The Online Fashion Trend in 2010
From Flick to Click and Shop to E-retail – How Fashion is moving from the physical world to the digital realm.When Australian men’s magazine ‘Ralph’ announced last month that it would stop running its traditional print magazine to focus solely on its digital presence, the quickly evolving reality of our digital age really hit home. In fact, it was this news – coupled with the implementation of charging of online content by the British powerhouse news provider ‘The Times’ and ‘The Sunday Times’ that struck two dazzling blows to the temple. Although these separate stories were at either ends of the globe, both played the same note – digital is becoming THE focus and not just the ‘add-on’. The move by The Times to charge users for its online content was somewhat of a shock to the world when announced back in March of this year. In fact, many thought it was simply ‘a ploy’ that would never actually find its feet and be implemented. Sure enough to their word, The Times began to charge its users in June of this year – marking a new era in the online realm. The internet is gaining some content class – its not just porn or celebrity gossip that people are chasing – its real news. Wasn’t it obvious that a newspaper giant would want to make money from its readers? Surely Ralph Magazine had it coming? – Such questions sparked a thought in my brain about how fashion is moving from the real and tangible, to the digital realm – I was intrigued to skim the topic. Social Media and FashionI think discussing social media and fashion was the obvious place to begin for this topic. Simply because social media has somehow seamlessly integrated itself into almost all business models, including those within the fashion industry.
Firstly, let’s look at the fashion powerhouse Vogue Australia – or more specifically its online arm vogue.com.au. Vogue are very much online and dominating the Australian digital scene with stacks of user-engagement and social media interaction. ‘Club Vogue (its online club) has tens of thousands of members. In fact, Vogue Forums alone (at this time of writing) has 169,661 members, over 300,000 threads and over 5,500,000 posts – and that’s just the Australian arm! If we look at the Australian website as a whole, it attracts almost 700,000 readers and almost 5,500,000 page views every month. With statistics like that, it puts into perspective the limitations of traditional print. In fact, the Vogue Australia magazine has a circulation of just 54,000 per month – it’s of little wonder that Ralph folded its magazine to focus on its digital presence. Secondly – Let’s take a snapshot view of Burberry – the iconic British label. Burberry seem to be leading the global race when it comes to digital offering within fashion – with almost 1.2 million facebook fans, 27,000 twitter followers and a gazillion views of its webpage (no exaggeration). In fact, in late June of this year, Burberry were the first ever fashion label to release their latest collection (AW2010/11 Northern Hemisphere) with a digital campaign that allowed viewers to control the angle, speed and picture of the collection (you can check it out at the Burberry website). They were also the first to do a live 3D stream of its catwalk collection online! Anddddd…. They have one of the most successful user-generated fashion websites in the world – The Art of Trench which allows anyone to submit a photo of themselves (or others) wearing a Burberry trench coat. Users can then vote or comment on each of the photos which are then categorized by colour, sex, votes, rating etc. It’s such a simple concept yet fashion-lovers are responding.
Not surprisingly, there is a tangible bottom line to all of this – the entire Burberry collection (for men and women) is available to purchase direct online. Online sales are forming an increasing proportion of the Burberry’s revenue so it’s of little wonder they are investing heavily into the digital realm. It doesn’t look like things will slow down either for the fashion powerhouse, with sales increasing across the recessionary period. It’s a brand name that’s on a mission of growth, and with smart digital use under its wings, it’s hard to see the brand crashing. Buying Fashion OnlineThe success of Burberry in the digital sense leads nicely onto the next discussion point of online retailing. Like I briefly mentioned, Burberry, like so many fashion labels are offering their products direct to the public to buy with the click of a mouse. Fashion retailing is no longer confined to a physical retail space. In fact, many businesses are investing significantly more online than they are in the ‘real world’. The price of a shop fit-out is being compared to the cost for digitally branding an online store – the only difference being the online shop sells to the world rather than just a postcode. One of the most popular and successful fashion e-retailers is the luxury women’s store Net-A-Porter. Founded in 2000 by a former fashion journalist Natalie Massenet, the website was recently bought out in whole by Richemont, one of the worlds premier (and largest) fashion houses. Natalie pocketed around 50 million pounds ($85 million or so) for her (remaining) share, valuing the online company at around 350 million pounds ($600 million Aussie). In its ten year history, Net-a-porter has sold over a million female luxury items – proving to the world that fashion can, has and will be purchased online. Net-a-porter is also set to enter the men’s fashion market with the launch of Mr Porter – it will be interesting to see if the buying interest from the males is as strong as that from the fashionistas. Moving the discussion to Australian-shores, we see the online fashion retailing market progressing at a staggering rate. Over the past two years, almost all major high-street labels have implemented their own e-stores, with many even offering mobile-phone applications to buy fashion on-the-go. A Melbourne IT company has recently announced its development of a Facebook application that allows people to buy directly via facebook. It all points to one story – Fashion brands want to sell online because buyers are willing to buy online. What to ExpectAustralian fashionistas and fashionistos can expect a growing diversity of options to view, interact and purchase their favourite garments and accessories in the digital realm. Social Media, websites and online stores are being used in unison to inform and attract potential users and buyers – It’s the marketing of the digital age and its happening now. On the whole, it’s a better marketplace for us buyers as it’s increasing the availability of all products and allows for quick and easy comparison – and ultimately the best deal. Would you/have you bought fashion online? Why/Why not? Does having a facebook page and interacting with a brand make you more likely to purchase it? We want to hear your thoughts – Lets talk about it below! JP You may like this article about some of Australia’s (and the world’s) top online fashion stores.
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Check out other fashion posts5 Responses to “The Online Fashion Trend in 2010”Feel free to comment on this fashion article!Please be aware that this fashion article was last modified on the 9th January, 2012. Although Australian Fashion Review Blog endeavours to keep the fashion information as timely and as relevant as possible, we may not be 100% up to date.Help us become a better fashion resource by commenting below with any relevant information on the label/designer. Your valuable comments will be available for the world to see. | 
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Although i have been browsing online significantly more this year, i am still reluctant to buy anything online – mainly because i’m unsure of the fit/sizing.
However, there seem to be more online shops that are offering free returns/exchanges which seems to make the process more attractive…
I think many fashion labels are creating facebook pages and twitter accounts just to get on the bandwagon and dont really add any value to the brands.
In saying that, I do a lot my wardrobe buying online these days although i only buy from the biggest online shops.
Sarah,
Being a small online retailer myself
I am wondering why do you just buy from the biggest online shops.
Is the brand power or ‘the trust’ factor?
or something else??
What would you like to see from a online retailer.
What can we offer ‘you’ as the consumer to increase the ‘trust’ factor.
Just wondering,
Thanks in advance
Beaut xxxx
online shopping is the way of the future – for fashion and everything else…
Beaut – its definately a combination of both. The trust factor comes as most of the bigger retailers offer free exchanges/swaps with no questions. This is a must given that sizing fluctuates so much between labels.
The convenience of the bigger eretailers also helps – they often have a range of items which i’ll purchase at the onetime rather than individually from many stores.