Five Effective Strategies To Help Your Fashion Brand Succeed

With businesses competing on a global scale now, the world is as competitive as ever. With rising globalization, changes in consumer spending patterns, and digital innovation, the fashion industry is continually undergoing significant changes.

The eCommerce fashion industry, in particular, is expected to grow $713 billion by 2022 due to multiple reasons, such as a rise in disposable income amongst the global middle class, innovating technologies, and expanding markets globally.

Given the volatility of the global fashion industry, boutique businesses need to invest their best efforts into ensuring they remain relevant. There are multiple strategies brands can employ to ensure they break through the clutter and set themselves apart from their competition. 

Here are five strategies that can help your fashion brand succeed:

Use Inventory Management Software

ERP inventory management software has proven to be a necessity for brands today.  By definition, it helps businesses track, manage, and maintain their inventories at optimum levels. For a boutique brand like yours, software such as this can help keep track of your various offerings, such as clothes, shoes, and accessories, as they move from one place to another.

Once upon a time, these steps were carried out manually on paper. That is not the case anymore, as every part of this process is now automated, leading to greater productivity and efficiency in operations. Additionally, the automation will also minimize costs for your brand and maximize its sales and profits.

Due to its wide range of benefits, clothing inventory management software is definitely worth looking into. If you need more information, here’s a great resource that’ll help you learn of the different features your business can benefit from.

Introduce Loyalty Programs

Other companies will likely be offering similar or better products as your brand. In a case such as this, your brand needs to build a competitive advantage some other way. Loyalty programs are an excellent way to set yourself apart from the competition and ensure customers come back. 

By rewarding customers for their loyalty, customers will be more likely to recommend your boutique to others. For a brand, the chances of selling to existing customers are 60 to 70 percent as compared to 5 to 20 percent for new customers.

A loyalty program, thereby, gives existing customers a greater incentive to shop with you when they know there’s a possibility of a discount. Approximately 77 percent of customers participate in loyalty programs, demonstrating the demand for such programs.

 

Take Advantage of Apps

There’s no denying that mobile shopping has had a significant impact on retail. Many customers browse online before heading out to shop, with 44 percent of consumers in the United States even preferring to order online before picking up their orders in-store.

It isn’t just enough for your website to be optimized for mobile; your business needs an app since they offer brands and consumers more flexibility than sites. Retail-oriented apps, such as Etsy and Boutique Window, will give your brand a chance to advertise your products to an expanded audience that may not have known your brand existed.

Your brand can significantly benefit from being listed on a discovery platform, such as ShopStyle and The Hunt, that allow consumers to browse shoes, accessories, and clothes from a wide variety of retail brands. Such platforms are community-oriented, where users end up discovering products they didn’t know they were interested in.  A great example is pathsocial.

Increase Promotions

Many retail brands use online and in-store promotions or discounts to grow their brands. Businesses that understand what kind of offers consumers respond to are more likely to improve customer retention, create a positive brand image, and benefit from long-term sales and profits.

Discounts, in particular, discourage cart abandonment and encourage first-time shoppers to go through with a purchase. Promotions for first-time purchases, such as a five to ten percent discount upon signing up to an email list, can help customers make decisions since they know they’ll be paying less than the full price.

Coupons work in a similar way as studies suggest that the receipt of a coupon can trigger a positive reaction in consumers. While deals may be more effective, coupons still help reach new and existing customers. Given that 90 percent of consumers use coupons in some way, your boutique brand can greatly benefit from offering them to customers.  Also consider the help of quality seo services as well.

Get An Influencer On Board

Fifty-seven percent of fashion businesses today already use influencer marketing, with 49 percent of consumers depending on consumer recommendations. To ensure your brand’s influencer marketing strategy is effective, though, it’s crucial to get the right influencer on board.

Hence, there are multiple things you need to be looking out for. For instance, Instagram is a popular platform for influencer marketing, and your brand should, firstly, be looking for their followers and the number of likes on their photos. It would be best if you also focused on how often they engage with their followers and reply to their comments.  Also consider services like Upleap as well.

Influencer marketing has proven to be a more genuine way for brands to reach their target audience than traditional advertising means. The best influencers build relationships with their followers, so when they recommend something, their followers feel as if the recommendation is coming from a friend. In addition, you may also opt for a brand ambassador agency to help you represent and increase awareness to your brand.

Conclusion

Your fashion brand needs to aim to remain relevant in this highly competitive world. By employing the strategies above, you can boost your fashion brand to new levels and reach a broader and more loyal target audience like never before. To understand what works best for your brand, you should ideally employ strategies one by one to determine what works most effectively and what doesn’t.