Omnichannel in the European fashion industry

A new study on omnichannel in the European fashion industry shows that social media, online customer loyalty and store localization are the most common omni-channel solutions. The least common features are online order of in-store inventory with in-store pick-up by the customer, same-day delivery and shipping and in-store reservation of inventory for in-store consumer purchases.

These are some of the conclusions drawn by Divante after studying 40 major fashion brands in Germany, the Netherlands, Scandinavia and the United Kingdom. The ebusiness agency, which entered the Dutch market in 2015, wanted to find out how fashion brands in these European countries deal with omnichannel solutions in their ecommerce strategy.

The Netherlands score best, followed by the United Kingdom. Surprisingly, Germany ended last. “Although this country was, for a long time, pointed out as a benchmark of how ecommerce business should work”, the study says.

Social media usage among fashion brands

The top 3 of most common omni-channel solutions among fashion brands are social media, online customer loyalty and store localization. The most popular social media channel used by the 40 ecommerce website is Facebook. Almost all of them (97.5 percent) had a link referencing to the brand’s fan page. Instagram and Twitter are other popular social media channels used by fashion brands. Only 3 ecommerce websites featured a link to their Snapchat account.

Online customer loyalty program

Almost all of the brands offer their customers an online loyalty program, while 42.5 percent makes use of an offline loyalty program. “In today’s everyday life we have access to hundreds of stores, only a tap away. Because of this, brands need to create a bond with their customers. That’s the place where customer loyalty comes into play”, Divante writes.

Store localization and online visibility of in-store inventory

For customers that prefer to do their shopping in-store it’s very important to know where stores are located. The vast majority of fashion websites (85%) allows customers to localize their nearest store. But only 32.5 percent have a function to check whether the product the customer is interested in is available in-store. ” If an ecommerce website has a function to check where the nearest store is, adding functionality to check in-store availability of products should be the next direction to proceed”, Divante suggests.