The battle for the online customer was evident at London Fashion Week, as leading fashion retailers moved well past physical audiences to showcase their latest collections in a bid to grow their online footprint. New research indicates that ASOS and Debenhams are leading the way in terms of visibility on both paid and organic search results.
The latest research from leading independent digital marketing agency, Greenlight, shows online searches for fashion-related products in January were up on October 2012 levels and retail research agency Conlumino, which values the current UK fashion market at £44 billion, expects the online channel to account for close to 11% of sales by the end of the year compared to 8% at present.
Beyond the bright neons, lively animal prints and stunning designs, the battle for the online customer was evident at London Fashion Week. Leading fashion retailers moved well past physical audiences to showcase their latest collections in a bid to grow their online footprint.
Topshop connected with consumers via a tie-up with Google to show its assemblage and backstage chatter, online. Burberry used digital and mobile technology to live-stream its collection to its online channels like Twitter and Facebook and enabled viewers to make instant purchases on its site.
Little wonder. According to retail research agency Conlumino, the UK’s £44 billion fashion market will grow a further 3.4% this year. It predicts 11% of sales will be derived from the online channel by the end of 2013 compared to 8% at present.
Search-wise, the latest data from leading independent digital marketing agency, Greenlight, shows the number of consumer online queries for fashion-related products on Google UK grew from 2.5 million in October 2012 to 2.8 million last month.
Searches pertaining to womenswear were most popular, and accounted for 46% of queries compared to 19% for accessories and 8% for menswear.
The search terms ‘Wedding dresses’ and ‘dresses’ proved to be the most popular. Cumulatively they accounted for 11% of all searches. ‘Shoes’ and ‘Prom dresses’ followed.
The agency’s research, ‘Fashion Retail Sector Report – Issue 16’, also ranked the most visible fashion sites for menswear, womenswear and accessories.
Greenlight’s report shows ASOS was the most visible website in the organic listings. The online fashion store was visible to over 1.7 million searches and achieved a 61% share of voice.
Debenhams was the most visible advertiser in the Paid Media space, attaining a 58% share of voice.
Marks & Spencer was the most visible brand in Greenlight’s Social Media analysis.
Source: Greenlight
