USA- DIGITAL MARKETING STRATEGIES for FASHION Italian Trade Agency - New York
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USA- DIGITAL MARKETING STRATEGIES FOR FASHION Italian Trade Agency - New York JUNE 2020 1 Contents An Overview 4 The 2022 Opportunity 11 Engagement Opportunities 15 Consumer Insights to Drive Approach 18 Digital Marketing and Communications 22 Channels Innovative Retail Trends to Watch 25 Options for Remote Work and Collaboration 32 Fashion Sources in NYC 37 Research Matrix 38 2 A Guide to Help Businesses Adapt their Digital Marketing Strategies and Prepare for What’s Next “Digital Marketing” is an umbrella term for all of your online marketing strategies, and it’s almost impossible to separate digital from the traditional marketing as a whole and the marketing landscape continues to evolve faster than we could have ever imagined” - SmartInsights, 2020. The coronavirus pandemic is shaping up It’s often the case in human affairs that to be the biggest global driver of change the greatest lessons emerge from the seen in most people’s lifetime and it is most devastating times of crises. already forging new consumer attitudes. Companies that were digitally and analytically mature outperformed competitors that hadn’t built robust McKinsey & Company, 2020 digital and analytics capabilities. Entire industries are having to adapt to a new reality that demands flexibility, resilience and, above all, creativity. 3 According to TotalRetail, by 2021 early adopter brands which redesign their An Overview websites to support visual and voice search will increase digital commerce revenue by 30 percent. Retailers that take action and invest in visual search, like the 15 percent of Data will change the respondents who said they will be way companies investing in the channel in the next 12 months, stand the best chance to capture merchandise a piece of a market that’s forecast to grow to nearly $26 billion in 2020. Considering that e-commerce sales in Retailers that rely on unsophisticated the U.S. are forecast to grow to nearly spreadsheets or rudimentary $420 billion in 2020, retailers are analytics tools and input their data trying to increase their share of that manually were more likely than total. average to struggle with inventory optimization. TotalRetail, 2020 The data serves as a road map for retailers and brands, identifying the technologies their competitors are currently investing in, as well as what they’re targeting for future spend. Digital metrics are ideal for tracking data from multiple channels such as your company website, Facebook, Twitter, mobile website, mobile ads, YouTube channel, Tumblr, email marketing. To achieve success in digital marketing takes time; as British digital marketing company Evergreen’s blog points out, digital marketing is a marathon, not a sprint. But when an Internet marketing campaign is properly planned, executed and tracked, business success is much easier for you to achieve. “Marketing leaders look to data and analytics teams to offer insight into current trends and uncertainties to avoid errors in decision making and help chart a clear way forward.” Lizzy Foo Kune, Senior Director Analyst, Gartner for Marketers. 4 US Current Market • Spend in fashion and luxury has • While sales had a slight uptick in declined 45% to 60%, with March — in places like California, consumers shifting away from Florida and Texas — they were accessories and formalwear to mostly flat or down in the rest of more need-based and daily used the U.S. and Europe during the categories such as beauty, month children’s clothing, and home wear. • A significant portion of consumers (11% to 34% depending on • Post-lockdown, expect beauty, country) say they will be reluctant casual and footwear categories to to shop at physical stores, even be less impacted than handbags, post lockdown, on account of accessories, formalwear, jewelry avoiding virus exposure but also in and luxury apparel. an effort to spend less. Boston Consulting Group, 2020 • To bring consumers back to stores, brands need to enforce strict safety and hygiene protocols. • Expectations are growing with respect to promotions post-lockdown; brands need to plan promotions carefully and be mindful to not engage in a race to the bottom. • Designers and retailers of all types — online, off-line and experiential — bounce back with even more creativity and agility than before. McKinsey & Company, 2020 As companies assess what life after COVID-19 will look like, they need to distinguish new consumer habits that have staying power from short-term expedients (BCG, 2020). 5 Boston Consulting Group surveyed 6000 consumers across countries (US, China, Germany, UK, Italy) to understand their shopping patterns and perspectives. Highlights of what they are seeing: Online purchasing in the fashion goods area has been up for categories such as beauty and shoes while apparel has remained flat. Source: BCG Consumer Sentiment Snapshot, 2020 6 Steps to shift digital marketing strategies to meet customer needs According to McKinsey & Company the best brands are maintaining customer relationships even while stores are closed. Their report shows that consumers are spending more time online during the crisis. Source: McKinsey & Company report, 2020 7 In April, traffic to the top 100 fashion brands’ owned websites rose by 45 percent in Europe. The survey at TotalRetail found that consumers were more likely to spend money if they knew it was going to support a good cause (TotalRetail, 2020). Where Retailers Are Currently Allocating Technology Budgets Source: Retail Technology report, 2020 8 According to the report Retailers are looking to optimize the use of inventory—they are going beyond what and how much, to also consider where to place the inventory and where to fulfill online orders from. In addition to marketing, retailers are looking to bolster their supply chain performance with the help of increased technology investments. furthermore, optimizing speed of delivery to better compete in a world of one- and same -day delivery is top of mind for many retailers. Retailers Not Yet Opening Their Wallets for Emerging Technology Source: Retail Technology report, 2020 9 Four tools to identify real-time insights and trends that are relevant to your business These agencies use different data sets to evaluate the potential success of new merchandise. They also help leverage data to identify successful pricing models and timelines to help brands make decisions about when to adjust pricing to meet demand. Contentsquare To provide the variation in demand caused by the understanding during this dynamic time, worldwide pandemic. They are live they are closely monitoring the impact of tracking the most heavily affected coronavirus on digital consumer countries for key metrics like newness, behavior. discounting and the top-performing categories. Trendalitics They explore the different ways retail companies are responding, what the quarantined consumer is searching for, and key category shifts you should be aware of. This dashboard is based on latest shifts in search & e- commerce data. Stylesage Covid-19 Dashboard This interactive dashboard gives you insight into the trends shaping retailers’ responses to COVID-19. You can understand how much is on discount, which product categories are selling out, and even what people are searching by category, country, and timeframe The Edited Covid-19 Dashboard Retail Dashboard tracks key metrics that highlight the retail industry’s response to 10 The 2022 opportunity Put Digital at the Center of Your Operating Model Establish or improve your digital-marketing “war room” and increase its visibility in the organization—for instance, by establishing a C-level digital performance dashboard that provides a cross channel view of e-commerce, customer relationship management, and social media, thus enabling rapid identification of opportunities for efficiency optimization or growth. eMarketer, 2020 • Increase Online Sales • Invest in marketing/advertising • Reconstruct website • Boost engagement • Start by allocating a greater share of investment to the online channel. • Explore new ways of partnering with established e-retailers. • Step up your personalization efforts in digital marketing. • In anticipation of a shift toward online sales, allocate more of your marketing budget to digital channels. 11 WAYS to ENGAGE On-demand evolution Retailers that provide a platform for group ordering and delivery will resonate, as will brands that focus on hyper-local last-mile deliveries. Unified communications As unified commerce comes to the forefront, double down on psychographic segmentation to ensure that your communications are streamlined and consistent. AR/VR transitions to convenience More consumers are using AR to test products at their own leisure. When it comes to these technologies, think less marketing hype and more in-home try- on. Simplicity matters Consumers are increasingly The power (and savings) overwhelmed. Create an in-store and of the pack online environment that declutters the There is a renewed interest in group shopping experience, and sales will deals and bundle buys, both online and follow. in-store. Focus on regional engagement and discount pricing to determine the Living in livestream best ROI. Conversational commerce is here to stay. Innovative companies are investing in creating branded livestream shopping McKinsey & Company, 2020. events to drive sales and social ROI. 12 EXPERIENTIAL SHOPPING ONLINE: As peer-to-peer commerce continues to gain market share from direct-to-consumer commerce, companies can align with this cohort by actioning their