Selling Fashion Online

Online product testing - the secret to a winning season

Most merchants do conduct some types of pre-season product testing through their brick-and-mortar stores, It's often to gauge the consumer’s response to appetite for styles, designs, colors, prices and other variables. This gives direction to guide merchants in getting the collection right and to better plan and buy for the season. Ultimately, this would translate into higher sales and profitability while minimizing inventory risks.

The online retail store presents an opportune environment for product testing. Not only can results can be easily quantified and quickly tabulated — often in real-time — but, if you're like most large retailers, the online customer base you're sampling is much larger than the traffic through your largest brick-and-mortar store.

Unfortunately, the online channel is often underutilized for testing and development purposes. Often this is due to the independence or the separation of the product and e-commerce organizations and the fact that merchants are used to conducting product testing in brick-and-mortar stores only.

Merchants such as stevemadden.com and ninewest.com have been actively conducting online product testing through their pre-order program. The largest specialty online apparel retailer such as victoriassecret.com has been previewing some of their key collections much earlier. The lead time gained allows the merchant to better plan their buying and adjust their collections and assortment.

Winning multi-channel retailers understand the strategic value of e-commerce. They don’t just set up an online version of their brick-and-mortar stores. Instead, they utilize the e-commerce channel to unleash the overall growth potential of their brands. Online product testing is just one more example of this thinking.

Online product testing is particularly effective testing key items that would impact a significant percentage of the sales. Variables that merchants might consider testing include:

• Color
• Design
• Material
• Size
• Fit
• Name
• Price
• Image/Photo
• Description/Copy
• Feature color

Product testing involves many different business functions and, as a consequence, can disrupt your existing product development and e-commerce production process and timelines. With most of 2012 still before us — and well ahead of the big fall and holiday seasons — now is the perfect time to build a product-testing protocol within your organization. Establishing a testing protocol and defining key metrics are the most useful tools to ensure you can successfully impact your pre-season planning and buying as well as in-season optimization. 

 

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Online merchandising - 12 steps to drive conversion rate

Driving conversion rates is the key challenge of online retailing. But conversion rates remain in the low single digits for the majority of retailers.

It is the conversion rate that ultimately translates into sales, the only real measure of success for any retailer. 

In the brick-and-mortar store, conversion is all about turning shoppers into buyers, in online retailing, it's exactly the same - help shoppers find whatever they're looking for, engage them with your product and brand, and finally, turn them into buyers.

The online merchant can accomplish these goals by taking many of brick-and-mortar's merchandising best practices and adapting them to the online environment. These strategies and tactics include: great assortment and pricing, exciting promotions, comfortable store ambiance, helpful sales associates and more. While they are certainly limits to the online environment, online merchants can successfully implement a wide rage of successful, time-tested brick-and-mortar strategies. 

Almost all retailers today - regardless of their size and market share - have access to some very advanced e-commerce solutions to power their sites. What will distinguish the winning online fashion retailer is their skill at using smart online merchandising practices to drive conversion rates. 

This is what we do at KSL eConsulting, Inc, sharing our core competency and hard-won industry know-how in online merchandising with our retail partners.

For example, the data collected from customer's click-path combined with demographic data and purchasing history can be used to enabled personalized offers. Complete and detailed product information is one distinct advantage to online retailers - copy descriptions can be far more thorough and knowledgeable than the help offered by the average sales associates in the brick-and-mortar world.

Here are 12 steps to optimize conversion rate:

• Start from the numbers. The saying "if you can't measure, you can't manage it" is very true. Review enterprise and web analytics reports to understand what is selling, what is not selling, what is in-stock, what customers are looking for, what is working and what is not working. This will guide the online merchandising agenda and priorities.
• Ensure of the assortment and availability. This is the foundation of retailing. Merchants must have the products that their customers want. This has not changed since the barter system existed. One key reason for customers to shop online is because online is fast and convenient. When you are out of stock, another website is just a click away. Partner with product development, buying and planning to have the right products at the right timing.
• Offer competitive pricing and compelling promotions. Online, customers can easily compare prices by going from one site to another or through shopping comparison sites. This is particularly important when selling third-party brands that are not exclusive to you. And sometimes, shoppers just need that extra nudge of a promotion to make the purchase. Gift with purchase and free shipping are among the proven winners.
• Be the authority to tell your merchandising offers. Take the authoritative and proactive steps to tell customers about your most exciting merchandising offers - whether it is a sale, the hottest trend or a must-have item - and support your offers with a strong call-to-action. Do not wait for the customer to search and dig through the site to find the item. They may not find it.
• Distort to key items and top sellers. Distort and emphasize the key items that you have invested in both the inventory and marketing efforts. Key items typically have a mass appeal that ensures higher conversion rates. As for top-sellers, they are the winners "voted for" by the customers and you will not go wrong by distorting to them. Make the top seller even bigger.
• Optimize on-site search. Half of your shoppers already have in mind what they're shopping for when they come to your site. For this group of customers, it is important to make sure your on-site search function is optimized to your merchandise and guide customers to find what they're looking for. 
• Optimize shopping navigation. The other half of your shoppers - the browsers - are open to being seduced by something that catches their eye and desire. It is important to take the customers through the merchandising funnel and call out the merchandising excitements.
• Optimize search result page. Search result page for a category can consist of many pages. The product that are shown on the top pages are more visible than those on the bottom pages. It is key to distort to the top sellers, key items and new arrivals on the top pages. Either your product sequencing is manually set-up or an automation within the content management system, sales performance, inventory position, price points, newness are among the key factors to be taken into account in sequencing the products. 
• Present your product at its best. When shopping online, shoppers rely on the product photography and copy description to make a purchase decision. In presenting product online, it is crucial to ensure that all critical views of a product are shown and all critical product information is provided.    
• Make it easy to buy. One top reason for shopping online is because of the convenience. Make sure your site is easy to use. Customers have no patience for a site that doesn't work well, has technical problems or just plain bad design.
• Up-sells, cross-sells and impulse-sells. Never leave money on the table. Take the opportunity to up-sell on the product page to drive margins; cross-sell in the shopping cart to drive higher average order value; and impulse-sell at the check-out to drive higher average order value and average item ordered. 
• Fast and secure checkout. Ensure that checkout is fast and secure. Allow customers to checkout as a registered customer or as a guest. Never subject a customer to a required registration - doing so will be a perfect scenario for shopping cart abandonment.

Are you satisfied with your site conversion rates? What are your best practices to drive site conversion rates? Let’s hear your thoughts in the comment section below.

Thanks!

 

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10 key to success in selling fashion online in a multi-channel environment

The October retail revenue results reported last week indicates retail sales to slow into the holiday season. With so much economic uncertainties ahead, shoppers are expected to continue to tighten their spending. The financial crisis in the Euro zone could potentially drag this weak economy into another recession.  

In this tough economic times, consumer are reconsidering their priorities, values and buying habits. Merchants on the other hand, are re-approaching products and pricing to win the customers. Technology is also changing how supply chain is done and how consumers shop and buy. These key market trends will make the retail landscape in 2012 and beyond more complex and challenging than ever. 

And as you are finalizing your 2012 annual plan and reviewing your strategic plan to combat the difficult times ahead, here are the 10 key to success in selling fashion online in a multi-channel environment for you to consider: 

1. Define the branded dreams and fantasies.
2. Deliver a clear, consistent, end-to-end branded promises.
3. Be accessible.
4. Wow the customers with the most-wanted fashion and products.
5. Convince the customers to pay full price.
6. Know the customers so well to predict what they want.
7. Attract, develop and retain high value customers.
8. Build lasting relationship with the customers.
9. Provide the best-in-class customer service.
10. Incorporate a holistic integrated multi-channel perspective

Successful brands such as Nike and Victoria's Secret have one thing in common. They don't just sell you sneakers, bras and panties but they sell you the dreams and fantasies. In the multi-channel era, a winning brand is the one that is capable of transcending its brand's DNA in all aspects of execution and providing its customers with a branded, seamless multi-channel experience.

Now, let's hear from you. What are the key to success in selling fashion online in a multi-channel environment? Let's hear your thoughts in the comments section below. Thanks.   

 

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10 last minute tips to win-at holiday

This year appears to be much the same as last year - the economy is tight and so are the consumer's purse strings. 82 percent of those surveyed by America's Research Group planned to spend less or the same as last year. Therefore, the merchant who fully prepares and optimizes to successfully compete at the holiday season is also more likely to wrap up a successful financial year. 

Ideally, holiday planning should begin in the first quarter - at the very latest, by the second quarter - as this will provide merchants adequate time to plan and implement seasonal merchandising assortments. For merchants who have not started the process yet, it's not too late. Here are the 10 last minutes tips to help you win-at holiday:

• Holiday launch date. Determine the kick-off date for your online holiday season. Most customers begin their holiday shopping starting in October and continuing all the way up to the holiday.
• Site freeze. Prioritize and get the crucial projects going in time for the holiday season. Try to avoid launching major projects around the holiday peak season. 
• Holiday self-purchase merchandise versus holiday gifting merchandise. Product launch cadence is key. Prioritize between "for me" and gifting merchandising as customers tend to buy "for me" first and then for others.  
• Gift cards and e-gift cards. These are particularly effective in capturing demand from customers who shop too late for shipping to guarantee holiday delivery. Promote gift cards throughout the holiday season and emphasize e-gift cards once it is too late to guarantee holiday delivery. 
• Hang up some holly. As in a brick-and-mortar store, online customers expect a store look-and-feel that conveys the holiday experience.  
• Gifting center. Provide customers with an easily located, convenient, and compelling gift center complete with gifting ideas, gift wrap, gift cards and more.
• Holiday services. Provide an easy access to holiday services, especially information on holiday shipping and last-day-to-ship to assist customers in planning their shopping.
• Post-December 25th. Kick-off the liquidation strategy, promote gift card redemption and begin to introduce resort or spring preview.
• Sales and specials. This season, more than ever customers are looking to get more and pay less. Incorporate sales and specially priced merchandise into the holiday offering.
• Social cause events. Tie the holiday season to social cause events that resonate with your customers. Spread the words on your social cause events on Facebook and other social media sites.

If you win-at holiday, you are more likely to win-at the entire financial year. That is how important the holiday season is. So, what do you do to win-at holiday? Please share your thoughts with us in the comment section below.

 

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Social networking - Listen to the customer's voice on the Web

Until not too long ago, customers were provided with only limited tools to voice their dissatisfaction with a brand. There was perhaps a 1-800 number to call, an email link to your customer service department or a clerk behind the counter at your retail location to receive the customer's grievance.

In today's era of social networks, customers now can vent about a negative experience to online peers everywhere - and very quickly. Social network sites such as Facebook and Twitter, as well as user review sites such as measuredup.com, yelp.com, pissedconsumer.com and complaintsboard.com, have added additional outlets for the voicing of a customer grievance.

Merchants must now monitor and respond to the voice of the customer - wherever that voice may be heard. New business tools and processes must be put in place to hear what your customers are telling you and to make a timely response to each review that could potentially damage the brand and potentially scare away prospective customers.

Smaller brands could use some of the most basic solutions such as Google Alerts and Social Mention to help keep track of customer feedback. Larger brands will need more sophisticated tools to monitor. Trackur and Radian6 are designed to help larger brands.

How do you listen to your customer’s voice on the Web? Are you satisfied with your systems and processes? What are your key challenges? Let’s hear your thoughts in the comment section below. Thanks! 

 

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Tactics to deliver the fashion brand voice online

Fashion brand voice is a key to success for most fashion retailers. Through fashion brand voice, J.Crew brings to us preppy American and Victoria’s Secret brings us forever young, sophisticated and sexy. In the brick-and-mortar store, fashion brand voice is communicated through the mix of merchandise, window and store displays, the approach and personal style of sales associates, store ambiance and other, less tangible factors. In the online environment, many retailers are still finding it a challenge to communicate a cohesive fashion brand voice. This creates a gap between the channels: the brick-and-mortar store is perceived to be delivering a richer branded experience, while the online store is seen merely as a cash register.

Selling fashion online needn't be a dry, transactional experience. Successful multi-channel fashion retailers have been able to deliver a rich, branded, cohesive online experience that successfully conveys a fashion brand voice that engages the customers. Here are some of the tactics:

• Fashion and trend features 
• Collection callouts
• Branded style guide 
• Shop by look or by outfitting solution
• Up-sells and cross-sells
• Runway fashion show
• "As seen on" fashion media content
• Editor’s picks
• Other editorial contents

Now, let’s hear from you. What does your brand deliver the fashion brand voice online? How is it working for you? Let’s have your thoughts in the comment section below. Thanks!

 

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10 most important merchandising tactics to create a winning homepage

Over the years, many have asked me what is the single most important consideration in merchandising the homepage. My answer has always been: “A clear, consitent, end-to-end branded experience that is right for the company, the brand, and the customers. Here are 10 important things to keep in mind:

1. Call out the value proposition. Clearly state the value proposition of the brand or site, particularly for brands that are less known. If yours isn't a widely known brand, overcome the shopper's understandable caution by giving prominence to guarantees and risk-free returns and exchanges.
2. Provide quick, easy and organized access. Provide customers with key links on the header and footer. Keeping navigation simple avoids the risk needlessly frustrating visitors and potentially losing a customer to a competitor's site.
3. Optimize global navigation. Expand the menu options to include the key departments. Allow the menu to be expanded as necessary to support events such as sales and clearance, holiday gifting and special launches or campaigns.
4. Front-and-center offers and promotions. Call out offers and promotions such as free shipping, gift with purchase (GWP), purchase with purchase (PWP), and others prominently. These are key conversion drivers.
5. Expand on the homepage real estate. Maximize the homepage real estate to support to the key merchandising, marketing, branding and multi-channel initiatives.
6. Merchandise for the broadest appeal. Until you arrive at personalization or one-to-one targeted messages, broaden the merchandising features to include the key categories, products, trends, and other merchandising initiatives to serve all your key segments.
7. Develop compelling copy. Copy must manufacture the intended feelings and create an immediate call-to-action and get users to click on the features.
8. Support the shopper's multi-channel requirements. Not everyone comes to your site to buy—some may be researching a retail purchase. It is crucial to understand what your customer wants to do on your site and design to accommodate the different customer segments.
9. Distortion. The more important a features, the more prominent it should be. A feature's importance for your site could be potential sales, higher margins, number of customer served, cross-channel support, etc.
10. Test, test, and test. It is necessary to conduct on-going version or multivariate testing in order to improve the effectivenessof the homepage.

How do you merchandise on the homepage? Are you satisfied with the homepage? How do you measure your success? What are your best practices? Let’s hear your thoughts in the comment section below.

Thanks! 

 

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Is your Web site the right tool for your e-commerce goals?

Today’s e-commerce is a multi-billion dollar business. We continue to hear how e-commerce is driving growth and profitability for multi-channel retailers such as Limited Brands and Gap Inc.

But in online retailing, success doesn't always depend on being a retail giant with thousands of brick-and-mortar stores. Having a global or national retail footprint certainly has benefits for doing business online, but it's not the key success factor. There are times when having brick-and-mortar stores could hamper a retailer’s ability to break out of their box. We know of great success stories with companies having virtually no physical store — these include ebags.com, ASOS.com, and, of course, zappos.com, not to mention many others.

Many retailers, large or small, simply add a Web site to support offline or brick-and mortar needs.

But winning multi-channel retailers don’t just add a Web site. True multi-channel retailers understand what e-commerce can do for their businesses and, as a consequence, define their multi-channel e-commerce strategy with an eye on overall business goals — revenues, profitability, customer file, productivity and satisfaction among others — to truly unleash the growth potential of their brands. Going beyond just selling what they have in their stores, these retailers define winning strategies and executions to follow each channel's unique characteristics. Among others, they...

• Optimize style choice and assortment across channels
• Drive price-point strategy by channel
• Deliver the branded fashion and merchandising content
• Develop year-'round businesses based on climate and lifestyle
• Develop liquidation strategies
• Support merchandising needs such as flash sale event 
• Connect and measure customer and community interaction
• Provide customers with multiple ways to shop
• Reinvent store format and experience

According to J.P. Morgan, 2011 global e-commerce sales are poised for grow 19% to $680 billion. Apparel, footwear and accessories is more likely to continue to be the largest retail category. E-commerce today easily represents 10% or more of total company’s sales among the leading multi-channel retailers. But what is most significant is the fact that e-commerce is a key driver of  bottom-line growth as well as a key touchpoint for majority of the customers.

Now, let’s hear from you. What are your business goals and how do you use e-commerce to achieve those goals? How is it working for you? Let’s have your thoughts in the comment section below. Thanks!

 

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Editorial as a driver of conversion — the new emerging e-commerce paradigm

Attraction is where it all begins. Attraction ultimately leads to conversion and retention. Unfortunately, most retailers are still trying to figure out how to attract the customers online. Traditional offer and promotion tactics have been exhausted. Now, new technologies such as tablet computers, mobile technology and social media are changing how we live and how we shop. These technologies have made it even easier and cheaper for online fashion retailers to create editorial content as never before — and use that content to create attraction. 

Despite which, the majority of today’s fashion website remain dry, transactional, cash-register-like retail websites. This is because fashion websites were first created by cataloguers such as Lands’ End. JCrew and Victoria’s Secret. What do these retailers have in common? The need to create an electronic version of the mail order transaction to lower the cost of doing business.

But things are changing. A new breed of innovative fashion retailers are hiring fashion editors to create editorial, visual, audio, video contents to create attraction, making shopping for fashion online the way it should be — more fun and more social.

The results? Net-a-porter is making a splash with its Magazine, LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton with Nowness, and Ralph Lauren with its Style Guide. And that’s to name just a few.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, media publishing companies are becoming retailers. Publishing companies are best at creating the attraction. They are now venturing into e-commerce to drive conversion and retention. Just recently, citing Fishbowlny, Editor-in-Chief of Esquire, told a crowd at the Publishing Business Conference and Expo that the magazine is readying an online retail site called Clad. 

What we are now witnessing is the hybridization of digital publishing media and e-tailing. Publishing company are becoming retailers and retailers are becoming media companies. For consumers, this will make shopping more fun and more social while acquainting them with a much more compelling and more authoritative fashion point-of-view. For the industry, this is how selling fashion online will be going forward.

For brands that are still positioned as online cash registers, it is time to blend editorial content in with your pure merchandising selling — whether merchandise content, fashion-related content or lifestyle content.

Now is the time to test and sort things out is now — because this is evolving at a rapid pace and you can’t afford to miss. Editorial content will soon be the king in selling fashion online.

To succeed, retailers will also need to look beyond the usual metrics of sales and profitability and include media-based metrics.

Now, let’s hear from you. Do you produce editorial content today? How is it working for you? Let’s have your thoughts in the comment section below. Thanks!

 

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15 Twitter tactics every fashion retailer should be using

Twitter has gotten lots of media attention since its inception. It played a key role in the previous presidential election, in the current political unrest in the Arab world and in making Lady Gaga a pop icon. Twitter is poised to play an even greater role in every aspect of our social life. Today, the company has some estimated 200 million visitors world-wide tweeting each month.

Even with only about eight percent of adult Americans with Internet access using Twitter, the company’s advertising revenues are expected to grow 233.3% to $150 million this year from $45 million last year, according to eMarketer.

Twitter is a great tool for brands. Even with only 140 characters, it allows brand to advertise to a very targeted audience. The audience can turn the voice of your brand into a chorus, since these users are also more likely to buy or recommend brands they follow.

Twitter is free. They only cost for a brand is committing to new strategic thinking and the execution of it.

Unfortunately, only 59% of companies have used Twitter, according to a research conducted by University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Center for Marketing Research. And some who have accounts are often not active users.

When we looked into some top 100 specialty fashion brands in the U.S. and Canada, everyone has a Twitter account. But more than half of the brands have followers in the low thousands range. This mediocre follower number is the reflection of the meagre commitment and investment brands have put into marketing through Twitter. Even the largest global fashion brand, Gap, does not have the follower numbers you might expect. Gap has only 62,000 followers.

However, there are a few fashion brands, not as big as the Gap or H&M, who have set the standard in the number of followers:

• Urban Outfitters – 410,000 followers
• American Apparel - 348,000 followers
• DKNY - 310,000 followers 

These companies do everything right. And what do they have in common? Among them, they:

1. Spread the good news — deals, offers, promotions and more
2. Listen and respond closely to what followers are saying 
3. Ask questions for feedback
4. Retweet relevant tweets
5. Use the # tag to highlight keywords
6. Provide fashion tips and insights 
7. Actively promote their Twitter presence and tweets
8. Update news of the company  
9. Tweet about different areas of the business
10. Share their values and beliefs
11. Celebrate every occasion  
12. Quote famous people 
13. Follow the celebrities  
14. Thank their followers 
15. Are human and not a machine behind a program

Twitter is a new marketing tool. Brands definitely need to embrace it.

Is your brand using Twitter today? Are you satisfied with the program? How do you measure your success? What are your key challenges? Let’s hear your thoughts in the comment section below. Thanks! 

 

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