How Online Apparel Stores Score High on Social Media

• July 20, 2015
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The importance of social media, it’s why and what have been spoken about in detail over the past few years. Although with newer innovations coming in almost every day, the demands and simultaneously the results keep changing. However, there are a few mistakes that most brands end up doing in their unending endeavour to stay ahead of their competitors. Over the years, the online apparel section has become overly populated and hence a scenario of saturation has set in. Therefore to stand out among the competitors, it is necessary for the companies to come up with newer ways of presenting themselves. The competition only gets tougher because the yardstick of measuring your success online (read social media) extends to not just your direct competitors but also similar companies struggling to catch the customer’s eye! So, what is it that these companies need to do? We take the example of few Indian online apparel stores, namely Myntra, Jabong, Fashionara, Fashionandyou, and Yebhi. Among these brands, unless you are an avid online shopper or someone who likes to research a lot, which are the brands that people generally remember from the top of mind list? The answer is an obvious Jabong and Myntra! But do you know why they stand out among the rest? Well, it has been rightly said by Shiv Khera(writer of the book “You Can Win”) “Winners don’t do different things, they do things differently”. In social media, especially for fashion brand like these, doing the “things in trend” differently matters. Making your content/contest interesting and at the same time easy for customers, attract maximum attention. Before we get to what needs to be changed, let’s take a look at what has been extremely over done over the past few years:

1. Posting images of models dressed in their latest collection.
2. Images of discounts, offers, sale and more festive occasions to shop.
3. Hosting quiz related contests.
4. App downloads related enticing messages and offers.
5. Directly attacking competitor brands

  The logic is not to outperform your competitors by underestimating their brand, instead it is better to outperform them by doing something more innovative, out of the box and something that has not been done in the past. So, what is it that the fashion brands can do more than what they are already doing? Let me site a few examples to show you the ways.

1. Host images by customers on their websites instead of models. Remember your customers are your brand builders, they deserve to be pampered! What better way to gift them than host their images with your brand’s clothes on? It’s promotion for your brand and at the same time you are also gaining your customers confidence. It’s a Jackpot!

Look at how Black Milk Clothing does it

2. Interact with your customers, it’s a necessity. Your customers have questions to ask, they need your suggestions as they consider you to be the “gurus” of fashion. However except Myntra, all the above mentioned brands seem to be inactive (on Facebook) in terns on customer service. In fact Jabong does not allow their customers to write on their wall. This can create a serious threat towards the company’s transparency.

This however is not true when it come to Twitter. While not many complaints come flowing all the brands way, almost all the above mentioned brands are active on Twitter when it comes to replying to complaints. The only thing that some of these brands are missing is the time taken to reply to these comments.  See for yourself! 3. Make use of apps and ideas which are in trend, for example Dubsmash campaign is the most in thing now. People (read your customers) are caught up in the hype about the same and hence, this would be compelling content for them. The more you get your customer engaged, higher are the chances of your brand standing out. For example, Kingfisher’s #KFDubsmash Campaign with the “Oo la la la leo” tone generated amazing results.

Watch full video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_68_JD2Ye3o

4. Want to trend on twitter? Strike a humorous and catchy hashtag, make it seem like it’s the next coolest thing on the internet and get ready to embrace an unending influx of tweets! Once people go all mad and crazy about your brand, all you need to do is watch your sales grow higher. This is best while you are preparing for a season sale or launch of new collections. This, Myntra and Jabong have got figured for themselves. Here’s a glimpse of Myntra’s #EndOfReasonSale and Jabong’s #JabongVelfie campaigns: