Small Businesses and Social Media
The Relationship between small businesses and social media has been ever so prevalent. Social media plays a crucial role for small businesses, as they use it to leverage these platforms to enhance their presence. From their storytelling and personalization in market strategy to the innate community-building, the craze for small businesses has become a sort of rejection of trends and stive for originality and uniqueness.
Is It Anti-Trend?
From the late 90s to the early 2000s, fast fashion peaked as online shopping became increasingly obtainable, and brands like Zara, H&M, and Topshop surpassed the desire for high-end luxuries. This notion snowballed into the massive consumerism we know today. Because of the quaint nature of small businesses, and their small-scale business model, their contribution to consumerism isn’t as significant. As well as the presumption that they offer the customers an original object and a good conscience that makes them a rejection against trends.
Creating Originality Through Materialism
Compared to the 90s, today fast fashion has lost its luster of “what a good price!”, and, thanks to social media, the truth behind the ‘good’ prices has revealed an unethical history. Furthermore, as the ages of social media users decrease significantly faster than previously, and the primary subject to fast fashion content has become impressionable children. Thus, seeing hundreds of people wear the same things every day, it is only a natural progression that we have come to dislike the trends, and therefore there has been a desire for originality. We sense the need to establish our identity by distinguishing ourselves from others. Once this idea was established, the department from trends to oddities was palpable. An example of this is the pursuit of unique perfumes, and what we call ‘signature scents’. Scents have been known to be a defining aspect of oneself, meaning they should be represented accurately. No more are we buying big designer fragrances, but importing Arabian perfumes, or even the invention of scents that change according to your PH levels, promising the customer a truly unique and personal representation. The search for a unique representation and self-expression can also be seen in the sudden popularity of thrifting.
However, second-hand places have become aware of this, and thus have started to cater to a wider audience, curating the clothes instead of donations. From another perspective, I have noticed the movement of regular clothing stores with disheveled window displays, miss-matched outfits, and a random assortment of jewelry, clothes, and shoes as if it was a hole-in-the-wall gold mine of a depot, but really it is just a regular store with fast fashion at the forefront. This is where small businesses persevere for it is likely that your money is being put to good use, you supporting entrepreneurs and the product is unique and never-before-seen.
In conclusion, fast fashion briefly satisfied consumers’ desire for an outfit formula, one that required no hardship. However, as this notion became a widespread ideal, we chose ourselves over the simplicity of trends. This fostered attention to small businesses, who sell the idea of uniqueness through their quaint boutiques and authentic history.
References
Srauturier. 2023. “What Is Fast Fashion and Why Is It so Bad? – Good on You.” Good on You. August 7, 2023. https://goodonyou.eco/what-is-fast-fashion/.
Peek, Sean. 2023. “Why Small Businesses Need a Social Media Presence.” Business.Com. April 10, 2023. https://www.business.com/articles/social-media-small-business-importance/.
Hosie, Rachel. 2017. “A Company Has Created Scentless Fragrances That Smell Different on Each Wearer | The Independent.” The Independent, February 3, 2017. https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/fashion/scentless-fragrances-perfumes-smell-different-each-wearer-cologne-escentric-molecules-a7554991.html.
hi,
I really believe in supporting small businesses but I often find myself buying cheaply made stuff. Because small businesses are on the rise many people will start one. However they don’t invest in materials and buy cheaply made stuff so they can sell it. This means that the product will break easily and then has to be replaced. In a way the small businesses themselves become fast fashion. This obviously doesn’t apply to all small businesses but I think we should still think before we buy. Even if it a small business.
hi,
I agree with everything you discuss in this post, and try to support small businesses as best I can. One thing that stuck to me however is the fact that children, who are the most impressionable, are the subjects to fast fashion. I learned this very recently as I was having a conversation with a 13 year old girl and she was raving about SHEIN, but I was quick to tell her all the real and negative things associated with it. I was shocked to discover how quickly and easily children succumb to fast fashion, especially when the products are tailored to them.
hi,
I really resonated with your post. I feel like in the age of social media, the relationship between fast fashion brands and small businesses has become increasingly more complex. I follow a few craft accounts on social media, and I have seen one issue happening to different creators. The big fast fashion brands, such as shein perpetually steal designs from artists with smaller follower base. This pursuit of authenticity and originality that you mention is not limited to curating a quirky display, but in some cases drives plagiarism.
This post touches on a things I’ve been thinking about a lot recently! As soon as thrifting became trendy we started to see style shift away from the conformity of fast fashion to a kind of competition to be the most unique. I think this was best exemplified about a year ago when we had the whole thing on social media about gatekeeping where you buy things from. Since this fell out of fashion I’ve definitelty noticed an increased amount of social media accounts and even email lists you can subscribe to dedicated to just recommending pieces from small and/or slow fashion businesses. For those interested in fashion I think we’re definitely in the age of the small business and it’s an aesthetic that fast fashion giants will probably try and fail to replicate (as zosia mentioned in the comments they already have a history of stealing designs) in the next few years.
I found your blog really interesting! I think spreading awareness about the unethical nature of fast fashion and promoting local businesses are one of the best things one can do on social media. Even thought, thrifting is definitely a “trend” nowadays, I believe it will stay with us for a long time as most of the people not just follow the trendiness of thrifting and shopping local, but are actually being mindful about it!