Fashion industry marketing strategies: eCommerce trends and tips

The fashion industry is hugely lucrative, with global revenue predicted to reach $770.9 billion in 2024. But while this figure continues to be made up of sales from established high street names and their glossy brick-and-mortar stores, it is also driven by businesses with a significant digital presence.

Of course, fashion industry marketing strategies vary significantly depending on the type of product being sold, competitor analysis, pricing, and more. Whether sales are predominantly digital or physical will also have a huge bearing on your fashion marketing strategy. Whatever approach they take, marketing for fashion brands remains hugely important. In fact, it is crucial if they want to secure a piece of the growing eCommerce market.

The fashion industry is currently one of the biggest players in the eCommerce business. As consumer behavior continues to evolve, eCommerce has grown to play an increasingly prominent role for retailers. Whether it’s across mobile devices or desktop computers, fashion and eCommerce appear to be growing in tandem with one another. Today, almost 21% of worldwide fashion sales are the result of eCommerce transactions.

The reasons for the growing importance of eCommerce to the sector are numerous. From the rise of eCommerce personalization to enhancing data-driven performance, there are several reasons why fashion brands are increasingly devoting resources to their online sales channels.

Digital and other developments

Getting your fashion industry marketing strategies right depends on you remaining abreast of the latest trends and developments in the sector. ECommerce shoppers and those who visit physical stores behave differently - so engaging with them and getting them to convert also requires brands to act differently.

Below, we’ve outlined some of the major trends we’ve identified around eCommerce and fashion - and how you can take advantage of them:

Personalization:

Fashion consumers are craving personalization from retailers. Research by Accenture has found that 81% of shoppers are interested in personalized products but, aside from luxury brands providing personal shopping assistants, this has proven difficult for most retailers to deliver - until now.

ECommerce in fashion has created a multitude of opportunities for fashion brands to tap into the personalization trend. For example, data pertaining to your customer’s location, time and past shopping habits can all be incorporated within your fashion marketing strategy. Retailers can leverage real-time insights & analytics so their website and product recommendations are more engaging to customers on a personal level.

This is all made possible at scale with automation. With a data feed management solution, you can highlight top sellers, manage ad spend, and even dynamically update prices or descriptions, to optimize your sales and engagement.

Sustainability:

Another noticeable trend within the industry is sustainability. Many shoppers are asking for more environmentally and socially sustainable fashion options, with 51% of shoppers willing to pay up to 10% extra for items sustainably made or shipped.

ECommerce can help the fashion industry to embrace this trend. With eCommerce product listings, it becomes easier to place the sustainability credentials of your clothing and other apparel at the front and center of your product listings. This can also be incorporated within other elements of your fashion marketing strategy. For example, if your potential customers care about sustainability, consider whether you can optimize your keyword strategy so your fashion ads reflect this.

Mobile shopping:

The rise of fashion eCommerce doesn’t mean that shoppers are only looking for items using their laptops and desktop computers. Increasingly, mobile is playing a prominent role for consumers, with research by AI platform, Syte, finding that 81% of fashion shoppers used their mobile devices to complete transactions.

Check whether your eCommerce site or payment gateway is working effectively on the smaller screen. Also, are your ads optimized to reach them via mobile devices? Whatever the product, eCommerce now depends on omnichannel and multichannel marketing. That’s why we included adopting a mobile-first approach as one of our key tips for how to optimize your return on ad spend.

Innovation:

ECommerce in fashion has moved beyond simply having an online portal for shoppers. In the current market, consumers expect cutting-edge solutions to be a part of their shopping experience, from AI to augmented reality.

Although it may be possible for fashion brands to employ some of these innovations in their brick-and-mortar stores, eCommerce platforms represent a natural fit for many of these solutions. Virtual try-ons, social media integration, and more can all be employed by retailers exploring more innovative fashion industry marketing strategies.

eCommerce fashion industry marketing strategies: Our top tips

Fashion retailers hoping to boost sales with their eCommerce marketing should do more than simply be aware of the latest trends. That’s why we’ve put together the below tips to help you with your fashion industry marketing strategies.

1. Explore all relevant marketplaces

You might have your own website, but is that the only place your eCommerce sales could come from? Might they be driven by Amazon Ads, Google Shopping Ads, or an entirely different marketing channel? Ensure you are advertising your fashion items across all relevant channels. Missing out on engaging with customers, means missing out on sales.

2. Maintain an overview of your ads

While it’s a good idea to post marketing materials on all relevant channels, this does present a challenge for fashion brands. How can they manage all these ads? The right third-party solution can help. With Channable’s PPC tool, for instance, brands can boost their visibility and maintain an overview across ads and campaigns to save time and scale.

3. Use high-quality images

Visuals are important for any product - but this is especially true for the fashion industry. Good-quality images can add trust and credibility to your brand - while convincing customers to convert. Dynamic creative optimizationcan also align the visuals and text you use to ensure your ad has an even greater impact.

4. Understand your customer

Every customer is different - it’s important for fashion marketing strategies to reflect that. Recently, there has been an eCommerce revolution, where the lines between search, commerce, and social have become blurred. Where is the best place to direct your advertising spend in this new digital-first landscape? Where and how can your customers be reached?

Make sure that your fashion product ads are directed to the right customers and via the right channels. The fashion industry is highly competitive and the eCommerce landscape is increasingly complex. Make sure you leverage data and third-party tools to gain a real understanding of what your customers want and how best to engage them.

Use Channable's multichannel eCommerce platform to reach fashion consumers today

Amid the many different fashion industry marketing strategies around today promising to boost your sales, only our eCommerce solution combines the power of cross-channel listing, advertising, and insights to engage with your customers on their dynamic, multichannel buyer journey.

Are you looking to better market your fashion products to consumers? Channable could be the right fit.