A survey conducted by youth fashion chain Supre last month found that despite increasing retailer complaints that local stores are losing customers to online, a significant segment of the brand’s teen demographic still prefer the bricks and mortar experience.
The Supre survey revealed that over 93 per cent of its predominantly teen participants still favour shopping in store. The survey, which was conducted through the brand’s Facebook platform in July, involved 1,805 shoppers, with 1,682 stating that they preferred the experience of “hitting the malls” over online shopping.
Supre acting marketing manager Claudia Natoli said that although the results were encouraging for the brand’s established stores, they were avoiding reading into the figures too closely.
“The results reflect the views of our Facebook audience, who are predominantly teenagers, so we’re not letting that influence us too much. We are still in the development stages with our digital strategy, so don’t want to say any more on it at this point.”
A recent promotion enabling customers to use a five dollar credit either in store or online via an SMS coupon drew almost three times as many customers into the chain’s bricks and mortar stores as it did to their website. Supre website designer, Amblique digital design agency director Justus Wilde says that the overhaul of the company’s website in 2009 has been a key driver of increased store traffic.
“We’ve seen a direct correlation between better website merchandising and in store sales. Incorporating features like videos of clothes and high quality photography showing products from different angles makes a big impact.”
The fashion retailer has seen improved store traffic since it partnered with Amblique to increase transaction efficiency and appearance. The website’s interactivity was enhanced again mid last year with the introduction of a live chat assistance feature and the company has further plans to quadruple its web hits through mobile technology.
Wilde says these factors will continue to give the store an edge over retailers who haven’t moved to a multi-channel approach yet.
“I think the main stores that are complaining about losing local customers are the ones that aren’t multi-channel. Online should compliment in store sales, not take away from them.”
