The Future of Fashion: Why Brands Need to Step It up in 2019

It’s no secret that the fashion industry has been on a rocky path since fast, cheap clothing started taking over. Ecommerce businesses are forever competing to offer the best discounts and faster delivery times, all in order to win over customers, and it’s becoming a dangerous game to play. While it is harder for brick-and-mortar stores to survive in this current climate, eCommerce brands will also need to step up their game, as the fashion industry is even more competitive than ever, so here are some tips for how fashion brands can step up their game in 2019.

AI

One of the huge benefits of shopping in a physical store compared to online when it comes to fashion, is being able to try a product on and see how it looks before you make the purchase. With that in mind, it’s no wonder that eCommerce brands are starting to work on a way around this issue through the use of AI. Imagine being able to try clothes on in a virtual wardrobe or receiving fashion advice for any upcoming events based on your shape and style preferences. We’re not too far away with the likes of Amazon’s The Echo Look and Body Labs ShapeX which creates personalised 3D avatars. We’ll start to see more fashion brands experimenting with this kind of technology, and it you want to stay ahead of the curve, it’s something you too should look to invest in.

Personalised Offers

This does go hand-in-hand with AI and brands being able to tailor suggestions and offers based on learned information, but it also could be as simple as automated emails based on browsing history and abandoned carts. Fashion brands need to be utilising this kind of information more and more, rather than sending the same campaign to every person on their mailing list. Segment your audience and tailor your content and offers accordingly.

Andrew Gill of Seriously Silly Socks gives his take on how online shopping will change in 2019 and how important personalisation will become:

Influencer Marketing

This isn’t exactly a new strategy but it is becoming such an important part of the fashion industry that if you aren’t doing it in 2019, you’re going to fall behind. Influencer marketing doesn’t have to be expensive. Not all brands have to aim to work with Instagram stars with millions of followers – you can profit by utilising smaller influencers so long as they have a decent engagement rate. Influencers and affiliate links are changing the way consumers shop, particularly in the fashion industry where trends are changing all the time – brands need to stay on top of what consumers are responding to and influencer marketing can be a great way to do this.

If you’re a fashion brand looking to make some changes to your website or digital marketing strategy in 2019, get in touch with our team today by getting in touch here.