Study: Mobile powers 76% of large fashion retailers' web visits – Mobile Marketer

Brief:

• About three-fourths (76%) of large fashion retailer traffic comes from mobile devices, compared to 61% for their smaller counterparts, according to a study by personalization technology firm Nosto shared with Mobile Marketer.
• The company found that 64% of large fashion retailer orders are on mobile, while smaller retailers’ mobile orders make up 53%. The largest fashion retailers generate 59% of total order value on mobile devices, Nosto found in its analysis of 1.19 billion website visits during the three busiest shopping months of the year.
• While social media plays a role in driving brand awareness, visits to these sites do not directly translate to sales, Nosto found, with just 6% of fashion retailer traffic coming from paid placements on social media.

Insight:

Visits to social media sites don’t directly result in high sales conversions for fashion retailers, demonstrating the importance of an omnichannel focus on physical, web and mobile channels to boost conversion. Shoppers rely on their mobile devices to browse for clothing and accessories both in stores and on the go, and more than half of them place orders on a smartphone or tablet. Nosto’s study confirms other reports that found mobile shopping surged during the 2018 holiday season. About two-thirds (64%) of holiday shoppers said they placed online orders on a smartphone, per a survey by digital marketing firm Adlucent.

In order to capture consumers’ escalating shift toward shopping on mobile or digital platforms, fashion brands and retailers are honing their “brick-and-mobile” strategies to blend the physical and digital worlds. Athletic wear giant Nike this month opened a SNKRS pop-up store in Atlanta that serves users of the brand’s mobile app with limited-edition shoes, apparel and other merchandise, including access to new sneaker drops. Shopify and 11 Honoré, a luxury e-commerce retailer, offered attendees of the New York Fashion Week show a catalog with QR codes for real-time mobile shopping of runway looks. French fashion retailer Balmain in January debuted a mobile app with augmented reality (AR) features and video streaming from live events such as couture shows.

More than half (57%) of consumers said they have used a retailer’s mobile app while in stores, often to redeem or find coupons or discover items on sale, a Yes Marketing study found. Many consumers have reported that they’re ready to try new technologies like AR, virtual reality (VR) and cashierless checkout that aim to improve their in-store experience or deepen engagement with a brand or retailer, but retailers appear to be lagging in providing them, according to a recent survey by BRP Consulting.