Social Media is Revolutionizing Apparel Industry
Social
media is arguably the best thing to have happened to the apparel industry. The
network has armed the fashion industry with the ability to reach a large
audience with just a single post. Brands and clients now interact
genuinely via any of the existing platforms. Word of mouth, which drives the
apparel business, also spreads like wildfire through the ever-increasing user
base of these platforms. Social media is one major way the internet
revolution has had a great impact on the apparel industry.
But
what exactly are social media? They are a set of internet-based applications and
websites that allow communication between users. Apart from providing an
alternative, albeit free or relatively cheap, platform to reach customers and
potential ones, it is the fastest. The use of social media by luxury fashion
brands surged in 2009, apparently as they sought a cheaper way of recovery
following the global economic crisis of 2008. Social media
fosters customer interactions, which build the brands increasing awareness, involvement
and engagement. The end result is often seen in improved purchases.
Leading e-tailing company in Africa, Jumia, recorded
impressive growth in Ivory Coast, West Africa last year. The company sold an
average of eight fashion products per hour, mostly apparel. Sheryn Toifl, PR &
Communications Manager for Jumia, Ivory Coast could not give Fibre2Fashion
exact figures of how social media influenced sales in 2014, but noted that the
impact was evident. "What I can tell
you is that our social media campaigns are generating and boosting a lot of our
sales," she said. "We used to have no offline media at all. We only
started recently in November. So our sales were only living from online
campaigns during a year and a few months."
In
2012, renowned apparel retailer, Topshop partnered with Facebook to achieve the
largest online audience of a live-stream London fashion show. Images and
content from the runway served over 200 million audiences. The impact was
direct, as the retailer's customers were able to immediately
purchase what they see on the runway. The first dress on the catwalk
sold out before the end of the show. Such is the power of social media,
and the big influence it now wields in the apparel industry.
"People
have been trying to figure out for some time, how do you make these Facebook 'likes'
into something relevant, how does the social aspect mix with your brand, and I
think we are going to be the first brand to unlock that," Justin Cooke,
Topshop's chief marketing officer at the time, who has left the company to
form his own marketing agency, told Reuters.
The
global apparel market is estimated to be worth over US$ 1.7 trillion. Most of
the consumers responsible for this huge sum are active on social networks.
Apparel brands have therefore created a huge presence across platforms like
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest etc, watching out for the next big
platform, as the jostle to reach as many potential consumers as possible
heats up in the ever-competitive apparel market. The massive consumer
response to social media campaigns has made it very essential for any apparel
outfit that wants impressive growth to get on the top platforms. More so, 74
per cent of consumers rely on social media to guide purchases, according to
American IT research and advisory firm, Gartner.
A
study by eBay Deals examined data from five social networks
during the New York Fashion Week (NYFW) in 2013, and discovered
that more people are using social media for wardrobe advice, inspiration
and the latest trends. One of the world's top social media campaigns in
the apparel industry in 2013 was created by a South African clothier, Urban
Hilton Weiner. The retailer offered people who visited its store US$ 10 coupons
each if they tweeted a selfie of themselves trying on clothes using
#urbanselfie. People trooped to the retailer's stores and its goods got
increased visibility across social media platforms at almost no cost.
Several
successful media campaigns have been done across the apparel market globally,
with all tiers of players in the industry making use of this veritable tool to
improve visibility and push sales. Louis Vuitton broadcast its spring 2010
ready-to-wear show live exclusively to its Facebook followers. This
incentive helped the luxury brand to win new fans and was also a
perfect reward for the loyalty of existing fans. Such initiative has proven
very effective, with the luxury brand having grown its Facebook likes to more
than 18 million, despite not being an early adopter of social media.
A
local mother in North Carolina, USA, Brandi Temple started selling apparel
on Facebook in 2010. As strange as the idea was, it worked. Today, her clothing
company called Lolly Wolly Doodle
boasts of annual revenues in excess of US$ 12 million. Will Young, the director
of e-tailer Zappos Labs once said he had an e-commerce crush on LWD. According
to him, the children's apparel brand "has been able to do something that
no big brand has been able to do, which is to convince people to actually buy
on Facebook." The brand currently has over one million Facebook likes.
Twitter
was also a retail hotspot for Los Angeles-based clothing manufacturer,
distributor, and retailer American Apparel. The brand's Director of Marketing,
Ryan Holiday last year discussed the importance of the microblogging site
to the company. He said Twitter has proven to be an immediate way to
communicate with fans and reward them. Holiday further told Twitter Ads that
American Apparel once made as much as US$ 50,000 in just one flash sale. Social media is an instant virtual shop. It also
provides a platform for the fashion communities to keep in touch online.
American
Department store chain Kohl's last year leveraged on mobile video to promote
its new junior fashion line called S.o. R.a.d. The company partnered with media
company AwesomenessTV to launch a four season YouTube series called Life's S.o.
R.a.d. The film features top teen influencers. It is a great way of using
social media to get the brand's message across to the target audience. The
audience is being entertained while the brand showcases the details of the line
and directs its young audience in-store and online to further check out the
clothing items.
Executive
Vice President of marketing at Kohl's, Will Setliff, described the new marketing
approach as an effective way of reaching the younger millennial. The series,
which debuted on September 19, socially engages viewers using hashtag #SoRad on
social networks. This strategy is expected to spread the word of the line's new
product. With increased visibility and other strategies already in place, Kohl's
seem certain to record impressive gains and make up for drop in revenue in the third
quarter of 2014 that ended on 1st November.
"I think anyone who doesn't tap into the power of social media is just missing a
massive trick, it's not just a marketing
tool " Lucy Yeomans, editor-in-chief of e-tailer,
Net-A-Porter.com told Reuters.
As
easy as building brand reputation on social media seems, it could also take
just 140 characters on twitter to destroy a brand's image. Customers often
use social media to express loyalty to their favourite brands and
distaste for their least-liked ones. Brand experiences are shared on
social networks, with 41 per cent of those who do so admitting they hope to
receive discounts in exchange, according to
Nielsen's 2012 State of the Media: Social Media Report. The report also
noted that 25 per cent of social media users use social networks to punish
companies for poor services. Social media forces service excellence and
also helps to drive innovation.
Social
media has changed the way brands in the apparel industry relate to their
customers. Communication between the two groups, which had prior to the
advent of social media been difficult, has become easier. Since the
comments (negative or positive) from some customers can have massive influence
on other customers' perception of a brand, engaging customers and painstakingly
responding to every query is fast becoming standard practice.
Prompt
response on social media to resolve a customer's problem
can foster loyalty and improve a brand's reputation. Brands
in the apparel industry are already doing this. "If no one is listening or
acknowledging customer posts, customers assume you don't care"
said Adi Bittan, co-founder and CEO of ownerListens.com, a firm that
manages customer-brand relationships.
About
the author
Niyi Aderibigbe sees
the business in everything and writes about them; he writes for Ventures
Africa.
