Fashion industry receives 33% of traffic from search

Lots of companies rely on digital marketing, so it’s important to understand how customers behave online. A new study shows that although direct traffic is the most popular source of visitors in general, visitors of fashion websites come more often through search engines. This is especially noticeable in the United Kingdom and France.

This is apparent from a new study [pdf], conducted by TextMaster and Similar Web. It explored traffic sources in general as well as in three of the most digital industries: fashion, apps, and news & entertainment. It found out that more internet users in the United Kingdom (42 percent) and France (39 percent) use search engines to get to fashion websites compared to internet users in other countries. Direct traffic was the most popular in Germany (36 percent) and display ads were most effective in Italy (11 percent).

Fashion industry: 1/3 is search traffic
Also, online industries rely more on search traffic, research shows. For app websites, search traffic accounts for almost half (46 percent) of their visitors, while for websites about news and entertainment, this makes up less than one third (29 percent) of their visitors. Which is more surprising, is the fact the fashion industry only receives one third (33 percent) of their traffic from search. Also, social networks aren’t a significant source of traffic for the fashion industry, as 5 percent of the traffic comes from social media. Display ads on the other hand, generate seven times more traffic for the fashion industry (7.36 percent) compared to apps (0.74 percent) and news & entertainment (1.23 percent).

Similar Web also compiled an overview of top keywords in the fashion industry, with the top 5 per country. Zalando is popular in Germany and Italy, while Zara is hot in the UK, Germany and Italy: