Level up your E-Commerce Strategy

Fashion’s tech-driven future is now our present. For brands, connecting to buyers using digital showrooms is crucial in the upcoming season as buyers may not be able to visit you in person. High-touch and sophisticated platforms such as WeAr DigiShows give buyers a look at collections, highlighting garment details while simulating a physical showroom visit. Investing in a digital showroom keeps brands connected to buyers, press and influencers. The same can be done for stores who want to virtually sell to their regular customers in a professional manner.

For retailers, implementing a video clienteling service allows customers to see collections and buy in real time. In Paris, Galeries Lafayette launched ‘Shopping à Distance’ which allows customers to use video calling to contract a personal shopper or brand representative for Alexander McQueen, Off-White, Loewe and Prada, among others.

Offering a ‘Click and Collect’ service should form part of your online strategy. According to Michael Burke, Director of Branded Apparel and Durables at Google, online data shows a three thousand percent increase in organic searches for ‘curtsied pickup’ in the last 12 months. Customers expect to be able to shop your entire assortment online, then visit your physical location in person to pick up their items. As shoppers stay close to home, adapting your existing physical retail space to accommodate and e-commerce fulfilment area will help you better serve online customers and avoid additional operational costs. An up-to-date inventory with detailed photos on your website will help customers understand the look and feel of your assortmement when they cannot browse in person.

Increasingly, consumers use their mobile devices to shop. Sales transactions may end on your website, but customers could have discovered you on other platforms before making their purchase decisions. Enhance your presence on Instagram by using the Shopping feature to highlight a smaller range of products. When using other digital platforms, ensure a strong and consistent brand identity across platforms, as Burberry did when collaborating with Tencent on its interactive shop in Shenzhen, China, that allowed customers to explore the store using WeChat.

It’s important to know which of your customers are most likely to make a purchase in the near future so you know where to invest your time. E-commrce agencies like Paris-based The Other Store are specialised at working with mid-sized multi brand retailers to develop personalised online strategies for customer relationships management. By analysing your existing customer data, you can predict future shopping behaviour and plan your assortment. By analysing your data, you can develop the right strategy to maximise profitability from e-commerce.

This article is part of WeAr Magazine Issue 65.