The Ultimate Guide to Ecommerce in Fashion and Apparel Industry

Digitisation in Apparel and Fashion – How is the Sector Changing?

Apparel is one of the most dynamic and demanding industries, with rapid changes in the market. There is no longer any such foundation as just purchasing trendy items; technological advancements have enhanced the shopping experience. Users increasingly want to engage with businesses and connect with them while shopping. Digitalisation is currently prevailing in every area and has a huge impact on the general public. This approach requires not just data management and smart business administration but also cost reduction and increased efficiency.

Technology has extended to the point where there is an invention every day disseminated across all online platforms with a single click. From the production process through post-production, the fashion industry is adopting technology. There are no longer any conventional customer categories or geographic constraints; anybody from anywhere globally can freely shop.

What Are Fashion Shoppers Looking For?

There is no denying that the online shopping market is booming, and shoppers are more active than ever. Gone are the days when shoppers got satisfied with the bare minimum. The time has changed, and now shoppers tend to gravitate towards technologically advanced brands that uniquely present their brand. Below we are highlighting what fashion and apparel shoppers look for while shopping items.

1. Personalisation

Shoppers are interested in brands that offer a personalised experience. Many people may compare prices to find the greatest bargain. If, on the other hand, there is an offer customised particularly to the user, such as a special discount on a birthday or anniversary, the client is more inclined to shop at that shop. Personalised items have a similar impact in that they attract clients away from competitors by delivering something different.

2. Effective Filter System

Many shoppers prefer an effective filter system because, honestly, nobody wants to waste time finding the right apparel. If we got a site where we consume less time but end up getting the outfit of our choice, we would prefer that option. The online store offers an easy and efficient filter mechanism. Customers may quickly reach different parts of an online clothing shop using the finest filtering. This helps buyers locate comparable goods to the ones they were looking for while still having fun shopping.

3. Reviews

One should not judge the power of reviews and ratings. Many online shoppers, before making a purchase, explore internet or brand social media accounts for reviews and rating. According to the study by PowerReviews , 95 percent of customers read reviews before buying a product and 86 per cent believe them to be very significant. Customers expect to receive an unbiased opinion on the goods they were thinking about buying. When purchasing from a reputable e-retailer with a generous return policy, reviews were regarded as less significant.

Tips on SEO for Fashion and Apparel Industry

SEO is pretty much important no matter what you are selling. You see, the whole point of stepping into the fashion and apparel industry is you want people to know about your brand. More and more people come to your site and place orders that won’t be possible if you haven’t put much effort into SEO. This is a reason why many rookies invest a chunk of pounds in SEO services. We must say every buck is worth it because you are getting the result. If you are still missing out on it, we will cast light on the SEO for fashion industries tips that can help you out.

1. Build a User-friendly Website

When it comes to fashion and apparel ecommerce SEO, your site is among the most crucial factors to consider. People will not stick to your website and shop the fashion items if it is not customer-friendly. A user-friendly site keeps customers interested by making it simple to navigate the site and locate what they’re looking for. When consumers spend a long time on the site, Google receives a message that the site is effective and important to visitors. As a consequence, the site will rank higher in search results, resulting in increased visitors. To make a user-friendly site, you need to make sure of the listed points.

• The first piece to make sure of is the website has zero buffering, which means it loads quickly. To ensure that websites load faster, visit Google PageSpeed Insights to see how fast it presently loads and implement their recommendations.
• The customers will invest a long time on the site and be more willing to buy if you make your product pages simple to explore and purchase.
• The call-to-action buttons are an important element of the user interface. It’s critical that people can quickly locate CTA buttons to direct them to another action, whether they’d like to know more about the particular product or place the goods in their basket.
• The user experience benefits from providing a structured font since it allows your people to understand more about the product, which leads to sales.
• Keep an eye on the checkout process to make certain it’s a pleasant one that motivates prospects to convert.

2. Optimise for Relevant Keywords

Keywords are crucial in deciding where the items show up in searches. You’ll be missing out on important traffic if you don’t incorporate the correct keywords into your website. You’ll have to do keyword research to discover suitable keywords for your product listings. You may use keyword research to identify relevant phrases for your product pages. Many tools are available in the market, such as Keywords Everywhere, Keyword Generator, and others that can assist you in locating these terms. Consider the long keywords when conducting keyword research. These are the keywords that have 3 to 4 words. Because these terms are more precise, they draw leads seeking exactly what they’re looking for. Include relevant keywords into the meta description and title tag once you’ve found them. Since this is the first picture your visitors see when they get to the website, it’s critical to incorporate your keywords into these aspects to demonstrate that your site is interesting.

3. Build Easy-to-use Navigation on Site

The next thing to consider is that visitors don’t get confused while browsing the websites. Navigation is an important part of the website. Consumers would like to be able to explore the items when they visit your website. You potentially lose site visitors to a rival if your layout is hard to use or unorganised. Focus on developing simple interfaces to get the most out of SEO. Usually, placing the navigation at the top of the page is the best approach because people can quickly discover it.

4. Start a Fashion Blog

Blogging is one of the most important SEO elements for fashion and clothing ecommerce. It may assist you to increase the number of useful visitors to your website and improve your SEO rating in search engine results. Customers are looking for knowledge about the newest clothing styles and recommendations. By giving your viewers such ability, you may keep them on the website longer and encourage them to visit your site. It always covers the ideas people are looking for. Keep your content valuable so that visitors come to your site often. If you blog frequently, you maintain your blog fresh, provide additional information for your audience to peruse and connect out again to leads looking for specific topics.

5. Mobile Friendly Website

Having a mobile-friendly site is the need of the hour. If you are missing on this point, you are certainly losing a whole load of traffic. According to the research, smartphones are the preferred choice of 76 percent of shoppers. Furthermore, Google began indexing websites based on how well they operate on mobile devices; having a mobile-friendly website is important to your SEO and appearing top of the search results. If the website isn’t smartphone friendly, you should start working on responsive design. It helps the site to adjust to whichever device a person is using.

Best Practices for Apparel Sellers

You need to understand that traditional marketing strategies won’t work in this modern world. If you are still investing in generic marketing strategies, then it is high time to change them. You require e-commerce marketing techniques specifically targeted to your demands and objectives as a fashion and apparel seller. Below we have highlighted the best practices that can help you out.

1. Curate Customer Photos

If you work in e-commerce, you’re probably aware of the value of product images. Captivating photography makes your items more understandable and attractive. If you work in the garment sector, photography is a distinct edge. Fashion stores frequently use models to demonstrate their items in practice. It’s no different for online merchants. Adding specific perspectives to a model would cover all elements of your goods. Displaying real people to visitors engage them in your product. It will improvise the buying decision. Additionally, client photographs create social proof, making the items more relevant and desired. This kind of approach is already adopted by Steve Madden, who uses the social media feed section at the bottom of their product pages. This helps their visitors to see how the item appears in actual situations and see how many other people like it.

2. Incentivise Shoppers with Free Shipping

Most consumers lose their shopping spree seeing the extra charges such as shipping and all. It is a well-tested fact that visitors buy lean towards businesses that offer free shipping. But sometimes, as a seller, it is difficult to provide free shipping without cutting your losses. Considering that, you can give limited-time free shipping to the visitor. It will reduce cart abandonment and will draw more sales. Another approach is to offer first-time free delivery. Everlane uses this technique to collect email addresses from its customers. They offer discounts, coupons, free delivery and much more to their first-time shoppers. All customers have to do is sign up onto the website.

3. Enhance Your Customer’s Average Order Value on Product Pages

We all know that the product pages are the essential elements of the site. We invest many hours optimising the site to convert visitors into customers. While gaining more consumers is one approach to boost income, there’s another way that we neglect. You can raise the average order value of your clients and generate more money from each sale by employing on-page strategies like upselling and cross-selling. Product suggestions are an excellent cross-selling technique that encourages customers to put extra items in their shopping cart. They also make it easier for users to browse your website. The other good approach is implementing the power of “looks”; it proposes goods and accessories that match the product. Misguided uses the same technique; when you visit the product page, you will notice the option shop this looks. Further, after clicking on it, you will redirect to the tab where the model is wearing accessories that goes with the product. This is a clever method to cross-sell and promote items without detracting from your customers’ buying experience.

4. Drive Urgency and Scarcity

This trick works in every sector. More than anything, humans hate the fear of missing out. Understanding that customers despise being deprived of their freedom, savvy clothing e-tailers frequently use urgency and shortage to boost sales. As consumers, we lean towards products more when we come to know they are in limited quantities. The freedom of losing enhances the buying mechanism, which results in more sales for apparel brands. Incorporate influence triggers to your product pages, such as category pages or search queries, to increase urgency and exclusivity. Many clothing brands use emoji and hashtags to entice users to product pages and assist them in making a rapid buying decision.

5. Offer Size Guides

Clothing and accessory shopping online is not always a breeze. When buying online, e-commerce customers suffer the disadvantage of not being able to try on products. This is why many shoppers end up purchasing the wrong items, which can be annoying. If you own a clothing business, providing size guidelines on your website is a great approach to assist your customers in making better purchasing decisions and minimising return rates. However, to smooth this process, many fashion and apparel; brand started using the size guide. But what they do is connect to size guidelines that open in a separate tab, which adds friction to the buyer’s trip. This approach distracts buyers, and they end up not buying. The best practice is to display pop-ups.

6. Optimise Sold-Out Product Pages

Optimise sold out pages is another good tactic to draw more sales. Buyers will be frustrated if items are sold out. Sold-out product pages are a treasure ready to be explored for you. You can improve the sold-out product pages and transform visitors’ dissatisfaction into a benefit with a few easy adjustments. One of the most efficient methods to use your sold-out pages is to gather warm leads with out-of-stock alerts. Customers that arrive on a sold-out page have previously expressed an interest in the item. And now, with the increased scarcity, the product is much more appealing to them. Now, what you can do now is redirect your anxious customer to similar products or collect the customer’s email addresses.

7. Encourage Referrals

Most times, we overlook the power of referrals. We all believe that successful purchase is the only thing we need as fashion and apparel store owners. But that’s not true. Customer satisfaction and loyalty in the sales funnel are efficient approaches to boost sales. You’ll not only ensure repurchase with a solid customer retention plan, but you’ll also transform your loyal consumers into brand champions. By offering referral to your loyal customers, you will end up getting more sales. The best marketing strategy is word of mouth; it works like fire. When somebody known to us suggests something, we will believe it. Many fashion brands are using this technique to boost sales.

8. Social Media Presence

It’s critical to have a strong social media presence. Each platform has its advantages and disadvantages, and certain platforms may be better suited to certain brands than others. Instagram is the most influential channel for fashion retail. Other platforms are Pinterest, Facebook, etc. These platforms allow fashion merchants to promote their items based on their core purposes, such as design and look. Collaborations with influencers are the most frequent promotional strategy on Instagram. Influencers can be somewhat celebrities of these platforms with a high number of followers. The goal is to connect the business and potential customers by having someone who is easily relatable to sell the brand’s products.

Conclusion

There you have it! Here we have mentioned all about ecommerce significance in the fashion and apparel industry. The fashion and apparel sector is the one that never goes down. No matter what the condition is, people don’t stop purchasing clothes. We live in a world where new trends hit the market every day. So to survive this cutthroat competition, you need to adopt all the ecommerce strategies that help you stand out. And we understand if you are new to the fashion business. Considering that, you should hire an SEO agency that can help you create a website that sells.

RVS Media can be your one-stop destination for all kinds of SEO needs. So what are you waiting for? Try us out and skyrocket your sales.