What is fashion ecommerce and what type of scene is it? When we use the term “the fashion industry”, the mind tends to arrive at a certain Devil Wears Prada type of idea, of a massive industry, world famous brands, and the type of marketing that you would expect to see in Times Square. But this isn’t really what we mean about the connected but distinct fashion ecommerce industry.
Indeed, fashion ecommerceis incredibly autonomous. Just like all who have benefited from the rise in online retail and start-up culture, a successful ecommerce fashion line starts small, very often in the form of one person with an internet connection. As it happens, the internet has proved an excellent place for finding the right type of customers for small fashion ecommerce brands.
When stamped with a brand, these clothing lines typically have a sense of authenticity and originality to them which encourage repeat purchases. Think about it,everybody is wearing Nike, but what about that new clothing line out of Berlin that you just discovered online?
For this reason, the market for fashion ecommerce at this level is usually – though certainly not always – pretty youthful. This makes sense, as fashion ecommerce has been a revolution in the fashion industry dating from the last couple of decades. This interest in authenticity and originality is also a feature of this relatively new fashion industry.
Big Business?
However much an ecommerce fashion site is something anybody at all can start up, it would be wrong to think that this doesn’t have the potential to grow into something much bigger. And this does not necessarily mean becoming like the famous fashion brands of old.
To look at it another way, fashion ecommerce has created a whole parallel fashion industry, one which has the appeal of big brands (though for different reasons) without the price tags that are normally associated with them.
Plurawl are a company designing LatinX Spanish T-shirts. This is a good example of how a fashion ecommerce brand can build brand identification with a relatively small market – but one which has a strong niche. Understanding this is absolutely key to creating any kind of workable strategy in fashion ecommerce.
The Industry Now
Here are afew other facts about fashion ecommerce industry:
Mobile Traffic is Strong
This is probably unsurprising given the aforementioned “youthful” markets which are typically targeted by fashion ecommerce companies. The majority of traffic to fashion ecommerce is now from mobile devices. This is key information if you are setting up a fashion brand.
Novelty is Appealing
Sometimes you can print an elegant logo on the breast of shirt and have done with the matter. Other times, you can cover the whole front side of a T-shirt in massive “Frankie Goes to Hollywood” style lettering. This latter approach is actually particularly appealing for customers of fashion ecommerce. In this way, the industry can differ quite a lot from high fashion.
Seasonal Purchases Are Strong
People will buy all sorts of fashion items as gifts, making seasonality a significant factor in all forms of the fashion industry. However, with ecommerce fashion,seasonality is even more pronounced. This is because less luxury (and often novelty) clothing items are often bought extensively at holiday times. They are just one of the obvious gift ideas – and they can be acquiredwith a few clicks after an indepth browse.
If there is one thing we can say about ecommerce fashion, it is that its rise has not finished yet. It’s easy to get started in it – though difficult to succeed, as with all business – and millions are having a go.