In 2025, Brands Need to Go Analog. Here's Why.
Get offline. Seriously.
Hey all,
We have a question for you:
When was the last time you found yourself on a website — be it for a cool, swanky fashion brand beloved by “It” girls or the latest place to sell 3.7-ounce vessels of tinned fish — and thought, Wow, I’m really loving this experience right now! I loooooove how this UX make me feel, like I’m the most magnetic, capable version of myself! Long live websites, man!
Reader, we laughed writing that.
Because, well, obviously that has not happened to you since the dawn of the digital-first, direct-to-consumer boom 15 years ago. Since Obama was in office. The first time.
Now, let us flip that on its head for a second:
When was the last time you wandered into a physical retail space — a good, old-fashioned store — and left feeling warm, feeling seen, feeling a communal connection that we as human beings biologically crave? Probably more recently, right?
That’s because the more digitized our world gets, the higher the value of IRL events and in-store experiences. Consumption, like anything, is a pendulum, and what goes up (i.e., what happens behind a screen) must come down and back into the flesh.
We at JBC speak to our brand partners until we’re blue in the face about the need to develop creative, physically tangible ways to connect with their community and create memorable experiences. Fashionphile, the original ultra-luxury resale platform we’ve been working with since 2021, has shown us time and again how crucial these offline interactions can be. At the top of the New Year, we worked with Business of Fashion’s Cathaleen Chen about this very topic, for a story she so aptly headlined: The Future of Online Resale Is Offline.
Founder and President Sarah Davis started Fashionphile way back when in 1999 while in law school by selling luxury clothes from her closet on eBay. To put this into perspective, this was just a year after Apple introduced its iconic iMac computer; Fashionphile was a digital pioneer in a still-analog world. But as the resale market grew and consumer preferences changed, the company realized that it couldn't rely solely on the internet. By hosting pop-up events and setting up physical showrooms, Fashionphile has spearheaded the trend of mixing online shopping with real-life experiences. This shift has been key in today’s retail landscape, where customers crave more than just a straightforward transaction.
Creating offline “third spaces” as Fashionphile has done allows shoppers like us to engage directly with its products — where we can walk into a space where you can touch, see, and try on luxury items before making a purchase. Fashion, in particular, is a sensorial business, and this a hands-on experience that online shopping can't replicate.
Try as it might with comment sections and chatroom apps like Geneva, online shopping also can’t generate genuine interpersonal connections. By bringing together people who share a passion for pre-loved luxury accessories, Fashionphile creates an environment where customers can connect — and maybe even forge friendships, leading to an authentic loyalty that money itself can’t buy.
And perhaps, this very goal has never been more crucial. In May 2023, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, called loneliness a public-health epidemic. The latest Healthy Minds Monthly Poll from the American Psychiatric Association (APA) finds that, early in 2024, 30% of adults say they have experienced feelings of loneliness at least once a week over the past year, while 10% say they are lonely every day.
So, are your brands’ IRL events going to solve the loneliness epidemic? No, not exactly. But they’re a step in the right direction of what your consumers are yearning for right now. And isn’t that exactly what you want to do for them?
Food for thought!
‘Til next week,
Jenny & Melissa