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Posts in: fashion-technology

Fashion Marketing

9 Things You Must Consider for Your Fashion Business in 2014

By Christina Goswiller

Fashion Business planning 2014

With 2013 quickly coming to a close, it’s time to start thinking about your business in 2014. When it comes to technology for your fashion business, what improvements do you plan to make? What new technologies will you adopt as a means of improving your bottom line?

To start, let’s take a look at some of the year’s more noteworthy statistics:

  1. Already, nearly 85% of fashion brands support e-commerce in the U.S. However, despite this figure, adoption of advanced customer service features within the industry lags behind benchmarks set by the retail sector.  -L2
  2. 90% of brands now maintain an active presence across each of the three major social platforms: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube. Meanwhile, 61% have expanded into Instagram, Pinterest, and Google+. -L2
  3. A majority of fashion brands maintain both a mobile-optimized site (69%) and offer mobile-optimized commerce (55%). -L2
  4. 61% of people have a better opinion of brands when they offer a good mobile experience. – Latitude
  5. 25.85% of all emails are opened on mobile phones, and 10.16% are opened on tablets. – Knotice

Setting Your Fashion Tech Goals for 2014:

Outperform your competitors by providing effective customer service in addition to an e-commerce site that is easy to navigate.

  • Include a guarantee of service or response-time for all requests
  • Incorporate a comment box or “contact us” page on your brand’s website.
  • Reach out personally to your customers and fans via email to inquire about their needs or interest in your brand.

Do your research on your fans and develop a social media strategy that plays to the better majority of your community of followers. If your resources and time are limited, choose the three that will provide the best possible outreach between your brand and customers. For each channel consider:

  • the kinds of content that is shareable
  • average age and demographics

Access your own Social Media Strategy Guidelines and Template by clicking below:

StartUp FASHION Social Media Strategy Template

The statistics to come out of 2013 regarding mobile shopping patterns are staggering. We highly recommend creating a mobile-optimized e-commerce platform that allows your fans to view and shop your label from anywhere. More research is done directly from smartphones than ever before, making mobile not only important for sales and revenue but crucial for broader brand awareness.

Email marketing will continue to grow as a primary tool through which brands can stay connected to their fans.  Be sure to choose a provider for email newsletters or promotions that provides mobile-optimized emails that will entice consumers to open your messages. (MailChimp and Constant Contact are two good bets)

To access your own social media strategy template and other great tools and resources, join StartUp FASHION today! Join Here.

 
 
Image credit Aih.
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Fashion News

What Emerging Designers Can Learn from Oscar de la Renta’s Online Ad Campaign

By Christina Goswiller

oscar de la renta launches campaign on instagram

Where can you find Oscar de la Renta’s fall ad campaign? You won’t find it in August’s editions of Vogue, Marie Claire, or Elle. Nope, instead, this fall, the celebrated label chose to pre-release its seasonal ad campaign via its incredibly popular Instagram account.

With over 175,000 followers on Instagram, it’s safe to say that the visibility and brand awareness, not to mention sales, that this kind of campaign has the potential to drive is noteworthy in and of itself. Within just the first hour of its social media debut, the ad campaign’s images racked up an impressive 1,000 likes.

The Instagram release was coupled with additional promotional efforts, including an email newsletter and social chatter across the other channels. Come September, the ad campaign will also appear on the pages of Vogue, but for now, Instagram gives fans an exclusive look at this fall’s items.

What can emerging designers and brands take away from Oscar de la Renta’s Instagram campaign release?

  • The label’s decision to release the campaign via social media is just one more indication of how technology has come to influence the way that fashion designers and labels are choosing to engage with consumers. As well as as modern consumers are shopping.
  • This whole concept, and the success that surrounded it, should come as encouraging news to you as an emerging brand.The digital world is a more open outlet than traditional print, and it’s accessible to anyone. It has the potential to have incredible reach.
  • It makes sense for you to focus your limited time and resources on online promotion
  • Success can be more easily quantified and measured. Similar to the Free People application we covered this past month, the Instagram images from Oscar de la Renta’s ad campaign are instantly shopp-able. (Change up your website link in your Instagram bio to be the shop page) Online promotion is therefore an efficient way to turn interested viewers into actual customers, and track what percentage of new interest translates into direct sales.

The campaign therefore was a test, a way for the label to take stock of the reach and profit that is possible from digital media. You too can perform tests. Don’t be afraid to experiment with your social platforms!

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