Fashion Colour Predictions by Social Media

Precise estimation of order volume is a critical factor affecting apparel company profit. An accurate order volume could reduce the chance of over-stock and out-of-stock. Social media has been identified its importance in influencing consumer behavior. The proposing project will study the effects of social medial impacts on apparel fashion color. The project would develop a mathematic model, to predict garment sales volume precisely and then place production order quantity accordingly in different colors, and reduce the over-stock percentage. Investigation on the impact of social media data on color fashion preferences would be conducted. Social media data would be collected from facebook.com and weibo.com in English, Traditional Chinese, and Simplified Chinese, focusing on Hong Kong and Mainland China users. Validation of the model would be conducted using real-time social media data and frontline sales data (i.e. sale volume, stock volume, and price etc.) from at least one apparel company on a rolling base in the project period. A/B test would be conducted to measure the performance of the model and compare with the apparel company’s original in-house prediction method. The outcome of this project will be a tool helping company estimate manufacture order volume.