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A Complete Guide to Fashion E-Commerce Marketing: Statistics, Trends & Strategies to Build a Profitable Fashion E-Commerce Brand in 2022

What are the latest SEO algorithm updates? This blog looks at and explains some of the most dependable SEO Trends to follow in 2022. Check out the blog to learn more. However, thanks to search engine algorithms, companies today have to focus on SEO. The primary purpose of search engine optimization is to ensure that your brand ranks at the top of search results. But, why is that important?

Introduction:

What are the latest SEO algorithm updates? This blog looks at and explains some of the most dependable SEO Trends to follow in 2022. Check out the blog to learn more.

However, thanks to search engine algorithms, companies today have to focus on SEO. The primary purpose of search engine optimization is to ensure that your brand ranks at the top of search results. But, why is that important?

According to a survey, the first five organic search results on the first page account for around 68% of all clicks. If your website isn’t ranking in the top five, your target audience may never even discover your business!

Like everything else on the internet, factors affecting search engine optimization keep evolving through specialized algorithm updates, released from time to time. This blog aims to inform you of some of the crucial algo updates of 2022 that can affect your SERP (search engine results page) rankings. Also, get ready for some helpful SEO tricks related to these changes and more!

Fashion is never out of fashion. However, the industry is continuously evolving, with concepts, color palettes, and style statements changing practically every day. Today, people rarely purchase fashion products from brick-and-mortar outlets. Instead, they are far more likely to visit one of the many ecommerce portals dedicated to fashion items.

And, operating such an online shop sounds far simpler than it actually is. The biggest gripe that owners of these sites face is the need for fashion e-commerce marketing. If you don’t market your website and products, your competitors will leave you behind in a wink.

The biggest problem that such an ecommerce business owner faces is that just like the trending fashion, the trending marketing strategies also tend to keep changing. 

Today, simply marketing through emails or PPC campaigns is not enough. With unfettered access to social media, the fashion ecommerce industry has to think out of the box and be creative when trying to spread the word about its businesses.

What about your marketing strategies? Do you think you’re doing enough?

Before you answer those questions, here are some fashion statistics for you. The industry is tipped to maintain a compounded annual growth rate of 14.2% by 2025. That means the fashion industry could be worth more than $672 billion globally.

If that didn’t convince you to devote more energy to your marketing efforts, perhaps this next bit of data will.

In 2022, customers in the US alone are expected to spend around $200 billion while buying fashion products online. 

Popular fashion retail brand Macy’s has spent more than a billion dollars on marketing almost every year since 2014. No wonder the brand is confident of reaching online sales worth $10 billion in just a couple of years.

It’s difficult to conceive that kind of spending for a smaller business. Nevertheless, you must question whether the current marketing setup you have for your business is sufficient in such an atmosphere.    

Is your marketing strategy solid enough to ensure a successful fashion brand?

E-commerce Fashion Statistics in 2022

Before you invest more money and time into your brand’s marketing, you should know the ROI potential of the fashion ecommerce industry. Here are a few online ecommerce fashion statistics to give you some perspective – 

The first order of business is understanding the impact of covid on the ecommerce industry as a whole. When the first lockdown was enforced in 2020, around a quarter of US consumers said they planned to spend considerably less on fashion and luxury items. But, the numbers in the coming months showed otherwise.

During the peak Covid phase, Shein’s (an online-only fashion brand) saw its valuation double to around $30 billion. 

Moreover, according to a report from the Census Bureau’s Annual Retail Trade Survey (ARTS), online sales increased by more than 43% y-o-y between 2019 and 2020. In 2019, the total online sales in the US were valued at around $571 billion. In 2020, it touched $815 billion.

Covid-19 has given a boost to fashion ecommerce businesses since people didn’t have the opportunity to commute to their favorite outlets. So, they often had to rely on online marketplaces to fulfill their clothing and apparel needs. 

A 2020 report from McKinsey claimed that fashion sales through ecommerce platforms increased from 16% to 29% in that year alone! Shopify, the popular ecommerce brand, claimed that more than 150 million consumers purchased their first online product in the same year.     

Following are some product-specific statistics in the industry – 

  • Apparel and clothing accounted for almost 30% of all ecommerce sales in 2021 in the United States.
  • The US footwear segment generated more than $78 billion in revenue in 2021.
  • A report claims that fashion accessories will experience a CAGR of 12.3% between 2016 and 2026.  

As you can see, things are only looking up for the entire ecommerce fashion business. With higher sales and revenue generation in store, it’s the perfect time for your business to capitalize on the market trends.

Ecommerce Fashion Trends in 2022

Studying the fashion ecommerce trends can help you steer your business’s marketing efforts in the right direction. What are the other successful fashion brands doing that are raking in the dough for them? Which forms of advertising seem to have the highest payoffs?

These are the questions that you should be asking yourself. Fortunately for you, the following section is dedicated to informing you about the fashion industry’s current fads. Let’s get started!

An analyst from eMarketer revealed that around 50% of all ecommerce sales would be from mobile devices. Still, there’s huge room for improvement in this regard. More than half of all consumers face difficulty while purchasing through mobile applications. 

So, if you’re looking to capitalize on mobile popularity in your ecommerce business, make sure your site is clutter-free and easily accessible when accessed from handheld devices. 

Consumers have also moved past just the quality and variety of products available. Ethical practices by a business also play a significant role in determining its long-term sustainability. For instance, brands that promote diversity and inclusivity earn some points automatically with shoppers. 

Around 57 million people in the US suffer from some form of disability. Making your ecommerce platform accessible to all is something that will not only win you brownies points but also improve your overall sales.

Another ethical conundrum often faced by the fashion industry is that of sustainability. In the past, many brands have been widely criticized for engaging in unsustainable practices. Today, sustainability has come to the forefront, and shoppers have become extremely careful in the brands they back.

42% of global customers only purchase eco-friendly products. 52% of consumers say they are more likely to buy from a brand if it shares their core values related to climate change and the environment!

Beyond these metrics, you should also look at other forms of personalization/customization for consumers. Basically, personalization is ensuring that your store recommends specific items to specific people based on their previous interactions. 

If person A was interested in a handbag but didn’t buy it the first time, make sure to recommend it to them when that particular bag is on sale. This is a perfect example of personalization.

On the other hand, customization allows shoppers to be a part of the creation process of an item. The idea of owning a product that’s made specifically for them is enticing if you think about it.             

That’s why a survey reveals that companies with a customization approach to selling tend to have an ROI of $20 for every dollar they spend on such customizations. And this happens in around 90% of the cases!

Next, and perhaps the most exciting trend in ecommerce, is the integration of the metaverse. A metaverse is a blockchain and crypto platform that allows consumers to transact virtually. Metaverse stores will help your shoppers try on products virtually rather than relying on a few pictures to judge the quality of products.  

It can also make the online shopping experience a much more social activity. While it’s true that brands have barely scratched the surface of what the metaverse has to offer with NFTs, there’s much more in store in the near future. 

Perhaps that’s why the projected market value for metaverse is a whopping $678.8 billion by 2030!

Evidently, being a fashion ecommerce business owner in 2022 is no mean feat. You have to stay on top of several aspects all at once. Fortunately, you can delegate your brand’s marketing concerns to a reputed digital marketer, such as Upthrust

The agency maintains an impressive grasp of the current ecommerce fashion marketing trends. With clear and concise performance marketing strategies, you know where every penny of your marketing budget goes. You also get a detailed report on ROI against your digital marketing expenses! 

Elements crucial for fashion ecommerce brand's growth

Before you set your digital marketing plans in motion, it’s crucial to understand how to determine whether a particular strategy is working as intended or not. Do you decide that just by the sales? Or is there a way to quantify a plan’s effectiveness even before the revenue generation phase?

There are four elements or metrics to keep track of as a fashion ecommerce business owner. These should tell you whether your marketing game is on point or whether you need to adapt your promotional strategies.

Here’s what they are in brief – 

  1. Visitors to all channels of your business, including social media accounts and websites.
  2. The rate at which visitors to your pages are converted into paying customers.
  3. The average lifetime value of each paying customer for your business.
  4. The final metric is the revenue or profit generated by your brand. 

As you can see, profit comes last when deciding whether your marketing efforts are successful. Now that you know the five metrics let’s look at each one in detail.

Today, a business or brand with no reviews will make minimum revenue. In fact, even if a company has mixed ratifying, it would do better than a brand that has none. Business owners must encourage their consumers to leave helpful reviews on Google and other places, based on which other people can also try out their products or services.

Review modification is also crucial. If there are too many negative reviews on your page, customers may get turned off a product or your brand entirely. Try to highlight the five-star reviews, while also taking the negative feedback into account.

Visitors: The building blocks of e-commerce

This is where it all begins. Visitors. People who are interested in what your brand has to offer. As a digital marketer, most of your efforts must be centered on bringing visitors to your various channels. 

You don’t just want to increase your reach. Fashion ecommerce means reaching the right set of eyes, which would propel your business for the short and long-term. If your business is relatively new, you must invest more in paid traffic since organic traffic flow would be low.

As time passes and people begin to learn more about the brand, you can cut down on paid traffic and rely on people finding your ecommerce business organically.

You can realize this goal of increased traffic to your website by following the steps mentioned below –

Taking advantage of paid social media ads

Paid social refers to displaying sponsored advertisements on social media platforms. The target of these ads is specific customers. But, it all starts with you setting a budget for your ad spend. It is essential to group your target shoppers as per buyer type. Also, during inventory management, make sure you target your brand’s hero products to specific consumers.

Don’t run far too many ads at one time. Doing so will only consume your budget without giving you the desired results. 

Social media platforms have specific machine learning and artificial intelligence systems to help market the right products to the right people. Ensure your business is leveraged properly to take advantage of these automated targeting systems. 

Finally, your ad creatives must be impactful enough to entice people to check out your products. The best way to do this is to highlight outstanding reviews or address consumer pain points. Some brands have also built a deep connection with social media visitors by creating a highly active community of shoppers.

Devote a part of your budget to influencer marketing

The fashion ecommerce industry is unlike any other online retail industry primarily because the products keep changing. Style statements become outdated within a few months, and new fashion replaces those. 

But, how do common people keep up with the trends? Well, the answer is simpler than you think. Across social media platforms, there are accounts and channels operated by self-proclaimed fashion experts. These influencers tell the world what is essentially ‘in’ right now. 

And their millions of followers happily take their advice when out shopping. Therefore, fashion outlets must build a rapport with these influencers. Before getting them on board, it is also critical that influencers align with your company’s long-term and short-term values. 

With influencer marketing becoming almost a norm, more brands are also looking at user-generated content. Typically, such content from popular creators gains more traction than a standalone post on their account.

Translate your paid social media searches into organic searches

Paid and organic search marketing first relies on a brand becoming popular on social media. When your target consumers keep seeing your company name during their social media browsing, they are more likely to search for the brand through Google.

So, it isn’t essentially pitting Facebook ads against Google ads. Instead, if you handle things smartly, you can make both of them work together for the ultimate growth of your brand. Google has termed such efforts omni-channel marketing campaigns.

Appreciate the differences between SEM and SEO

Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is vastly different from Search Engine Optimization (SEO). While both have the same goal of bringing more visitors to your site, the approach is drastically different.

SEM is mostly related to running Google Shopping ads. This is one of the best ways to bring visitors to your site, provided you have a steady source of ad spend available. Since the smaller businesses cannot afford a continuous stream of investment for PPC ads and because SEM is a short-term solution, SEO is crucial for success.

SEO mostly relies on creating optimized content that ensures organic ranking in Google searches. It’s a much more affordable option for driving traffic to your business’s websites.

  • Conversion rate: The art of turning visitors into paying customers

Now that you’ve successfully brought people to your social media accounts or online storefront, what next? How can you entice these people to turn into shoppers?

Keep in mind that you have to convince your website visitors to – 

  • Stick around long enough so that your site’s bounce rates are low.
  • Provide data and sign up for newsletters that will prove beneficial in the long term.
  • Make a purchase.

Sounds easy enough, right? Let’s see how you can do it through online fashion marketing.

Make your offers the highlight of your creative

A compelling ad or creative must be able to hold your prospect’s undivided attention for anywhere between 3 and 30 seconds, depending on the promotion channel. The best way to do this is to bundle products together or show off a limited period deal.

Another metric to determine whether your promotional campaign is successful is to measure the average click-through rates. If it’s more than 1%, you can rest easy knowing that the ad is doing what it’s supposed to.

Make sure your site is responsive and easily accessible through mobile

Purchases made through mobile devices accounted for almost 73% of all ecommerce sales in 2021. That should tell you why you need to optimize your websites for both desktops and handheld devices. 

If you need even more reason, get this – 61% of online shoppers will leave a website if it takes too long to load on their smartphones. 41% of these people will immediately head to a competitor’s portal. 

You must optimize your landing pages perfectly to ensure this doesn’t happen. They should provide easy accessibility to consumers looking for a particular segment of products.

Write original and informative product descriptions

Often, ecommerce websites are known to copy and paste product descriptions from the product manufacturer’s website or label. Or, some products may not even have a detailed description.

You don’t want your website visitors to have unanswered questions regarding a product because people don’t stick around long enough to find these answers. 

Some brands have cracked the product description part of their websites, making it so simple for prospective shoppers to get info about an item. Generally, divide the description into parts.

The first segment should include clear and concise information, such as a fashion product’s color, size, and picture/video.

The second segment can include descriptions in the form of FAQs. The last part of your product description is a detailed copy of what the item is all about.

If you follow this pattern, your ecommerce platform visitors know exactly where to look to find specific information.

Optimize your website from discovery to checkout

Conversion rates tend to increase for an ecommerce platform when consumers find it extremely easy to search for particular items. The search process should begin with a demographic filter based on gender. 

Then, your site should automatically recommend products while the customer is still typing based on what they have typed in so far. Keep in mind that nobody wants to type the entire name of an item to find it.

Now, to improve the checkout experience for your customers, make sure of a few things. The buyers should be notified when they go beyond the free-shipping threshold. The checkout window should offer mobile-specific express payment options too. Finally, you also want to include a drop-down menu for buy now and pay later.

  • The lifetime value of customers: Retaining them through Email and SMS marketing

So, you’ve received several visitors to the site, and a proportion of them have also purchased products from you. But, is that all? Not really.

While you need to keep expanding and finding new customers, you also want your past buyers to keep returning. But how do you do that, especially once they have left your site? 

Here are a few ideas to consider!

Email marketing may be an old tactic, but it works

Have you ever wondered why so many ecommerce websites still ask for the email information of first-time visitors? Right off the bat, a smart brand will use this opportunity to send a welcome email to their new prospects. 

A welcome mail should be a simple introductory piece, helping consumers understand what your site offers. Also, don’t forget to thank them for showing interest in your business and signing up for the emails.

Emails can also help remind people that they abandoned certain items in their cart without purchasing them. This can effectively bring back some of your customers and entice them to complete the transaction.

Finally, email marketing also involves informing your previous customers to check out new deals and offers. Make sure to send personalized emails to people on their birthdays, anniversaries, and holidays.

SMS Marketing is a quick and effective way to reach your customers

There’s a misconception that SMS is also a dead communication mode, like emails. But that’s just not true. Whenever an SMS notification pops up on your phone, you still check it, don’t you? Your customers do it too!

But, while sending SMS to your customers, make sure to follow the below rules at all times. Never bombard or spam your community with messages. Secondly, always be extremely specific about the segment or products you are promoting.

Conversion rates tend to increase for an ecommerce platform when consumers find it extremely easy to search for particular items. The search process should begin with a demographic filter based on gender. 

Then, your site should automatically recommend products while the customer is still typing based on what they have typed in so far. Keep in mind that nobody wants to type the entire name of an item to find it.

Now, to improve the checkout experience for your customers, make sure of a few things. The buyers should be notified when they go beyond the free-shipping threshold. The checkout window should offer mobile-specific express payment options too. Finally, you also want to include a drop-down menu for buy now and pay later.

Creating brand awareness

A report claims that 69% of businesses use social media to create brand awareness, while 52% of them also use it to drive traffic! It’s really easy to understand – people can’t buy from you if they do not know that your brand exists.

With more than a billion users across Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, perhaps there’s no other marketing channel with this much reach.

Showcase shopping provides new avenues for promotions

Google ads introduced the showcase shopping feature a few years back, which allows a marketer to display more than one product through an advertisement. If you’re a fashion brand, you are likely trying to bring several items to the notice of consumers and not just one. Such PPC campaigns are perfect when your primary goal is to direct paid traffic to your website!

Remarketing helps re-engage the target audience

Remarketing, also known as retargeting, is a practice by which marketers try to reconnect with people who have previously interacted with their brand or product. Picture this – an individual looks for a particular belt online and looks at the item but doesn’t go through with the purchase.

With PPC remarketing, a special javascript tag or pixel is placed as a cookie on the user’s browser. This cookie informs the remarketing platform (in this case, your business) which targeted ads it needs to run for that specific user, based on past interactions and activities!

Remarketing allows you to engage specific shoppers again and ensures that the ads they see are personalized based on their interests. Eventually, such an approach has a better prospect for conversion than simply displaying random ads to random people.

List products directly on social media storefronts

No matter how successful your ecommerce platform is, it will still receive significantly less traffic than most social media portals. Today, almost each one of these social media sites allows businesses to directly list their products on the platforms by themselves. 

It makes shopping more convenient, as your customers don’t need to step away from their social media browsing to do it. Make sure you keep creating fresh content and tag new product fresh product listings both on the Facebook Marketplace and the Instagram Store.

Get the biggest names in the fashion industry to your side

Can you believe that the global fashion influencing segment may be valued at more than $1.5 billion? That can only mean one thing – influencer marketing isn’t a fad, and it isn’t going to die down in a couple of years. So, it’s time you devise a plan to leverage it.

Firstly, identify the fashion influencers that your target audience likely follows. Then, decide whether you want to take advantage of influencers with a niche but vocal following or a celebrity with millions of followers. 

Remember that engagement rate is the most important metric, not the follower count per se. Engagement rate determines how well your collaboration with that person is received. It also decides your brand’s conversion rate directly from influencer marketing.

Fashion-related hashtags extend your reach fast

While you want to gain as many followers as possible across your brand’s social media accounts, that can take a bit of time. But, there’s a way to display your content to social media users that don’t follow your account, and that is through the strategic use of hashtags. 

Individuals interested in fashion may not follow your account but will follow certain hashtags. By including these hashtags in your posts, businesses can sneak into the feed of accounts that don’t necessarily follow them.

How many hashtags you use per post will vary based on the platform. For example, Instagram claims that brands should use up to five hashtags to ensure maximum reach. Also, keep in mind that your posts need to be eye-grabbing enough to engage the maximum number of people that stumble across them so they check out your main account.

As you can see, staying on top of your marketing strategy is easier said than done, especially if you run a fashion ecommerce outlet. In this industry, things can change overnight, and you may need to adapt your plans accordingly. 

From promoting sustainable, eco-friendly products to running a full-blown PPC campaign, the choices you make in your marketing will directly reflect on your ROAs and determine whether it’s a profitable fashion brand.

Upthrust’s skilled digital marketing services are based on real-world metrics. Their data-driven approach to building your brand’s overall image produces the exact results you desire. Book an appointment or a consultation call with Upthrust to leverage your business’s marketing and take it to the top!

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