Entering the 4th month of this new year, we can assume it’s safe now to line out which trends are shaping the way in which fashion e-commerce is behaving. Considering the increase in online shopping experienced last year, with a remarkable performance by developers and marketing departments alike for crafting customer-minded user interfaces under those apps, there are several trending movements the apparel business industry needs to be aware of during 2017.
Asian’s Role in Fashion Markets
No one is unaware of the marketing advertisement made in social media about Asian-based apparel sites like Rosegal, AliExpress or so many other sites. These ads also work taking into consideration the potential customer’s tastes and budget, as they get information from Google’s search history, not to mention your likes follows and comments along social media platforms. Facebook was a pioneer on this behalf, followed closely by Pinterest; later updates allowed Instagram (after being purchased by Facebook) and Twitter to sponsor deals, opening the market for Asian brands to target users worldwide.
The key point behind this strategist attitude by Asian companies can be labelled as offering quality-looking products for a smaller fee than US stores, while doing it in mass, including free-shipping policies for US customers.
The Omni-Channel Experience
Much has been said about Omni-Channel strategies throughout the latest months of 2016, and the mindset of such marketing strategy is to provide the customer with a neat shopping experience, regardless of where the purchase is placed: computers, mobile device, phone or physical store.
The main difference between this approach and previous multi-channel experiences is the fact of a real integration between selling mediums on the back end. By doing so, customers won’t experience the upsetting downside of purchasing a product online just to find out that the product they wanted is no longer available at the store, and same logic could be applied from purchases made at physical stores where products were displayed as available through the net. Customer service representatives are also instructed to work in real-time with clients, helping to make the shopping experience as smoothly as possible, troubleshooting potential issues with credit cards or other digital means of payment.
When Mobile Experience Becomes a Personal Shopper
A common misconception when talking about fashion business is that only a few bunch of people with instruction on the subject can do the job, and that’s a closely tied industry to the mindset of designers alike. There were times in which businesspeople hired the services of personal shoppers and personal grooming services for doing a sort of “extreme makeover” of your current style. Services like that were known to be expensive, time-demanding, and frustrating sometimes given the fact professionals didn’t keep in mind the investment the person was making, or solely targeted one potential ambience instead of the common day life.
Regarding this point, Amazon decided there was a real market in offering services that helped their customers to feel better by developing an app that compared different clothing layouts based on colour, style and current trends, powered by a team of fashion specialists. The downside of this approach is that Amazon only made it available for their Prime program customers, closing the doors to millions who might be interested in a service as this one.
Fortunately for us, Amazon wasn’t the only company that explored this kind of approach to fashion: there is an Amsterdam-based Start-Up slowly taking the market of fashion assistance.
MirrorMirror, an app that works in a similar fashion to Amazon’s Outfit Compare, not only is free of any charge or subscription system but also integrates the social media factor, making it a place in which audience is engaged with the sole purpose of being well-dressed.
Sharing your style with MirrorMirror requires users to compare between two photos, seeking advice among their friends or followers to decide on which outfit to wear for different scenarios. By integrating social media networks like Facebook or Instagram, the third-party integration isn’t yet as smoothly as one can expect, though it’s absolutely impressive for an app launched during the first months of this year.
MirrorMirror has plenty field yet to cover, setting a reputation of being a safe social community where spammers or trolls don’t have any chance of influencing the decision factor, but also becoming a much-needed social media option as Facebook and Instagram currently works for us. The major attracting factor for this app is that it was conceived by a former style journalist, Steve McLay, with experience on legendary magazines as Esquire. There’s no amateur mindset for taking this app into the path of success, and indeed, many companies can take the example of this Dutch company.
Is there an endgame for fashion marketers this year? Undoubtedly yes, as there is plenty to look at for expanding your business venues worldwide by using the proper advertisement strategy. However, we mustn’t take for granted the impact of social media networks in our business growth factor: this is a day-to-day job, and under such competitive industry, rival companies are also in the chase for creating that innovative solution that’s going to become the latest trend for mass product consumption.
