The changing face of Fashion Online

As many of you would have read, I was privileged to meet with Piera and Philippe from Refinery 29 to have lunch with them on Monday and then listened to them speak at the Portable presentation held at Penthouse Mouse. They are two of the most humble and genuinely nice people I’ve met from New York to have achieved such success and yet still be so grounded and driven about what they want to do next.

Notes:
* They began (in 2005) at a time when there was a trend away from mass towards grass roots designers. Individualism was important and there was a big gap in the online publishing space for a niche fashion magazine.

* Their first version of Refinery 29 was like a department store map to the best shops in New York and offered an insiders guide to what was cool and happening at the time.

* They launched by supporting emerging talent like Alexander Wang, Opening Ceremony, Vera Cava, Rag & Bone and Erin Featherson.

* They believed and still believe that Risk is more important than experience and being flexible, organic and dynamic with their choices in both content and business strategies is what makes them successful.

* They currently have 1 million unique visitors per month with 100,000 email subscribers.

* They feel fashion has become a conversation and not a monologue and this ability to react to their subscriber’s comments has helped shape the business.

* Their top 5 inspirational sites they reference are:
Garance Dore
The Selby
The Cut
Polyvore
Lookbook.nu

* They believe there are 3 main ingredients to their content; entertainment, inspiration and information.

* They try to offer a real “mixture” of content, styling tips and information that appeals to a broad database but is still cutting edge so that they satisfy their growing database but also push their readers to try or adopt new trends.

* They monitor results closely; each team member (4 full time staff and 4 interns) gets an email from Piera each morning with stats from Google Analytics about what sections of the site were most popular, had the most click throughs and were commented on the most.

* They believe that Fashion is really just one big conversation and technology affords huge opportunity to communicate with others.

* The next 4 interesting trends in technology are:
1. Content – being true to your signature
2. Mobile – apps, e-commerce and entertainment
3. Crowd sourcing – the website Quirky
4. Location based services – FourSquare

Rebecca Thompson & August

Rebecca Thompson (like many great designers) makes gorgeous clothes and (also like many designers) doesn't have a retail presence, so when she decided to create an online boutique, she had lots of ideas but not much experience in understanding the e-commerce world. I interviewed Rebecca and then Zoe Warne of August (the team behind her new online boutique called "The Parlour").
Rebecca Thompson
1. How long have you worked with Zoe from August?
The first site was built in 2006 and achieved its aims of establishing the online presence for RT, however by 2009, RT was ready to embrace eCommerce and together we developed the RT online shopping boutique called The Parlour. The Parlour is a large eCommerce site; a full service online store with a secure shopping cart function.

Beyond web development, RT worked with August to create a social media strategy to harness the growing loyalty and passion of RT fans and devotees, which includes a Facebook and Twitter presence to stay connected to our ‘fans’ and update them with new collections, related fashion events, previews and personal behind the scenes tid-bits from RT.

2. How do you find the role of online in terms of changing your business model, particularly with the nature of your designs being so tactile, detailed and fit orientated pieces?
This is a great question and was a major concern for me initially. I find that women are becoming more confident with online shopping, and are increasingly comfortable with the concept of making a purchase prior to touching and feeling the garments.

Good photography helps in providing a stronger and more accurate visual representation of the piece, and of course we offer a full refund return policy making it easy and risk free to purchase online from RT. A detailed size chart also is available, providing the standard RT measurements used and this is a very helpful guide for choosing the correct sizing for our online customers. So in paying attention to these details, you can certainly address the various aspects of a customer’s reluctance to buy online.

3. How have you found tackling the CMS and uploading your product, media etc?
My tech skills are limited, however they provide clear direction and training in using their CMS, Minotaur, which is very simple to use. I am gaining confidence in using the system (it’s always great to learn a new skill), however I know they are always there, in case my staff or I ever need back up.

Zoe Warne of August
1. What kinds of tech solutions did you suggest for Rebecca when she decided to go e-commerce?
As with all clients seeking eCommerce solutions, we went through our process of evaluating both the creative and technical requirements of the new website for the RT label. Their internal staff and resourcing needs are also taken into account when recommending a solution.

We created Minotaur an easy to use system, which empowers site owners to manage and maintain their own content, and securely transact and manage inventory online. It presents all website content, both text, images and products very cleanly, and is a cinch to use – even for the lest technically-proficient users. It also allows us the creative flexibility to be able to design a site that is unique, to the clients brand and creative requirements, and not just have an “off the shelf” feel.

2. How do you think the Australian e-commerce landscape in regards to fashion has changed?
Emerging web technologies, improvements in online safety and of course the rise of social media have resulted in more fashion labels and retailers embracing digital in a big way. We’re now to the point where it would be inconceivable to launch a fashion brand without considering an online aspect to your strategy.

3. What kind of analytics do you have to track The Parlour section?
We install Google Analytics on every site August builds – it’s free and yet it’s a very powerful too. We use the data the analytics provide to gain deeper insights into online customer behaviour, and identify any possible issues. From there we work on improvements to help increase conversion rates.

www.rebeccathompson.com.au
www.august.com.au

Using Twitter for Business

Have you noticed that the world is all a-twitter? Between Ashton Kutcher, Oprah, CNN, the faux Vogue Twitter account and the Iran elections, it seems everyone is tweeting from the bus, plane, office, train, restaurant table, fashion parade front row and footy. So if you're feeling a bit left out, or are new to twitter and want to know what all the fuss is about. Let me tell you.

Twitter has the ability to build and maintain brand presence, offer real time customer service, allow community interaction and all within a short sentence. It is a powerful, free, social networking site that could create a new connection with your customers, people you admire and its brilliant for networking.

Before you get too stuck into it, I would highly recommend downloading this e-guide that Clare Lancaster of Dot Marketing has put together. It helped me get my head around it and the nuances of using twitter successfully.

Clare is a connoisseur of Digital and understands how to write in true "laymans" terms for us folk who hope to enter into the digital world without talking too much "geek language".