Fashionably Social Creating digital presence for

fashion brands

Introduction

The love between Fashion and Digital has now reached

maturity.

Fashion brands like Burberry, Asos, Kate Spade, Topshop, Berdorf

Goodman are creating a strong digital presence across channels:

Web, Social, Mobile and creating exclusive digital branded content.

Especially in social media fashion brands are setting new

benchmarks.

At a time when social shopping and social aggregation

applications are going from strength to strength, the face of online

fashion retail is changing.

In this presentation we would like to focus on this hot sector and

share our thoughts on creating an efficient digital presence

across multiple channels.

Building Blocks

Top 8 Tips for creating digital presence for fashion brands

Tip 1: A website which is socially integrated

Consumers are more and more sophisticated with the help of social

media.

They search for a specific trend, even a specific colour on their mind

rather than a specific brand most of the times.

They look for value, they look for quality but they mostly look for the cool

factor.

They share with friends, they buy what their friends share.

They follow celebrities, bloggers, pinboards, lists, style guides and

magazines.

They are active anytime, anywhere.

The website of a fashion brand can be the first point to access but with

the help of new social tools it is also the last point of purchase.

A new generation of fashion website has to be available at every stage on

users dynamic journey.

Tip 2: A good search strategy

A good search strategy is crucial for reaching consumers covering

strategic keywords for:

– Product category

– Colour grouping

– Latest seasonal fashion trend words

There are 1 million searches in UK each month for clothing-related terms.

ASOS dominate the market when it comes to visibility, while New Look

have the best product keyword visibility score.

15/35 advertisers run out of PPC budget before the end of each day.

Social sharing can create links for fashion retailers.

Social media optimisation is key for increasing rankings in organic search.

Source: Epiphany Fashion Report 2012

Tip 3: Ready for mobile

Consumers search for products and share about products anytime,

anywhere.

A fashion retailer website should be responsive to mobile devices.

Ideally a specific multi-touch and gesture interface for iPad and Android

tablet devices is suggested.

Contextual menus, and simplified content are crucial for small screen

smart phones.

Tip 4: Differentiate with content

Create exclusive online products, competitions and content for extra

impact.

Viral videos, look books, catwalk streaming are still strong.

Celebrity endorsements are also creating extra buzz online.

Provide white background, clean product images. So when images of

your products shared on other platforms they still look good and

attractive. Consumers love to pin images of their favourite clothes or

share on Facebook with their friends.

Tip 5: Encourage Sharing

Don’t limit yourself to Facebook, include Pinterest, Polyvore, Google+ on

your product pages.

Encourage customers to share their purchase after they complete their

transaction.

Keep in touch with the actual customers on social platforms, turn them

into advocates.

Follow up-and-coming social shopping, social curating sites. Integrate

with them quickly to have a better visibility in a growing network.

Tip 6: Collaborate

Fashion bloggers have their own community, using social search tools,

creating their own influence on trends and as a result have a strong

impact on shopping decisions.

Getting the most influential bloggers in your market onboard for seasonal

activities, new product launches, even creating collaborative collections

are a good way to reach an interest group.

Follow the footsteps of Burberry, Topshop and Aldo.

Tip 7: Don’t just create, curate!

Curation is the new search for fashion. Especially for female audiences,

clothes shopping is no longer based on needs. It is an emotional

experience, a way to express oneself.

Highlight lifestyle aspects of your products. Use new generation start-up

social shopping tools to create better visibility for your product.

Provide tools for consumers to show their taste. Like Asos’s fashion

finder.

Alternatively use the tools available online. Like Bergdorf Goodman using

Polyvore’s mini interface on their Facebook page.

Tip 8: Catch the trend quickly

As a fashion brand, you are expected to be the “trendsetter”.

If animated gifs are popular again, try to integrate them into your

campaign quickly.

Don’t be a copycat, but also don’t miss the voice of the consumer. If they

want you to be on Pinterest, be there.

Try and test new platforms and continuously evaluate their impact. Move

on if it doesn’t work for you.

Summary: Keywords for success online

Social integration

Responsive design

Portability

Availability

Search optimised

Friendly

Creative

Exclusive

Trendsetter

Participator

Social Fashion

Top social networks to meet

consumers and fans

Facebook

As the ultimate social network globally, Facebook presence is almost as important as a website for a fashion brand.

While users spend more and more time on Facebook communicating with friends and networks, brands have so many different opportunities to create strong interactions with them on this platform.

From F-Commerce to integration with other social networks like Instagram, social games to creating exclusive applications Facebook is a main destination for fashion brands.

Facebook activities now came to a maturity level and brands are looking for different engagement methods rather than daily conversations.

The Facebook page of the year in 2012, Bergdorf Goodman is a good example for this new type of engagement. They have integrated social platforms Polyvore and Instagram with specific apps into their Facebook platform.

Twitter

From announcing new products to providing links to exclusive content, fashion brands found many creative ways to use Twitter.

As well as big fashion houses, high street fashion retailers also have their close followers.

It is an instant news spreading and communicating mechanism for any brand.

Burberry is creating some benchmark campaigns on Twitter. During 2012 LFW, Burberry shared exclusive Animated GIFS via Twitter (and as images on Instagram) before the models hit the runway, allowing followers to view the collection moments before anyone else. As a result #Burberry trended globally (for the second season in a row with its womenswear show) and Burberry has a combined following of over 860,000 on Twitter, making it the most followed luxury brand on Twitter.

YouTube

As the 2nd most popular search engine,

YouTube is a fantastic platform for

fashion brands.

In a visual industry, the value of strong

moving imagery is extremely high.

In addition to sharing catwalk shows and

TV style adverts brands can also use

YouTube as a way of showcasing trends

and as an influencing mechanism.

Pinterest

Pinterest is probably the most talked

about social network these days.

With high engagement numbers,

impressive link generating figures and a

heavily female biased userbase it is a

very promising platform for fashion

brands.

Brands like Burberry, Asos, Guess and

DKNY already using this platform

creatively to connect with their fan base.

Pinterest is creating efficient results

especially when aiming to create the

lifestyle aspect around a brand and

connecting with the consumer on

emotional levels.

Tumblr

Thousands of fashion bloggers are

using the microblogging platform to

share their likes with the online

community.

Tumblr encourages fashion engagement

with its brand by sponsoring leading

bloggers to visit New York Fashion week

for the past 2 years.

Especially with easy Instagram

integration, this platform became the

choice of photo bloggers.

Brands like Topshop, McQ by Alexander

McQueen are also running their own

Tumblr blogs with unique content to this

platform.

Polyvore

Mix and Match your outfits, create a

style collage and share.

By allowing consumers to create their

own fashionable looking magazine

spreads, Polyvore differentiates itself

from many other social shopping / social

curation platforms.

Polyvore allows users to create and

share their own collections, which are all

linked to actual retailers’ websites. Users

can also search for products based on

price and popularity.

The most valuable part for fashion

retailers is Polyvore’s open analytics

interface. They also provide a newsletter

to retailers so they can follow trending

items on their collections:

http://www.polyvore.com/cgi/analytics

Ones to watch New start-ups promising to change the lifestyle shopping experience

Svpply

Concept: Pin the things you want to

buy. Discover the best products through

your community. Follow your favourite

curators and shops.

Pros: Seen as the main competitor to

Pinterest. Currently 850,000 products

are hand-selected by Svpply community.

Users can follow a shop which is

currently aggregated from community

selections.

Cons: Still a relatively small community.

Brands are given an option to manage

their shops but the functionality is not

identified clearly. Users don’t have

option to filter per brand on the main

menu.

Lyst

Concept: Follow your favourite brands, bloggers and people. Discover the items you might like based on brands and items you follow. Lyst also sends a sales alert for the specific items on a users list.

Pros: Very dynamic search interface allows user to have an online shop experience. Connected to all major highstreet and luxury brands’ online shops. Provides a seamless journey for shopping displaying actual sales price and stock levels. Encourages social sharing in other networks including Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.

Cons: Collections from other users don’t appear as attractive as other networks such as Polyvore, summary content displayed on search is not enough to reflect the user’s taste as a result social shopping factor doesn’t appear as strong.

Mulu.me

Concept: Share the things you love.

Decide your portion of the income to go

to you or a charity.

Pros: You can curate and earn money

or your pinboard actually can help for a

good cause. It is promising to grow and

already got the attention of some

famous fashion designers like Elie

Tahari, fashion bloggers like Go Fug

Yourself and Hollywood stars.

Cons: It is a brand new site launched in

December 2011. Still a small amount of

users, so it will take some time to create

real impact for the brands.

Others

More and more players are coming

into social shopping market as there

is definitely a growth opportunity

here.

Below is a collection of these sites which

we believe are worth following:

– Weheartit.com

– Dailylook.com

– Looklet.com

– Lookbook.nu

– Buyosphere.com

– Discoveredd.com

– Nuji.com

– Olioboard.com

– Getvega.com

– Styloko.com

Also trending Other digital concepts currently

hot for fashion retail

Trending

Digital Walls: With Tesco Korea and

Glamour on LFW 2012, this new

shopping experience is promising for the

retail brands.

Augmented Reality: Trying a dress at

home or without a need to change is a

promising idea for fashion retailers.

There are already good working

examples, the latest by Selfridges in UK.

Live Streaming: Luxury fashion brands

like Burberry using live streaming

mechanics in addition to YouTube to

benefit from the power of video sharing.

The LFW 2012 several shows were

streamed live and also on digital

screens in town.

Thank you Please get in touch if you want to discuss how can we help to enhance your presence online. Sevil Ozer Crespo

sevil@mavad.co.uk

020 7378 6969

Visit our website for more information.

www.mavdig.co.uk