Agile and Adaptable: Creating a Competitive Fashion Ecommerce Site

By 2023, the fashion ecommerce industry is projected to grow to a staggering $146 billion—a 30 percent increase from 2018. 

This upward sales growth is accompanied by a change in consumer preferences. Up and coming, social media-savvy “challenger brands” now go toe-to-toe with established legacy brands and saturate the market, turning online fashion into a highly competitive race to capture the attention of shoppers. To keep their edge, fashion retailers can’t afford to miss out on opportunities to get in front of consumers and capitalize on emerging trends. 

The fashion market online moves fast, and so should you. The modern fashion shopper is searching for the latest trends, quality products, and endorsements from celebrities and influencers. The ability to react quickly to emerging trends and seize new opportunities is crucial to making it in this industry. In this article, we discuss how you can be agile with your ecommerce site and keep your competitive edge in the fashion and apparel market. 

Adapt to Consumer Preferences

What Shoppers Want: 

Surveys show that 33 percent of shoppers buy clothing online because they feel like they have more choice on websites than they do in brick-and-mortar stores. In the fashion and apparel space, customer trends and preferences come and go very quickly. As omnichannel browsers who research products across many channels and outlets, fashion shoppers expect relevant selections to be part of their online experience. 

To respond to this demand for variety, fashion merchants need to keep a pulse on seasonal changes and current trends. Using consumer-driven data to identify trends and pivoting your site to respond to them will allow your team to capitalize on these opportunities. 

The Agility Advantage: 

Businesses need to react quickly when an interest becomes popular among shoppers. The ability to quickly refresh your online catalog, offer new product variations, and implement attractive tools like product visualizers ensures your products meet consumer demands when they are at their peak. 

This agility not only generates sales for your business, but also establishes your brand as an on-trend leader who can launch new promotions and create website pages that are relevant to shoppers. 

See how Miva helped specialty gift retailer The Paper Store increase revenue by 37%.

Capitalize on Social Media Trends 

What Shoppers Want: 

The fashion market is also unique in that it is heavily driven by trends hyped on social media. Many buyers are inspired to purchase after seeing an influencer promotion. Looking to capitalize on this phenomenon, 57 percent of online apparel companies have teamed up with influencers as part of their strategic marketing mix.  

The Agility Advantage: 

When a style influencer creates buzz around a trend, fashion retailers need the ability to change their site quickly to showcase that trend. Attract social media shoppers to your website and give them a great experience with landing pages dedicated to trends mentioned by influencers, social media-exclusive coupons, and personalized product recommendations.  

Build Trust and Eliminate Purchase Friction

What Shoppers Want: 

While fashion is one of the biggest markets in ecommerce, shoppers also express frustration with buying clothes online, including uncertainties about the product quality, fit, and appearance. Shoppers value the ability to see products up close—something that is usually associated with an in-store shopping experience. 

The Agility Advantage: 

To keep shoppers around, your site needs to be up to the task of satisfying their needs and concerns. Features like detailed categories and faceted filters help shoppers find the exact products they want, while “buy online, pick up in store“, virtual clothing try-on, and product reviews encourage purchase completions and generate higher conversion rates. 

As customers browse different brands for the latest trends, advanced, flexible features on your site help to establish trust and assurance in your brand and sets you apart.   

Website Agility in the Online Fashion Industry 

To keep up with your competitors in the fashion ecommerce space, you must be able to adapt to the industry’s ebb and flow and give customers what they are looking for.

Being an agile fashion seller means having an idea one day and being able to push it live on your site the next. Failure to do so will cause you to lose valuable market size. Those who are hyper-flexible with priorities, nimble with marketing ideas, and adaptable with their online experience will find the most success in this fast-moving industry. 

Looking for a platform that has the ecommerce tools you need to keep up with modern fashion consumers? Learn more about what Miva offers to help online sellers stay agile.