During the internet boom/bust years companies such as boo.com were criticised for trying to sell apparel online. Common opinion was that the internet wasn’t mature enough and business models (or execution thereof) were not robust enough to cope with the notion of selling clothes online. Broadband didn’t even exist in any meaningful way and most people were struggling to identify how best to harness the opportunities presented by the web. Here we are nearly 10 years later and according to a report from IMRG the UK e-retail market was worth nearly £50billion in 2009 with ecommerce showing 15% year on year growth (for clothing that jumps to 18%) and the UK in particular now has a seemingly insatiable appetite for buying clothes online. The apparel industry has seen a lot of success online where you’d imagine that most people would be more inclined to try before they buy.
So what is it that is driving this trend and why has it attracted the likes of companies like Google and countless others? Some of the answer lies in technology adoption, infrastructure improvements, generational shopping habits and accessibility but all of that is for another blog. The main answer lies in usability. It is no coincidence that the most successful and fashionable brands online have taken the extra care to focus on one of the central planks of shopping for apparel online – the user experience. It is also no coincidence that a recent Forrester report cited navigation and site search as the top two initiatives towards improving online performance. More than any other sector buying online in the apparel industry relies heavily on the emotional part of the user experience and the behaviour thereof. If you want to buy a 32″ tv and have a poor online shopping experience you can easily find an alternative website and buy the same brand (or an alternative) knowing that fundamentally you’re going to end up with a 32″ tv that looks and operates as you’d expect. That sort of scenario doesn’t lend itself so readily to fashion where looking and feeling unique is part of the aspirational sell. Therefore the speed and ease by which products are navigated, presented and then experienced is critical to the success of a fashion brand online. Other factors like logistics and customer service are also crucial but it’s the area of findability that continues to drive these important business processes within the fashion sector.
It still perplexes me why a business will spend a fortune acquiring and engaging new customers only to provide them with a poor site experience. The two standout areas to review in order to correct this are relevance and usability (with imagery not far behind). Whilst this may seem obvious there are many brands (large and small) who struggle with this. For example why show shoe sizes as a refinement when someone has done a search for shirts? When you realise this problem why then spend a small fortune and wait weeks/months to fix it when it can conceivably be addressed within minutes or prevented from happening in the first place? Speaking of refinements these are a vital part of the search results page as are other features such as zoom options, video, alternative viewing angles, reviews, blogs etc. The experience can be further enhanced with best of breed solutions like recommendation engines, personalised email, outfit makers, multivariate testing, surveys/polls and social media. Add to this the commercial opportunity that a mobile strategy can bring (without costing a fortune) to your fashion brand and it becomes all the more apparent that the time to look sharp and be smart with your site search experience is now.
