Fashion agent Phoebes Garland believes it's time for manufacturers to step up to the new media challenge. This includes supplying their retail clients with campaign material, photos and look books to support online marketing strategies.
I started my love of internet shopping after having my daughter and finding I couldn't leave the house for hours while she was asleep. My love affair with Ebay & designer labels ensured I was lining the pockets of overseas sellers and also overseas online department stores, much to my husband’s dismay. I was amazed how much cheaper designer goods were overseas and more importantly brands that were charging a premium here for the same labels.
This was around 2003, and I found there was very little in the way of online shopping in this country back then. Whilst this has grown for the younger market considerably, I have noticed there are very little options for older retailers. Coming from a background of advertising into fashion, I am still shocked at how slow the garment industry is in this country embracing the internet and online marketing.
Most retailers and fashion manufacturers are
almost barely listed in the white pages let alone a website or email, and when
they are, they list under their business name not their “trading name” which
makes it very difficult for people to find.
Trying to find most small
fashion labels or small boutique retailers is a bit of challenge when you go
into Google. Why? Because there simply is usually no presence. Forget search
engine optimisation......there needs to be a website in the first place!
Marketing is so important to any business and particularly fashion. You have
an item, you want to showcase and more importantly sell. What is the point of
producing a fabulous garment or accessory if you can’t market it to drive
sales?
After speaking with my good friend Rebecca Lau who owns Gosh Celebrity Fashion, an online fashion boutique, she said “ One of the things that was missing was manufacturers need to support retailers through marketing materials, photos, look books to display to customers etc”. As a fashion agent & owner of Garland & Garland Fashion, working with mature labels and retailers I really do see a missing link here.
We are constantly missing look
books, clean modern images on white backgrounds and marketing materials to send
to our retailers. Not to mention showcasing on our own website to promote their
brand. For manufacturers who are reluctant to invest the money into marketing,
what they could be ultimately missing in the end is an increase of sales which
could be substantial not to mention building a “brand”.
As my husband
Robert Garland noted in his previous blog “The Hard Sell”, wholesaling isn’t
what it used to be. Smaller boutiques are finding it very competitive with
larger chains and department stores going on sale all the time, not to mention
cheap Chinese imports. Facebook & Twitter have become powerful mediums for
building brand awareness & sales for both online retailers and also
manufacturers labels.
According to a recent article in Ragtrader, US monitoring company Pingdom found the biggest social network users were aged 35-44, which proves that there is definitely a market here for the mature consumer. I recently read an article how international e-retailers were taking serious sales from high end Australian retailers and I have to say after being an avid online shopper, I am not surprised.
Whilst you may think this is affecting only the 'high end' labels & retailers, it will start to have a profound impact down the track on smaller boutique retailers unless retailers and manufacturers start looking at ways to further their businesses through effective digital marketing. Retailers can no longer afford to just open their doors of their shops and wait for the customers to come pouring in.
The moral of the story? There is simply no reason why Australian manufacturers and retailers cannot reverse this by becoming more educated to the digital world, and marketing their brands and stores to overseas markets.