These days, many of us do not just use social media to check in with friends or post photos of ourselves. It has become a portal to find out about the latest discounts, learn about local events, and indeed, be tempted by fashion offers we cannot resist.
Research from Nosto, published in Econsultancy.com, backs this up, revealing that nearly a third (28 per cent) of orders for large online fashion retailers come from search and social media sites.
These also accounted for 34 per cent of their traffic and 26 per cent of their total order value, proving just how important online marketing is to these retailers.
Most people who click on to these sites come from Facebook and Instagram, which is not surprising given that the former network has 2.32 billion monthly active users and more than one billion people use Instagram. With this volume of visitors, they can easily drive thousands of people to e-retailers with one influential post.
According to the results, paid social is even more profitable. Facebook accounts for 73 per cent of all traffic, as well as 89 per cent of all orders, and 86 per cent of the total order value. Therefore, this demonstrates the potential return on investment business owners have if they spend on paid social advertisements.
One fashion retailer that clearly knows the value of digital marketing is ASOS, which has recently revealed its plans to increase its spending in this area.
Chief executive officer of ASOS Nick Beighton stated: “Global online fashion is a growing, £220 billion+ market. We now have the tech platform, the infrastructure, a constant conversation with our growing customer base who love our own great product, and the constantly evolving edit of brands we present to them.”
He went on to say: “We have not only restored but begun to upweight our digital marketing activity. This has begun to improve new customer acquisition and has gone some way to offsetting the softness in organic acquisition.”
Mr Beighton stated this organic acquisition of customers is a “priority” for the brand and it has renewed its focus to “drive reach, traffic and awareness amongst our target audience”.
While ASOS wants to boost its digital marketing spend in the coming months in order to increase its profit margin, its latest figures revealed a 14 per cent growth in group revenues over the year.
With ASOS focussed so intently on boosting its digital marketing spend, this is a clear message to other retailers about the importance of online publicity on sales these days.
Something that might help boost figures even further for ASOS – and indeed, other online retailers – is to improve communication with their customers during the delivery period.
According to ParcelLab’s latest study, 27 per cent of UK stores do not communicate with their shoppers once the product is on its way to them.
Get in touch with our digital marketing agency in Salford for advice on how you can give your business a much-needed boost.