Opinion: The evolution of digital marketing in the fashion sector

Retail Week and Salesforce’s new insight infographic reveals how the fashion retail industry is becoming more personalised, data-led and informed than ever before. Download the PDF attached to this page to view the infographic.

The pressure is on for retailers: today’s UK shoppers, led by the hugely savvy influx of millennials, are ultra-connected, mega-mobile and extraordinarily well-informed.

Every shopper today, in every demographic, is effectively ‘armed’ with the power to alter brands’ reputations with the swipe of a finger – and their expectations around service has skyrocketed. Each wants a fully-connected, personalised, seamless and enjoyable brand experience across every touchpoint.

But in an industry where social group and demographic trends play so strongly and individual preferences and personal styles drive buying decisions, retailers need to make sure they’re using every opportunity to get inside their customers’ heads.

To deliver that personal and contextual shopping experience, retailers need to focus not only on stock and merchandise, but instead on listening and learning from every customer interaction – regardless of the time and connection point the customer uses.

Customer relationship management technology has created a natural first step towards creating that understanding, but today the area of customer insight is still largely untapped.

However, there’s hope. Retailers are sitting on what can only be described as a goldmine of customer data. What they need to do now is to work out how to access and manage this data properly to connect mobile and ecommerce strategies across organisations to create an unparalleled shopping experience.

Success in the future will depend not just on tracking customer information, but on constantly absorbing customer insight into behaviours, preferences, personalities and patterns. This doesn’t just support sales conversion – it drives loyalty, enhances the brand, and creates a real feeling of bespoke service even in mass-market enterprises and brands.

With new technologies such as the internet of things and mobile payments hitting the scene and driving constant change, we can pretty much guarantee retailers will be kept on their toes. It’s an exciting time to be a retailer – and an era of opportunity.

For this infographic, Retail Week and Salesforce paired research from a detailed online survey of 1,750 UK consumers on brand engagement preferences with insight on how the landscape is shifting, to provide a comprehensive overview of how marketing is redefining every level of the industry, from luxury through to high street retail.

To download the accompanying report, ‘Connecting with today’s fashion consumers’ click here.