Whenever a new trend hits, there is always someone who says this is how things will be forever. During the late 90s people said that about the Internet bubble, before it burst. More recently the CEO of Lululemon stated that yoga pants weren’t a trend. It was a fundamental shift in how people dress. Since he said that sales of yoga pants have dropped. If I were to guess, I would say someone had the same comment about the leisure suit ion the 1970s.
Trends are not forever. Bubbles always burst. So what does that mean for your business? At its most basic, it means you need to set your business up so it is not reliant on a trend. An apparel company will do better over the long term than a yoga pants company. The company can produce yoga pants while the trend is hot and pivot when it is not.
You also need to be able to tell the difference between a trend and a paradigm shift. This is not always easy. There are guidelines.
- Speed: Does the change seem to happen overnight? How fast did it reach critical mass? The faster something catches on, the more likely it is to be a trend. True shifts tend to take more time to take hold. The automobile didn’t take over the horse and buggy immediately, it took time.
- Is it a what or a how?: Items trend quickly, Trends tend to happen in what you sell. Shifts tend to happen in how or why you sell. Moving from brick and mortar stores to ecommerce was a fundamental shift, but brick and mortar stores didn’t disappear. This isn’t to say that shifts don’t happen in items. You could have the best buggy whip of all time, you still won’t be successful selling it in the 21st century.
Watch trends and take advantage of them, but don’t follow them blindly.
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