Budget-Conscious Fashion App Matches Customer ‘Bids’

Catering to an attitude set to become more prevalent as post-Covid recession sets in, Squished, which currently caters to the UK market only, allows brands to discover what consumers are prepared to spend before making blanket markdowns, which can cause brands to lose 10% to 15% of predicted revenue.

The selection on the app includes 200,000 products from 29 fashion retailers, among them fast fashion multi-brand e-tail giant Asos and high-street retailer Topshop (both British) alongside more premium brands, such as Calvin Klein’s underwear and denim ranges, and UK menswear multi-brand boutique End. Users are able to collate the products they’re interested in and set an alert on the items, adding the price they’re willing to pay for each.

When a retailer’s discount matches with a consumer’s bid, the consumer is notified. Squished does not process purchases in-app but provides direct links from the reduced product to the relevant brand’s e-commerce site. Around 20% of bids are matched by discounts. Consumers whose bids aren’t matched can monitor any price drops in real time via an in-app dashboard.

Brands subscribed to Squished can see customer bids, giving them visibility not only of consumers’ spending ceilings, but also of the other items they are considering buying and the other brands piquing their interest. It’s potentially a vital tool in helping brands to assess the correct level of discounting at a given time, and in informing future pricing strategies.

Sixty per cent of consumers who click on the app description within the iPhone App store have downloaded it, compared with a 20% fashion industry average.

For more on protecting margins and managing excess stock, see Covid-19: Strategies for Overcoming Overstock.