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These few months have been a challenging time for everybody around the world. As fashion professionals, it is also increasingly challenging for us to continue operating business as usual given the current global circumstances.

Fashion is a notoriously “active” industry. Four major seasons occur every year across different continents, with many smaller ones in between. Fashion professionals need to buzz around everywhere attending insider events, trade shows, showrooms and launches.

With nationwide lockdowns occurring in so many countries around the globe, it is a struggle for us to continue doing our jobs.

Thankfully, we are living in a technologically-connected world. Technology has brought about an advent of digital solutions that continue to facilitate our work despite being locked in our homes. 

Here are five digital solutions that are essential for fashion professionals.

Zoom – Video Conferencing Software

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By now, you must have heard of Zoom. Zoom is a market leader for cloud-based video and teleconferencing software. It is the go-to tool for businesses to communicate remotely. Virtual webinars can even be conducted with this software. 

With Zoom, the organizer has full control over the meeting, mute attendees, track their access to presentations and so on. In addition, Zoom has a ‘breakout sessions’ feature, wherein participants can be split into smaller groups for training or discussions. This facilitates the conduct of team meetings or multiple classes from the same platform. 

Zoom has zoom-ed off the charts in popularity as swathes of the population around the world scramble to work from home. In order to continue communicating with teammates, conduct virtual presentations and even home-based classes, Zoom is an essential software for work.

Asana – Productivity Software

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Asana is a web and mobile project management application for teams. Fashion is a team-centric industry, wherein most professionals collaborate and work closely in teams. Tools such as Asana are essential for everyone to stay on track and be informed of every member’s roles and responsibilities. 

Asana facilitates cross-functional collaboration. Not only does it help intra-team communication, but it also facilitates inter-team communication. Sales and Marketing departments can liaise easily with Operations and Product teams. These features contribute to a more streamlined and efficient Project and Workflow management process, leading to enhanced results for the entire company.

However, Asana is advanced and best suited for large and cross-functional teams. If Asana is too advanced for your team at this point, a comparable alternative would be Trello. Trello is easier to use than Asana, and also helps your team communicate while staying on track to achieve professional goals.

SalesForce – CRM Software

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When running a fashion business, maintaining a connection with your customers is key. During a lockdown where stores are close, it is more important now than ever before to support your customers’ needs.

SalesForce is the world’s leading Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tool. It is a cloud-based software that provides Sales, Marketing, Customer Service functionalities on a common platform. 

Dropbox – File Sharing Software

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Sharing large files across email can be a bummer. 

Thankfully, Dropbox solves this issue by facilitating the transfer of files of most types across a common platform. 

Recipients of these files need not be a customer of Dropbox. In fact, they do not even need to have a Dropbox account. Team members can simply share these files via a unique Dropbox URL, and users can view or download these files just by clicking to access the URL. 

Fashive – Online Fashion Course Provider

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Now, what if you want to spend your downtime productively? Or, what if you’ve just finished binge-watching the new season of Money Heist on Netflix and have nothing else left to do?

Why not take this time as an opportunity to learn something new and enhance your skills?

Fashive is here to help. Fashive is an online fashion course provider with over 70+ courses to hone your fashion skills. Our courses are all taught by industry experts and veterans, and can be accessed from the comfort of your own home. In fact, you can learn hard fashion skills, as well as soft skills such as Communication, Negotiation and Business Acumen. This unique combination helps you to gain a holistic fashion education, imparting you with skills that are transferable across domains.

During this COVID-19 pandemic, Fashive is offering a set of FREE Fashion Courses to support your continued fashion education during this period of time. The suite of free fashion courses include a set on the Fundamentals of Footwear Construction and Basics of Garment Construction and Pattern Making.