Its official — the Christmas trading period has arrived, with under 100 days before the big day. In the united kingdom, the trading period runs from October to January, and this won’t change any time soon.
But with a restricted shopping interval that is key, many manufacturers are currently currently looking to question how the fashion industry works across the remainder of the year — why focus only on selling wintery clothes once the weather may change?
In the end, weather and the elements may have a disastrous influence on the high street which may freeze sales and profits for many brands.
Leading fashion retailers claim revenue has increased due to the ‘watch now, buy now’ trend
In fact, a recent report by Week found that 80% of top fashion retailers claim revenue has increased due to the ‘see today, purchase now’ trend — by up to 10-20 % for 34 percent. Only look at Burberry, the fashion retailer made a game move within the industry if they swapped its calendar.
They no longer produce clothes for seasons, with clothes made available for sale immediately after each show. The publication format has been called ‘immediate and seasonless’, and other brands are starting to follow suit.
When it comes to digital advertising planning anymore with this in mind, seasonal assumptions are not justified.
The weather variable
Everyone knows New York City is at the core of the fashion landscape. Among the most prominent fashion colleges — The Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) — has recognised the importance of weather when it concerns the future of fashion sales. Bearing this in mind, the institute also has launched a brand new course called “Predictive Analytics for Planning and Forecasting: Case Studies with Weatherization.”
In fact, the FIT — whose alumni include Brian Atwood and Calvin Klein — as a whole has been overhauled to add more problems including weather. A number of the biggest retailers are even currently hiring climatologists to help them predict what the seasons might have in store.
Digital entrepreneurs ought to be functioning to greater availability all year round
Weather conditions aren’t the only challenges electronic marketers are facing in regards to campaigns. Brands have to be relevant to rank and detectable for key terms that people look for, no matter what the season or weather.
Therefore, ensure their actions are supported by search data and digital marketers need to have a attention that is consumer-first. Essential items shouldn’t be pegged into seasonal buckets. Instead marketers should be functioning to availability all year round.
This could be conceivable by making sure they’re pushing against those products during peak seasons, whilst preserving visibility.
Creating ‘seasonless’ your brand new calendar
There are some areas that are simple and as we veer closer to 2018, entrepreneurs ought to be implementing a new strategy towards campaigns they could start:
Assessing your audience
By shifting towards a retail environment where lookup patterns are constantly changing, digital marketers will need to assess audiences and relevant purchase trends rather than placing small bids on tens of thousands of search terms by taking advantage of a data management platform (DMP) or continuously pushing small-scale digital PR efforts to incorporate their entire selection.
Transferring to this approach will allow digital entrepreneurs to recognise who their annual market is, when and what they’re searching for, and allow targeting based on data that is personalised to their own customs. Powering campaigns with this level of data moves budgets and maximises efficiencies.
Programmatic
Another intriguing strategy that entrepreneurs should be considering if they wish to generate marketing campaigns that are effective seasonless is programmatic. It’s the key to creating responsive, personalised campaigns and electronic marketers should be looking at integrating it they could.
By introducing Digital Out-of-Home, mobile marketing TV and programmatic audio marketers have the chance.
Paid search
A way for marketers and retailers to get really creative with a strategy that is seasonless is by adopting Google Shopping and Paid Search. Creating product-specific website pages and pointing Paid Search and Shopping traffic will allow marketers to promote key products based on the weather – macs in rainy August, or sun lotion if there is a heatwave at October.
1 thing that digital marketers need to be aware of is that moving towards campaigns isn’t a choice to be taken lightly.
Full-site optimisations could take months or even up to a year to implement when considering user experience and SEO. To support a natural strategy, innovative and responsive digital PR and content plans may also be utilised to encourage engagement.
This strategy allows for a seamless customer journey that is in-line with the way consumers are innovating, based on a attitude towards shopping and weather.
