By IANSlife Features

New Delhi, May 29 (IANSlife): Lakme Fashion Week has announced the launch of a 'Virtual Showroom' with an aim to support designers, artisans and the business of fashion.

The Virtual Showroom will be a free marketplace platform for designers and artisans to showcase their past and current collections to consumers, enabling B2C sales for inventories that have been stuck due to the pandemic.

It will also serve as a B2B platform for designers to showcase their future collections and directly get orders from buyers of multi-designer stores across the world. From a business perspective, the Virtual Showroom aims to simplify buyer interactions, order management and brand discovery digitally and at one place. Designers can upload their product catalogue and costing that will be easy to navigate. Buyers will get pre-approved access to browse through designer collections and have the option of placing orders directly with the designers. Outstation buyers can also book private viewing appointments with the designers during Lakme Fashion Week.

Ashwath Swaminathan, Head of Innovations at Lakmé said: "Under the circumstances, designers will need new ways to reach their buyers and consumers. The Virtual Showroom is an initiative which can fulfill this need by leveraging technology. The Virtual Showroom offers many tools to make transacting more transparent and convenient."

Jaspreet Chandok - Head of Lifestyle Businesses, IMG Reliance said: "With the Virtual Showroom, there's hope for the fashion world to continue as best as it can and adapt in new ways that may provide better solutions. We hope that innovations such as these in the changing times will provide the strength and support our industry is in the need of. We are also looking at partnering with a major E-commerce player to further strengthen the consumer connect part of the initiative."

The Virtual Showroom will go hand in hand with the on ground Lakme Fashion Week event currently planned for the 3rd quarter of 2020.