Marketing agility and E-Commerce agility in the light of COVID-19 pandemic: A study with reference to fast fashion brands

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Introduction
The COVID-19 pandemic has put the world on a confused state and the economic functions have collapsed says "The World Bank" (The World Bank, 2020). Business units are working extra creative to reframe their strategies to recover back to normality (Accenture, 2020). This has resulted in a supply shock and demand shock (Blair Sheppard, Daria Zarubina, 2020). Right from the basic day-to-day grocery items to the posh expensive spending, every single activity has been disrupted due to COVID-19 causing damage for the consumers and the business units (Rahmanan, 2020). More than the present situation the aftermath will be a real competitive edge for the business units across the globe (PWC Global, 2020). The post COVID-19 pandemic will have very little budgets for the firms giving no space for an extensive plan and strategy implementation. Nevertheless, these firms have to consider the pareto thumb of rule of making 80% profits with 20% capital available (Paul, Devi, & Teh, 2012), (Haughey, 2010). The financial wheels have to slowly accelerate to avoid accidents and damages in the post-COVID-19 pandemic. Business organizations rather than being just agile have to be intelligent in being agile because the new normality depends on creativity and critical decisions paving way to sustain. Firms, which have the hierarchical structure, have to turn flat to invite new ideas and be more flexible to react to change. It all depends on how a firm markets itself to the stakeholders. Hence, the word marketing is not just concerned with products or services but it is a survival myth. Thus, it is important to market, attract, collaborate, enhance and grow from marketing activities. This entire research article will stress on three important factors; business agility, careful spending (Percentage of concentration) and post recovery strategies.

Fast-fashion in the COVID-19 pandemic
Fashion brands strategically planned quite well by the beginning of this year 2020 and initiated the production but due to COVID-19, they struggle to push the inventories till October says (Balram, 2020b). Few high street brands like H & M have had a tough time and had to shut down 70 stores. Few fast-fashion brands have displayed 70% off in their websites to tackle this situation (Ierace, 2020). The reason is that waste in the fast-fashion industry is enormous which cannot be avoided due to uncertainties and because of the "wear once attitude". In addition to the existing problems, COVID-19 pandemic is a major challenge to the fast-fashion brands because the stocks in the retail outlets have become old and have faded from its originality. Hence, the destruction of the old stock and planning for new production is hectic. However, the outcome will be either to win or to lose (TradeGala, 2020). Wear once attitude has been very popular and has been a strong propelling force in the minds of many fashionexcited people. COVID-19 has been a boon to understand the reality and worthiness of money and resources by locking-up the fashion brands in the retail store. However, there is a need for fashion-textiles for daily use and hence the fashion brands should operate in the e-commerce platforms to satisfy the needs and wants of the customers without wasting the resources. Vogue editor says "I think it's an opportunity for all of us to look at our industry and to look at our lives, and to rethink our values " (Government, 2020). The concept of rethinking is to replan and reimplement new strategies to revamp the business. In the post-COVID-19, survival there is a need to be more agile and responsible giving importance to three important elements (Re-think, Re-plan and Revamp) which should be the core elements for fast-fashion brands to strategize and scale business success in the post-COVID-19 pandemic. Fast fashion now has to be defined in a new way incorporating safety and hygiene "Fast-fashion may be defined as the process of making the stylish textiles available to the end-user as quickly as possible which is safe to be used by incorporation of hygiene practices in the entire process". Thus, COVID-19 has reshaped the consumer behaviour to be more conscious and cautious when it comes to hygiene measures. Though e-commerce has seen drastic profits in the COVID-19 lockdown (Hasanat et al., 2020), (Rao & Moorthy, 2020) the consumers expect a sanitized product and a safe delivery which may not affect the consumers. Thus fast-fashion brands should have the ability to maintain continuity and balance which is a smart way to build a firms vision (Collins & Porras, 1996). In-fact many ecommerce based products are not dispatched with a tag "sanitized and ready to use". Only if a business knows what should be the sense of achievement it will try to understand the needs and expectations of its customers and hence being more empathetic is important. These days consumers have started to engage in online communities in social network platforms both with other individuals and with the brand (Dessart, Veloutsou, & Morgan-Thomas, 2015). Henceforth fast-fashion brands have to start extending active communication and services through the online platforms and campaign that they are involving with new ethical and quality business functions in the post-COVID-19 crisis. Information concerning quality, quantity, pricing, attributes, availability, safety, hygiene can be popularized in the social media platform to have a better reach. On the other hand, the success of a product depends on the intermediaries connected in the entire process. A product, which is not sanitized before delivery, creates confusion and frustration for the consumers, as they fear in receiving the products from the delivery agent. More importantly, the delivery agents have to be strictly warned or trained to follow hygiene practices like wearing a mask, sanitizing the delivery package, maintaining social distancing etc. These essentials are success factors for the e-commerce platform selling fast-fashion.

Research materials and methodology
Covid-19 is a new phenomenon, which has affected the global business. There are many new research works embracing on new models, theories, concepts and themes, which can be a source of groundwork for business organizations if adopted and implemented in the right way for recovery and sustainability. However, this is an opportunity to think creatively to help the business units frame strategies through the research contributions. In this regard, this research article depends on a Qualitative Approach Based Model Development (QABMD). Careful investigation of the secondary sources from various databases and websites gave an opportunity to understand the wide ideas and to critically evaluate the same to seek the gap. In this research a major inclusion criteria is the white papers; which is an authoritative report presenting interesting information, which can be further relooked by the readers. On the other hand, research articles from reputed databases have been used. Qualitative research being a field of inquiry gives an opportunity to interconnect a family of terms, variables and themes to visualize a holistic model, which becomes a clear info graphic to understand.

Developing a new concept: Agility for fast-fashion brands (Theoretical base)
Considering the fact, that fast-fashion industry is one of the global industries in the world where various processes are interconnected with each other to satisfy the end users. It is said by (Čiarnienė & Vienažindienė, 2014) that, fast-fashion is customer driven where the retailers have to change accordingly to the changing demands, wants, desire and needs of the consumers. Change is unavoidable where fast-fashion brands have to build their leadership qualities by being agile. This unavoidable change can be broken into smaller versions to understand the complexities involved. Thus, based on the complexities the best decision can be taken to achieve the results in an easy way. To develop the Percentage of Concentration model (figure No 1.0) the base theory is the "Ant Colony Optimization".

Principle 1: Planning and find the smart route
The colonies are built with variety of queen ants sometimes many queen ants build the colony but only one survives. A business is made with several factors and however the success depends on few factors, which keeps the business run smoothly. Likewise a fast-fashion business depends on several factors like (quality, pricing, delivery, pricing, advertisement, salesmanship etc. however few factors are of primary importance and few are of secondary importance. Principle 1: Not all the factors have to be considered to achieve the final goal; it is important to find the smart route.

Principle 2: Communicate, coordinate and maintain a cordial relationship
Equality and teamwork in the ant's colony is a very much felt concept because during a crisis no ant hesitates to take up the charge. On the moment, in the situation they all work together to achieve the common goal. The most important factor, which helps the ants to stay strong in their leadership quality, is the art of communication. Ants segregate the parsimonious, which is very useful for the social identity. This way of communication strengthens the communication, saves time and energy and helps to keep track of ants belonging to the same colony. This can even denote a group identity to keep the resources secured from the competitors and helps in enhancing the image of a colony. All those members associated with a fashion brands business success like: raw material suppliers, producers, transport and distribution agents, SCM agents, wholesalers, retailers, partners and all the other stakeholders have to be united and work for the common goal attainment.

Principle 3: Be adaptive and agile
Ants are agile in finding new route to discover food for consumption and all these decisions are quick. Adaptive decisions and agile decisions may give a positive outcome or might teach the business units a good lesson. In the context of a negative outcome the business units have to look into the areas in which mistake has been committed and have to rectify the mistake. To sum up the discussion adaptive and agile decisions is more concerned with (exploration and exploitation) where both are possible. However, the fast-fashion brands have to function like ants by being smart.

COVID-19 and e-commerce
There is a belief that there are high chances that the Coronavirus will spread through the exchange of cash which has become one of the major reasons for the consumers to prefer etransactions (Auer, Cornelli, & Frost, 2020). Thus cash-based transactions are now slowly avoided due to the fear prevailing across different sectors (Torero Cullen, 2020). There are certain varieties of products which cannot be avoided from the routine use and hence there is a major shift from offline shopping to online shopping including the grocery items purchase (Zealand, 2020), n.d.), (Grashuis, Skevas, & Segovia, 2020). Moreover, this is an opportunity for the e-commerce players to extend their full support for many producers, retailers and marketers to sell their products (Distribution, 2020). The COVID-19 pandemic has added more values to the existing e-commerce trends such as Increasing internet penetration, rising number of smartphone users, Growing acceptability of digital payments, Increasing PE, VC and foreign investor interests in e-commerce (Thornton, 2021). Moreover, e-commerce has allowed the consumers to witness ease in purchase and payments offering flexible options motivated with offers and discounts (Mar, 2020). This has led to a massive shift in consumer behaviour and this can even be called a forced behaviour (Kantar Indonesia, 2020). A report by (Team, 2020) rightly states that the retailers can manage and recover from COVID-19 if they shift their way of functioning from offline to online embracing on few important elements such as: rebalancing supply chain management, boosting the online presence, ensuring on organizational fitness and well-planning for future. Every fashion brands dealing with fast-fashion have to consider these elements because the entire supply chain is shaken-up. A recent survey by National E-commerce Association members says that almost 60% of online shopping is affected due to the problems in the supply chain (Unglesbee, Howland, & Vembar, 2020). If the limitations in logistics and distribution have been revamped and relooked then the COVID-19 crisis will become an opportunity for the retailers (Weathering the economic impacts of Coronavirus : How can retailers/consumer goods companies turn crisis into opportunities ? 2020). The report by (Arora, Christiani, Dreischmeier, Libarikian, & Yegoryan, 2020) mentions that organizations have to start to learn and adapt to new changes in driving continual improvement. The role of e-commerce during the pandemic is not just to scale profits but also to indirectly contribute to the economic growth (Ungerer, Portugal, Molinuevo, & Rovo, 2020), (Categories, 2020), (Akram & Khan, 2020). The government can also bring in new strategies to encourage safe purchase through the e-commerce options which are available, however, to facilitate the same to all there is a need for further improvement (Nugroho, 2013). The digital customer journey will continue in full swing in the post-COVID-19 crisis for which the fast-fashion brands have to well prepare and draw new agile plans to survive and sustain. Hence, there is a need for new normality models. There is a need for a new model and hence in this research importance has been given to "Percentage of Concentration" which is a new strategic insight for the fast-fashion brands which are existing or which are yet to enter into the e-commerce platforms to depend upon.

Percentage of concentration (POC)
Every business firm will have to allocate budgets for the post-COVID-19 recovery. The rate of spending and the areas in which high spending is required has to be carefully determined by the business firms if not then expenditure will exceed profits and the firm will have to close-down. To avoid unwanted spending and to sustain in the post-COVID-19 crisis the firms have to engage in careful budgeting and spending. Fast-fashion industry is very much unpredictable because of the changing trends and consumer preferences. Henceforth the fast-fashion brands have to be careful enough not to be reluctant in budgeting and spending. Though there are many activities associated with online marketing, fast-fashion brands do not have to concentrate on all the factors. There are selected factors, which will need a relook whereas other factors can remain constant depending on the firm's decision. If this has been taken into consideration then the fastfashion brands may make use of the funds in the right way and slowly recover. A new theme is known as "Percentage of Concentration" is introduced to clearly illustrate a few important areas, which can be primary importance. The same has been illustrated in ( Figure No 1.0) with a percentage indicator (0 to 9%) & (20 to 39%) will be TIER 3, (40 to 59%) will be TIER 2, and (60 to 79%) & (80% and above) will be TIRE 1. All those factors in TIER1 have to be given primary importance because those are the "Primary Business Recovery Elements" which needs more attention and concentration. Those elements in TIRE 2 are called "Neutral Business Recovery Elements" as they may or may not be given importance and elements in TIRE 3 are called "Pointiness Business Recovery Elements" which means it may not be considered. This model indicator is designed to suit five core elements of a business firm: Production, Supply chain, and Distribution, Marketing and consumption evaluation. However, in this research the major focus in only on marketing and e-commerce variables. Future researchers can use Percentage of Concentration (POC) in another area of business.

E-Commerce agility
Pandemic time has given rise to online shopping and the brick and mortar based shopping has come down in terms of sales and customer visits (Sarah Davis & Lauren, 2020). Technology has been made the best use during the pandemic time while there is a sudden increase in econsumerism facilitating B2C E-Commerce, B2B E-Commerce, Online Verticals, Online Payments system (Dublin, 2020). Understanding that consumers prefer e-commerce platforms for purchase fast-fashion has to be active in ecommerce platforms. They can make use of the popular e-commerce platforms like Amazon, Flipkart etc. or they can organize their e-commerce platform however, it will be expensive. Online consumer retention is based on the shopping experience and the product satisfaction in the postconsumption stage which will also kindle repurchase intention (Khalifa & Liu, 2007), (Rohm & Swaminathan, 2004), (Wolfinbarger & Gilly, 2001). When the shoppers visit the online store they will expect a variety of products from which they would like to choose the best and hence product assortment will be a source of motivation to boost-up the sales (Borle, Boatwright, Kadane, Nunes, & Shmueli, 2005), (Chernev, 2011), (Broniarczyk, 2015), (Zhou & Wan, 2017). Fashion varieties have to be rotated once a week to ensure that there is no old stock and will give the eshoppers a feeling of new collections/arrivals, which will be one of the sources of purchase stimuli. Moreover, the new designs and creative ideas incorporated in the textile will boost sales (Sinha, 2002). Though there are, many factors in (TIRE 1) the most important variable expected by the consumers are hygiene packing, packaging and safe delivery. Fast-fashion is not well sanitized and delivered to the end-users then it might hurt the sustainability goals because more than just the physical protection and containment considering (Tamperproof, Product safety and quality, Protection from hazards: mechanical, chemical; environmental; climatic; bacteriological, Facilitating/convenience handling etc. (Mohebbi, 2014) the entire packing and packaging has to pass through a virus-free check and has to be well sanitized before processing it further. Those fastfashion retailers should produce a certificate to the e-commerce platforms meeting the requirements of safety check based on which the e-commerce platforms can consider being sold through their website. If ABC and Co tries to market, the products through the e-commerce platforms like Amazon or Flipkart and if any discrepancies have been proven in future the brand name of the ecommerce platform is affected. Thus, to avoid these complications it is always better to give importance to safety packing and packaging followed by a safe delivery. Even the fast-fashion marketers involved in B2C business have to consider these safety measures. Sales of fashion brands fell by nearly 70% since fears over the virus intensified in March (Balram, 2020a). Moreover, there is no much stock available in the online websites as most of the time it shows "stock unavailable". The consumers will understand to some extend about the economic slowdown affecting the business but there would be more expectations for the post-COVID-19 crisis. Henceforth the fast-fashion retailers have to opt for responsible production with a motto to make use of the available resources and at the same time why have to give importance to make the stock available widely for which one of the considerations can be the online-platforms. The varieties and new collections can be popularized using social media marketing. "Social media is now so relentless; people are spending their whole time on Instagram, Snapchat, and Twitter… Everything needs to be instant says (Prescott, 2020)". Social media has become a part of our life and people share their stories and photos creating a sensation (Mohr, 2013), (Chu, Kamal, & Kim, 2013), (Yankova & Ozuem, 2014), (Helal, Ozuem, & Lancaster, 2018). Many brands have become popular in the social media platforms. Miss Universe, Miss World, Miss USA and all the other beauty pageants are popularized in the social media pages, which motivates many fashion designers to embrace new creativity. On the other hand, many fashionista and brands have started to advertise to capture customer attention. Thus, in the post-COVID-19 crisis, one of the methods to attract the customers will be social media because bored people spending time at home will be more associated with social media especially those between the ages of 18-50. Social media is fun and the millennial makes social media platforms an opportunity for marketers to reach them (Chaturvedi & Gupta, 2018), (Bagalkot, 2019). It is not advisable to offer many discounts on a mass scale but minimal discounts and coupons are needed to attract the customers. As mentioned before (TIER 1) is more on "The need of the hour" for the immediate budget planning and execution for the post-COVID-19 recovery. If unwanted expenses are happening without control then the brand may lose its perfection among the other competitors. Thus, those factor in yellow and green makeup the (TIER-1) elements. Advertisements about the new collections and new safety and hygiene practices followed by the marketers and the distribution agents have to campaign but lavish spending on advertisement is not needed. This is the most crucial time for all the fast-fashion brands to re-establish their brand image in the market, which might involve sending for primary factors as mention in (TIER 1). Henceforth spending on an advertisement, celebrity endorsement can be reduced ranging between 20-39% of the budget only if needed. Research and Development will need new designers and fashion artist to work together for success. However, it is not advisable to spend on new designs but fast-fashion brands can save the Rand D cost, which can be used to meet unexpected contingencies. To cope-up with this of managing without R and D customers can be asked to design and send their niche expectations through the website platforms, which can be made available in the future. If needed a small portion of the budget can be allocated for the creation of new designs. Those elements in (TIER 2) fall under the neutral criteria and hence if there is a need the fast-fashion brands can think about it. However, those elements in (TIER 2) elements are neutral factors as most of the fast-fashion brands will have to give importance to run the business successfully. Hence, not much special concentration is required and it can continue in the same way. Figure No 1.0 showing the E-Commerce agility model Though loyalty program, stock monitoring and availability are needed to be successful in the fast-fashion market it is considered neutral. In other words, it can be called "constant elements" to run a business. There is always a thick and stiff competition in the e-commerce platforms due to the vast use of technology and internet in industry 4.0.
Dealing with e-commerce competition with other similar brands will be quite challenging. Every day the fast-fashion brands have to strategize a new plan to sustain in the top position. The strategy should be flexible, cost-effective, measurable and more focused. Fast-fashion brands should remember that being active in the ecommerce platform will bring in new success but equally has many uncertainties. As mentioned before this model (Percentage of Concentration) is a flexible model, which can be used across different sectors by incorporating new factors and percentage distribution. Note: This model is just a sample concerning e-commerce in this research; however, there is a need for the users of this model to use different elements.
However, the percentage allocation can also differ based on the comfort of the user. Small companies and new start-ups have to learn from the well-experienced companies, which are digital-savvy hiking sales in leaps and bounds (Gregg, Tapadia, Esber, Esber, & Lee, 2016). Hence, the need for a digital culture is an agility action for the post pandemic normality. Digital culture should be built systematic for which there is a need for a very strict budget planning for which the POC model will facilitate. Few fastfashion brands, which already exist in the ecommerce platform, can scale their business to a new phase slightly increasing their budget for expansions. However, the new brands penetrating into the e-commerce platform should be vigilant to the market trends and competitors activities to strategize strong e-commerce agility plans. Ecommerce penetration has to be supported by a firm's primary activities and secondary activities because agility becomes successful when being supported by different departments of an organization "Myth: Agility is mostly about productivity". Thus, a fast-fashion brand has to plan, organize, control, and implement taking care of primary and secondary activities without deviating from the firm's vision and mission.

Discussion
In the light of e-commerce agility, the POC model will help the fast-fashion brands to "rethink, replan and revamp" the business functions to scale success. The business operations have slowed down and the supply chain process has been disrupted where the desired products are not delivered to the customers and the customers do not prefer shopping in the pandemic time because of the fear and other norms like the social distancing. However, this behaviour will continue for a few months or even few years because shopping markets can never remain isolated it is always crowded with many people and it is entertainment. The responsibility of the marketer extends even after analyzing the post-purchase and consumption of the products by the consumers. One cannot just open an online portal to sell the fast-fashion and leave it as such. The fast-fashion has to reach the end-users safely. The marketers have to bring in new changes in the ecommerce platform because the e-commerce based door delivery is now not based on timeliness but it is more bound with hygiene and cleanliness. In general, a consumer rates a delivery process based on certain factors such as timely delivery, packing, packaging etc. but in the post-COVID-19 crisis, more embracement will be on hygiene-based delivery, hygiene based packing and packaging. Thus, if the marketers do not give importance to hygiene-based operations then people may not prefer the e-commerce platforms, which will drastically bring down the business success. There is always a demand for fast-fashion and the same is now. However even in the post-COVID-19 crisis, fast-fashion brands will witness demand but if capacity is insufficient then the business will have to lose a few potential customers i.e. Imbalance between demand and capacity (Kassymbayeva, 2017). Marketers have to be smart to manage the unexpected change and hence there is a need to give importance to agile strategies. As mentioned before the term agility means the responsibility to respond to a changing situation, which is unpredictable. Moreover, agility is also to know and then invest in these areas, which need more concentration, and hence the model developed here is called "Percentage of Concentration" which means the fast-fashion brands penetrating the online platforms i.e. E-commerce should know which factors have to be given priority. Henceforth TIER 1, TIER 2 and TIER 3 have been established to differentiate and show the factors and its weightage. However, each business operating in different markets and geographical markets will differ and hence this model is just an example based on which the business units can choose their factors and strategies.

Conclusion
The most important business strategy to facilitate this fashion game is a well-managed inventory, on-time production, well-administered supply and distribution and persuading marketing and retailing. Consumers expect a dynamic assortment, new products every week, on-time availability, stylish and affordable price. For the marketers, fast-fashion is a cost-agitate, confused distribution and a realtime challenge to balance demand and supply. It is a response with the responsibility to a huge market of consumers who are demanding quality and innovative clothes at an affordable price. All the aspiration to be a market leader in the fast-fashion market has been shattered due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It is quite interesting to see how the fast-fashion brands are going to revamp the business in the POST-COVID-19 CRISIS because it needs new planning and execution. On top of all the planning and execution, strict budgeting and cost-effective strategies will facilitate to make use of the opportunities and to regain the brand image. Agility can be of various types however, in simple it all depends on how a firm responds to changes to cope-up with the market demands. In this context agility is the smart response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Though pandemic has been a bane it is also a boon for many fashion-brands to penetrate through the e-commerce platform.

The significant contribution of the study
 The study has designed a new model "Percentage of Concentration" which will be helpful to know about those areas where concentration is required so that wastages can be avoided  Through this study, the marketers will get to know that they have to be more empathetic to the consumers and should not make use of the COVID-19 pandemic as an opportunity to make profits  Consumers have become greedy in the lockdown situation and have started to buy in excess because of the fear of stock unavailability (Dr Anand Shankar Raja M, 2020). Storekeepers have to ensure that there is enough stock available and have to comeout with social advertisements educating the consumers not to develop fear and greed. This consumer psychology related research if explored can bring in a new change in consumerism.  The study highlights three important elements which will have to be a part of the vision and mission statement of every organization in the post-COVID-19 crisis (Re-Think, Replan, Revamp) for a business sustainability. On the otherhand the three core mantras, i.e., agility, resilience, and sustainability has to be considered by the business firms (Ivanov, 2020).  The study also embraces the importance of money and resources to be a life lesson for all the fashion enthusiastic consumers  The study also proposes upon a new dimension "Sell but do not oversell" which will save resources from getting wasted  Firms functioning through the e-commerce platforms have to achieve business agility have to give importance to three ecommerce agility functions known as: Ecommerce management capability, ecommerce technical capability and ecommerce talent capability (Lin, Li, Luo, & Benitez, 2020). 

Limitations of the study and scope for future study
The study is focused only on fast-fashion brands; however, the POC (Percentage of Concentration) model can be applied to other business categories and service categories also. The research has looked into the need for the hour strategy known as "Agility" and has not concentrated on other classic tools. The future researchers can bring in new dimensions and build new models to help the marketers and other business houses cope-up with an unexpected crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic. This model can be put into execution by the fast-fashion brands to measure the outcome using empirical evidence and advanced experiment methodologies. To run a business in the post-COVID-19 crisis needs excellent budgeting decisions and plans, which will help the firms, reduce unwanted spending and will help the firms save for better use and cause. This POC model can be used considering the costing elements.

About the Authors
Dr Anand Shankar Raja M works with the Department of Commerce, Christ University, Bangalore, India. He holds a Ph.D. in Commerce from SRM University (SRM Institute of Science and Technology) Chennai, Tamil Nadu. His area of focus is mystery shopping and mystery shoppers' profession. His paper titled "Brands are status symbols; understanding reality through mystery shopping" was presented in the Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi, which won many appreciations. He has been honored with the gold medal by SRM University for his research presentation on the title "Mystery shopping and Knowledge Management towards effective strategy formulation". He has published many articles in Scopus indexed journals.