Sarah Elizabeth
When it comes to luxury fashion, customers can be particular. And high-fashion buyers? Even more so. Loyal to their trusted brands, fashion buyers know what they like and are hard to impress. This makes high fashion an extremely competitive space, with luxury brands needing to seek out – and grab – every possible advantage.
Many brands find that launching their brand online is a smart move; After all, online sales of luxury brands are expected to reach $70 billion globally by 2025.
By following these five tips, e-commerce merchants in the luxury clothing industry can increase the number of high-fashion buyers visiting and buying from the merchant’s e-commerce website.
1. Deliver Targeted Messaging
High value buyers expect personalized service … and personalized messaging. So, high-fashion retailers need to monitor what brands, products and content buyers — and prospective buyers — are interested in and then deliver on that interest. To accomplish this, some merchants might send emails with relevant brand advertising dynamically inserted, while others might send browse and cart abandonment emails. Other luxury merchants go for hyper-targeted messaging, never sending the same email to any two buyers. Instead, even the layout changes based on the buyer’s tastes and what they’ve expressed an interest in.
2. Leverage Data to Customize the Shopping Experience
One way to further personalize the shopping experience for high-fashion buyers is by using artificial intelligence. Merchants can assign weights to site visitor actions — like looking at, clicking on or buying an item — to get a detailed picture of what buyers like (and don’t). Even more importantly, they can then use these behaviors to tailor promotions and incentives to each stage of the customer journey, meeting buyers precisely where they are with precisely the right offer at the right time ...
3. Use Chatbots to Provide an Interactive Experience
Artificial intelligence-driven chatbots are becoming increasingly common in e-commerce, and for good reason. These automated, scalable solutions can give fashion buyers a richer, more interactive buying experience by answering product questions, checking on available stock and helping buyers choose from among similar options on the spot.
4. Transform Virtual Shopping with Augmented Reality
Shopping online — especially for clothing and accessories — historically hasn’t been easy. When looking at a screen, fashion buyers can’t feel the quality of materials, see the drape of the fabric or determine how a piece might fit in real life. But augmented reality (AR) technology can help bridge this gap and simulate the in-store experience by overlaying digital images of products onto customers’ uploaded photos or custom-created avatars. These AR browsing experiences let buyers get a much better feel for how the items will look on their own customers, helping reduce the odds of a bad buy that winds up in clearance.
5. Encourage User-Generated Content
As social media platforms like Instagram and Pinterest become more popular, many e-commerce merchants have been using these sites and their user-generated content to build their brands. Luxury merchants have historically shied away from social media, fearing a loss of exclusivity, but many brands now understand that user-generated content can be a legitimate way to increase brand attractiveness and desirability. Customers get to see how products look in real life and can see how happy other like-minded shoppers are with their purchases. The word-of-mouth buzz created by positive social media – especially when generated by prestigious and influential customers – will pique the attention of any savvy buyer.
In the competitive high-fashion vertical, attracting fashion buyers can be challenging. Fortunately, there are solid tactics you can use to attract and engage these buyers, increasing the odds of landing the deal. As you expand into new markets and target new customers however, you may find you also need to protect yourself against an increased fraud risk. Contact us today to learn how implementing ClearSale’s Total Guaranteed Protection Solution can help high-fashion retailers protect their profits and their valuable customer relationships.
