J. Peterman was ahead of its time, seriously. The brand’s famous catalog-which lent each of its product an offbeat yet witty backstory-can now be considered a forerunner to what fashion blogs are doing today: seamlessly merging content with commerce.

This was just one of many insights from the Assembled Fashion conference on Saturday, when over a hundred fashionistas, fur vests, counsel-seeking entrepreneurs and “techanistas” gathered at NYC’s General Assembly to get a full download on the latest trends, technologies, and opportunities happening in fashion today. Plenty of fashion insiders spoke across a series of themed panels on social, flash sales and the mathematical formula to enhance your backside in jeans (tip: it’s all about the pockets, people), including uber-popular blogger Kathryn Finney of The Budget Fashonista, Gilt Groupe Women’s GM Jyothi Rao, Lucky Magazine Director of Digital Content Caroline Wexler, Fashism CEO Brooke Moreland and Birchbox Co-Founder Katie Beauchamp, to name a few.

Here are a few key learnings from the day’s compelling panels:

Sarah Conley, Social Media Manager at Ideeli, put it most succinctly (and perhaps best) when she simply said, “Go where your customers are,” which might mean experimenting across many platforms to land on the best fit.

Yet it’s not enough to just simply maintain social channels; instead, brands need to look to maximize the always-on nature of the medium. To that point, Oglivy’s Senior VP of Digial Influence Gemma Craven emphasized that social media is in no way, shape or form free. To distinguish yourself in a hyper-competitive marketplace, the panelists stressed the importance of having PR, creative and tech teams (aka everyone involved) on board and on the same page to ensure that a cohesive brand story is being told across all channels. 


Bergdorf Goodman was cited as a sterling example of social done right, doubly so since it’s a brand that remains untouchable for most. On the opposite end of the spectrum, an unnamed brand was going to “announce that they’d NOT use social media” as a buzzworthy story. #FAIL

The fact that Nordstrom bought HauteLook to push its own flash sales demonstrates that this method of e-commerce isn’t going away any time soon. The panelists discussed how private/flash sales thrive on the adrenaline rush users get when accessing this daily “Black Friday” and its limited supply, but how this impulse also results in a higher return rate, whether because of fit or regret.

Still, a site like Gilt Groupe Women, which drives 250,000 visitors a day, remains a fantastic platform to launch or increase exposure for a brand. While the marketplace is crowded today, Jyothi Rao sees consolidation in the coming years as these platforms continue to balance exclusivity and saturation. The panel also touched upon the upward trend in mobile shopping, with $119 billion predicted in sales via these devices by 2015.

We all know that fashion bloggers are super haute nowadays, but, whatever you do, don’t start your pitch with “dear blogger.” Yuli Ziv, CEO and Founder of Style Coalition, highlighted a few traits (or filters) that make a blogger influential, namely having personality that comes through offline, a niche focus, and, of course, community engagement. When approaching these bloggers, brands need to know exactly what they seek and hope to achieve, and need to offer value and exclusives in order to truly convert them into advocates.

The “Content to Commerce” panel also highlighted the increasingly precarious balance between editorial and sales. Fashion outlets provide brands with a captive audience and built-in relationships, as they entertain and interact with consumers on a daily basis. In a word, they trade in authenticity.

So context is now more essential than ever: the people behind a product, where the product comes from, the process. Rather than “buy this product,” it’s “let us tell you the product’s story.” Refinery29 does so through videos, how-tos and partnerships, while Lucky achieves the same by having editors wear the products—a personal endorsement from real people. This is especially essential as consumers start to care more about what they put on their body, similar to how they’re now aware of what they put in their body.

E-commerce now drives $200 billion in sales and a few companies have found great success by bypassing traditional and oft inefficient retail methods, whether it’s launching online only to provide higher quality at a better price like Bonobos or “curating the clutter of products” to provide their customers both value and delight like Birchbox. Another company to keep an eye on is Fitted Fashion, who offers a bridge between online and offline shopping by using technology to gather 200,000 body data points to create bespoke clothing.

Social media is also amplifying the way people share and store inspiration as well as discover products, such as Polyvore or a site like AHALife, which is curated by Facebook fans to bring joy back to shopping online. All this data also allows brands to better target audiences and consumers.

Jordy Leiser, CEO of STELLAService, shared a few learnings about the customer experience and how companies can become more efficient:

Customer service, of course, pays off when it comes to the bottom line. Shoppers are willing to pay a 10.7% premium on average for great service.

Finally, there were a number of innovative new startups in attendance to showcase their services.

Pose
Users can snap pictures of their outfits to share across multiple social channels simultaneously. Levi’s previewed their line on the platform, which is also tied to Facebook’s open graph.

Alluring Logic
A cloud-based clienteling system that leverages a retailer’s data to help its employees better engage customers. For instance, an employee can create outfits for a customer based on their personal closet.

Stylyt
The most exciting of the bunch in terms of social engagement, Stylyt allows fans to play designer and thus increasing brand recall, purchase intent and loyalty/evangelism. Brands create design contests, whether it’s for a dress or t-shirt, and set up parameters to ensure that users keep to the brand aesthetic and color palette. The experience for fans is straightforward and easy to use.