemonade, in addition to the presentation Soar gave on the occasion.
Optimising for the New Product and Model Discovery Journey
At the moment, customers are discovering manufacturers by extra digital channels than ever earlier than — with the primary and deepest connection more likely to occur over social media. In actual fact, model discovery by social media is now equally as frequent as by engines like google, with 38 p.c and 37 p.c of shoppers utilizing the invention strategies, respectively.
Because of this, the way in which by which customers uncover a model’s personal e-commerce website is predominantly on the finish of the patron journey, having been pushed there from factors of discovery throughout social media, newsletters and different types of content material discovery.
This new shopper journey was mirrored by an occasion attendee Silvia Silva, founder and chief govt of the digital-first equipment model Lemonade. Whereas “the principle promoting level for the model is our e-commerce, […] the principle technique is working with social campaigns,” she advised BoF.
One other attendee — Vítor Costa, artistic director of legacy footwear model Sanjo — advised BoF that when Sanjo relaunched a couple of years in the past, the 92-year-old model launched a digital communication technique round model newsletters and social media exercise, to drive clients to each digital and bodily shops.
Digital is a gateway to new markets — and methods of making worth. It serves to amplify what we do finest: creating high quality merchandise and sharing them with the world.
— Luis Onofre, president of APICCAPS.
Optimising numerous touchpoints customers have with a model throughout channels is essential to delivering a constant — and interesting — model message.
“It’s usually finest apply for manufacturers to intention for a constant appear and feel between their homepage and their digital presence throughout social media feeds, newsletters and [other platforms], notably if their clients are coming from the likes of Instagram and TikTok,” Soar mentioned on stage. An instance she highlighted was Hailey Bieber‘s magnificence enterprise Rhode, which spotlights extremely engaged social content material with Bieber on the model’s homepage.
Certainly, the customers discovering manufacturers and merchandise off-site first are usually pushed to not a model’s homepage however to a product web page — the place they’ve probably the most intent to buy.
Because of this, optimising these product pages is important, with many manufacturers upping their recreation right here. “You’ll see extra high-quality images and movies, extra detailed info customised to particular person objects — and answering the form of questions customers might need,” Soar mentioned on stage.
She made reference to Loewe’s product pages, which reply key questions customers could have — and sure won’t discover elsewhere on-line. As an illustration, on the Loewe Puzzle Bag product web page “How do I fashion this bag? What’s the story behind it? What suits inside it?”
Telling a Model Story in an Oversaturated Market
Shoppers in the present day are overwhelmed with alternative, which is negatively impacting engagement and conversion on-line, and the way in which customers are in search of out merchandise. In BoF and McKinsey & Co.’s The State of Vogue 2025 report, 74 p.c of shoppers report strolling away from on-line purchases because of the quantity of alternative.
This oversaturated market is of course having a definite impression on manufacturers as properly, as famous by André Ribeiro, advertising and marketing and communications director at Formidable, a family-run footwear model launched in 2008.
“This competitors of latest manufacturers rising on a regular basis is so overwhelming,” mentioned Ribeiro. “That’s pressuring digital.” He additionally notes how it’s driving up the price of “influencer advertising and marketing, paid media, paid search, and each different technique or funding.”
As BoF reported in 2023, buyer acquisition prices have been rising on common 70 p.c on TikTok and 39 p.c on Meta platforms. In 2022, advertisers spent about $29 to accumulate every buyer, in contrast with $9 in 2013. The value of internet advertising has solely elevated.
What’s extra, the algorithm is difficult to foretell, throwing new challenges at social methods. As Luis Onofre, founding father of his eponymous model and president of APICCAPS, shared with BoF: “It’s altering every single day. We’d like a distinct strategy every single day. A special TikTok goes viral, generally it’s humorous however solely two or three individuals watch it. And what’s the level to spend possibly €10,000 or €15,000 on manufacturing and no one’s gonna see it.”
Certainly, the e-commerce homepage stays a important — and infrequently underutilised — area to inform a model’s story. It gives a “look into your artistic imaginative and prescient and universe,” as Soar mentioned on stage, spotlighting manufacturers like On and their ethos are skilled and on a regular basis athletes. These narratives then tie again to the product traces they provide, divided by the actions by which their customers interact.
Silva shared how her model focuses on storytelling across the high quality of their hats to teach customers on their value level. (Lemonade hats sit between €65 and €640, with its basic fedora hat at €165).
“We attempt to present the way in which we produce our hats,” mentioned Silva. “We do it tremendous historically. They’re made by hand. It’s tremendous arduous to [communicate to] the best individuals, however with the best storytelling, you’ll be able to.”
Sanjo has confronted challenges round speaking the function Portugal performs within the model narrative, with Costa noting, “Portugal is finest identified for its manufacturing talents and generally, that’s our power. However it may possibly additionally pose some challenges as a result of if you attempt to go world, if you attempt to construct a model, that’s generally seen as a drawback in a manner.”
Every model must have its personal design perspective or functionality to ship one thing particular to the patron.
— Vítor Costa, artistic director of Sanjo.
For Ribeiro at Formidable, he added that the narrative round Portugal is “opening doorways by way of product high quality notion to the patron.”
Sanjo, which depends on its almost 100-year legacy, is innovating to draw youthful and newer demographics to broaden its enchantment — notably in locations like Japan and Scandinavia. Nonetheless, it notes that competing with world giants and quick trend in a good economic system poses its challenges.
“How can we not be so overwhelmed by [the markets]? By having one thing distinctive. Every model must have its personal design perspective or functionality to ship one thing particular to the patron — which can differentiate it available in the market in the present day,” mentioned Costa.
Leveraging AI Applied sciences to Meet Client Wants in Personalisation
New applied sciences are reworking the methods by which retailers join with clients. As such instruments change into more and more embedded throughout the worth chain, manufacturers are aptly positioned to leverage them to extend shopper engagement and gross sales.
Formidable, for instance, is popping its precedence in the direction of utilizing data-driven insights and digital instruments to optimise buyer engagement. “The funding in digital opens doorways to retail.”
Nonetheless, a brand new period of brand name and product discovery — underpinned by AI-powered curation throughout content material and search — will assist customers discover not simply any product, however the best product.
In actual fact, 84 p.c of manufacturers report that hyper-personalised experiences throughout buyer touchpoints is a high precedence in 2025, in accordance with The State of Vogue 2025 report — making it vital to implement. The patron can also be eager to attempt new instruments and applied sciences, with 86 p.c of customers who haven’t used AI for procuring can be considering utilizing it to analysis merchandise or get info, in accordance with analysis by IBM.
Each the search bar and chatbots are areas “ripe for AI-optimisation,” Soar mentioned on stage. “Massive language-powered procuring assistants — leveraging open sources like ChatGPT mixed with a web site’ personal information — permit customers to obtain extra interactive Q&A, and provide customised product suggestions.”
The know-how gives an answer to the necessity for “edit” (providing the very best choices) versus “entry” (offering many choices) — with AI in a position to share with customers their suggestions for objects.
Subsequent technology applied sciences can even help with size-and-fit challenges. These account for a majority of returns in the present day — that are reaching unprecedented ranges. Clients sending again about $218 billion in merchandise purchased on-line in 2023 (up from $100 billion in 2020).
“The digitisation of our trade is the main target for persevering with the evolution of our manufacturers,” mentioned Onofre. Nonetheless, he suggests manufacturers should discover a delicate steadiness, and never use AI to exchange the human contact that provides merchandise their emotional resonance.
“As an alternative of robotics, individuals need to really feel that merchandise are handmade. That is actually necessary for the long run.”
This can be a sponsored characteristic paid for by APICCAPS as a part of a BoF partnership.
