Selling Fashion Online

How to drive conversion using merchandising callouts?

As shoppers, our purchase decisions are often influenced by a good salesperson - especially one who tells us "This is the last pair" or "This is our best seller." In simple terms, the function this salesperson is performing is merchandising callout, a power we can also put to work in an online environment - and one that can make the difference in closing a sale.

In merchandisng online, however, at the category page, merchants too often rely on the product thumbnail image, product name and price to do the selling. Traditional merchandising callouts - especially the kind so effectively employed by our live salesperson in the example above - need to be better utilized online. Equipped with merchandising intelligence from the enterprise's merchandising, planning and inventory systems, merchants today are in better position to deliver merchandising callouts that are more effective and more customer-oriented.  

Often, partnering with your brick-and-mortar counterpart is the best way to come up with the most relevant and effective merchandising callouts. Some especially effective merchandising callouts include the following (in random order):

• New
• Online exclusive
• Our pick
• Saved X%
• % off
• Customer's favourite
• Only X left
• Sale
• New to sale
• Clearance
• Last one

 

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Product information and description differentiate conversion and consideration

The goal of the product detail page is to persuade the shopper to add an item to their shopping cart. In selling fashion online, retailers relay on product photography, product attributes and description copy to present a product to its best advantage. Some retailers rely on all three elements to optimize product presentation. Others simply rely on photography and bare attributes such as fabrication and country of origin. Often, this is due to budget constraints in obtaining effective copywriting resources. Experience has shown that product attributes combined with effective description/selling copy will differentiate your product, earn customer consideration and promote conversion. They become even more important when product photography is limited.

In the first example below, the product photography is limited to just one front shot. Not ideal, as customers tend to see before they read. Hence, product attributes and copy description have a heavier role to play in selling the product.

In the second example below, the retailer does an amazing job presenting the product through photography. All critical views - front, side, inside, all points of interest and a sense of scale - are shown. In addition, the photography is supported with effective product attributes and copy description. Notice that the copy description is also brand-right in terms of voice.

In the third example below, the retailer provides not only a complete set of photography showing every single detail of the product, but robust and comprehensive product attributes and description copy as well. This retailer clearly makes a strong case for why you need to provide the customer with all the important product attributes including: material, use, drop, exterior, embellishment, bottom, closure, interior, dimensions and weight. On top of that, the customer can also access a glossary of terms to better understand and technical terms used, as well as read other customer's opinion about the product through customer ratings and reviews.

Having said all that, below is my list of best practices for using product attributes and description copy to make the difference between consideration and conversion:

• Define the key attribute requirements at the product category level
• Extract the key attributes from the enterprise merchandising systems
• Edit, add or remove attributes at the item level as necessary
• Sequence the attributes top-to-bottom from most important to least important
• Link attributes to similar products
• Provide a glossary to explain any technical terms used
• Layer in strong and branded description copy that creates a strong call-to-action
• Play with the customer's motivation by speaking to his and her needs, wants and desires
• Call out features and benefits to help the customer picture himself/herself using the product
• Leverage customer ratings and reviews to sell the product (if available)
• Review the entire product page with photography, attributes, and copy description to make sure that, with all the elements combined, you are ready to rock the sales

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How to address sizing and fit in selling fashion online?

For the shopper, it's not an easy task finding the right size and the right fit—especially when shopping online. The task is even more of a challenge when shopping with a brand we've never bought from before. For the merchants, selling online comes with a built-in penalty — a higher returns rate vs. the brick-and-mortar channel. Therefore, it should be the merchant’s goal to assist shoppers in finding and buying the right size and fit, as this will have a direct impact on returns, exchanges, customer satisfaction and (as day follows night) the bottom line.

Here are some of the most common size and fit challenges your customer faces when shopping online:

• Can’t find the size chart for certain product categories
• Can’t find a size conversion chart
• No idea how to measure
• No idea what to do if they fall in between sizes
• No idea if the size tends to run big or small
• Doesn’t know if different fits of the same style are available, as they may be merchandised as different styles
• Doesn’t know how item is suppose to fit — loose or tight, long or short

Here are some of the best practices I've identified to help your customer find and buy the right size and fit—and to help e-tailers better manage the returns and exchange risks:  

• Include size conversions for all the major standards
• Include conversions for all key product categories
• Provide tips on how-to-measure and make it easy to understand by supplying photos, diagrams and media where appropriate
• Provide product-specific sizing advice when one needs to size up or down
• Present customers with the different available fit options for the same style
• Clearly show how a style is supposed to fit on the body using photography or video
• Incorporate customer fit ratings
• Provide a fit advisor
• Provide a size guide up front on the home page footer
• Encourage customers to visit your retail locations for a real world try-on rather than risk losing customers to other sites

How to approach the different sizes, fits, colors & prints in selling fashion online?

Unlike selling electronics, books and CDs online, selling fashion items online is just plain more complicated. Fashion items typically come in a range of sizes, fits, colors, prints and designs. Depending on the specific fashion category, it is critical that the right decisions be made regarding product categorization, as well as the presentation of search results. In the example shown, the Pleated Shoulder-Accent Sweater comes in 3 colors. However, only one color is shown and additional colors available are not called out in the search results. In this case, the merchant could show all the swatches/colors on the search result page or display the search results at the color level as well as the style level.