On Day 2 of the Glossy Future of Fashion Summit in Miami (October 4-6), brands from across the industry met in working groups to talk through how they’re navigating new challenges and opportunities in different areas of their business. One group focused on the commerce channels, outside of the typical wholesale and direct e-commerce channels, that they’re testing now and the success they’re seeing in each. Below is a rundown of a few of those channels, along with comments from the participating brand executives about what’s working.
Amazon
“Our business primarily started as DTC, but in the last few years, we’ve done a lot of business at Amazon. Amazon is our biggest retailer, and Net-a-Porter is big, too. The challenge now is how to get the customer directly to us.”
“We sell hair ties on Amazon and it’s a good business for us, but it has to be different from what’s on our website. People shopping on Amazon want to buy more per pack. So we sell three ties per pack on our site, and on Amazon, they want nine per pack. More bulk. So we’re now designing a separate line entirely to sell on Amazon that matches the need for bulk.”
Subscription boxes
“We saw a big lift in our sales when selling through Birchbox. We timed a campaign to run very soon after the subscription [box went out], with places like Saks, Neiman Marcus and Barneys. Getting a sample in the box and then seeing the full product at our partners a few weeks later was perfect.”
“I used to work at Birchbox, and we often saw brands, after they had a sample in our box, get a 15% or 20% increase in sales at places like Sephora or Ulta. They also can give you insight on who is clicking through to learn more about the brand after they try it.”
Livestream
“’Good Morning America’ does a 10-minute ‘Deals and Steals’ segment. We might get two minutes of air time in that ten minutes, but the amount of sales you can drive in that time is incredible.”
“QVC and HSN are very fun, because you can watch the numbers live, in real-time. Over 72 hours, we sat in a warehouse and watched the numbers tick up. It’s very exciting. The problem is that you have to make these exclusive kits for HSN. They’d give us so much demand, but the exclusive kits made it hard to justify. Still, seeing those big numbers in the moment is nice.”
“QVC approached us, but it just didn’t work out because they take a bunch of the margin. I think it works better for beauty than fashion because of the higher margins in beauty. But QVC is also doing more things online, which is easier to manage and takes less of your margin. That’s a good way to start.”
Social commerce
“Social commerce doesn’t have the volume yet to compete with other channels, but it can still be worth it. If you think of it as just a part of the puzzle, it works.”
“Social commerce works best with a paid amplification. On its own, it’s not enough for us to have big strategic meetings about it. It sells what it sells. But when we put more paid promotion into it, that’s when it becomes a more significant thing.”
