14.10.2016

How to get bigger in the business of fashion

“Fashion is not something that exists in dresses only. Fashion is in the sky, in the street, fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening.” This is one of Coco Chanel’s predictive quotes, little did she know about e-commerce!

However big an industry, success within the fashion world is not achievable to all those who want it: succeeding requires being innovative on all fronts — in fashion and technology!

The forces driving change

We have all heard to phrase “E-commerce is now an independent force in the fashion industry” but there are also other forces that you need to be aware off too.

Top 4 factors you need to know about:

  • Consumers are more and more concerned about their look and looking good! Therefore, trends predict they’ll try and spend more money into good quality clothes that will help them looking in shape.
  • Online user experience will become even more demanding on brands and retailers as shoppers move towards expecting customization options, interactive tools and a wider product ranges online. As an example, some companies are starting to produce interactive tools which allow shoppers to upload pictures of themselves and verify how a fashion item will fit them
  • As shoppers grow more and more aware of the infinity of options reachable to them, e-commerce allows them to not only exchange reviews but also to find inspiration where consumers never have before, not limiting themselves to just magazines or social media
  • Offline fashion is not dead! Quite the opposite: studies prove there is a dynamicity between on and offline which plays a very important role in the path to purchase. As shown in the infographic below, Jess wanted to wait to be at the airport to check the duty-free section and get advice from staff before making her purchase.

In this changing retail environment where routes vary across a different set of attributes, identifying your target shoppers’ habits and path to purchase becomes even more challenging. Furthermore as they evolve constantly, it also makes it difficult to know when, where and what to invest your marketing budget. As shown in the infographic below, Jess’ purchase journey shows how for cosmetics there are various touchpoints – and the same is true for the fashion industry.

We have developed a tool that enables you to have a thorough understanding of what consumers do both on and offline, in order to gain intelligence into the crucial ‘why’ of their actions. We are able to:

  • deep dive into the actual online behavior and experiences of shoppers when browsing across their devices
  • distinguish between the different typologies across shoppers
  • weight the usage and role of the touchpoints identified during the purchase journey, and identify newly emerging ones
  • identify the trends in terms of where consumers are finding inspiration, comparing prices, viewing products, and making the purchase
  • understand the drivers and barriers to online purchasing
  • pinpoint the needs and motivations behind channel, retailer, brand and product selection

The flexibility of the approach offers a great opportunity to answer a range of important business questions and develop a successful strategy. The purchase journey below shows how we can analyze various details about a specific journey to show a true picture of the consumer.