CNN Editorial: Mimoona and Philadelphia Fashion Incubator Partner at Macy’s Center

Fashion start up Mimoona uses a crowdsourcing concept to help independent and emerging designers test demand for their garments before production.

To build and generate success for an independent fashion business is no easy task today as designers face many challenges in an industry where trends and collections are constantly changing. In addition to the creative demands required of designers, they must also consider the business aspects such as determining which designs down to style, color and sizes to produce. Incorrect predictions can lead to excess inventory, loss of sales and cash flow difficulties. A solution to this problem has been long-overdue, as co-founder Arik Broadach Marmorstein said, “I strongly believe that the challenges [Mimoona] reduces are making the industry better and more efficient, enabling designers to focus more on designing and less on managing excess inventory and worrying about risks involved.”

Instead of using previous market research and intuition to inform design specifics such as color, size and style, Mimoona harnesses collective opinion as a market research tool. Designers post the garments they are considering to produce on their website in different variations. Customers can then browse through the different designs and pre-order the garments they like. If the design reaches the minimum amount set by the designer that would make it worthwhile to produce, the designer will move to the production phase and customers will be charged automatically. If there is not sufficient demand for a product, the customers who did back that particular item will not be charged and the designer will not spend time and money over unnecessary production.

Mimoona offers advantages to the customer also, as pre-ordering a design empowers them to maintain and strengthen their unique, edgy style. From a financial standpoint, by using Mimoona to alleviate and reduce excess inventory and lost sales, results in designers refraining from grossing up these risks in the garments’ prices. These benefits make the wait for the items extremely worthwhile.

Mimoona was part of the DreamIt Ventures accelerator program in New York City and it is the most successful crowdfunding platform in Israel, with its goal to raise $600,000 and grow the client base to 300 within the next 12 months.