Challenges facing by Fashion Industry: -

current challenges faced by fashion brands and retailers. We’ll be exploring the following:

Social Media Networks, Influencers & Trust

While SEMrush has identified that social media is a less significant source of traffic for
online fashion stores globally compared to other sources, that’s not to say it isn’t still a
powerful force for setting trends, raising brand awareness and assisting in the increase of
sales. A survey of more than 1,000 shoppers conducted for BBC Radio 4 also discovered that
most shoppers do not trust social media influencers. Staggeringly, 82 percent of people were
not always clear when an influencer has been paid to promote a product.

This decline in trust when it comes to social media, influencers and ads presents one of the
biggest challenges facing retailers and fashion brands today.

it’s clearly imperative that brands demonstrate complete honesty and transparency with social
followers about how their data is being collected and used.

In terms of influencers, many businesses are now adopting the tactic of pursuing
collaborations with micro influencers. While they have a smaller number of followers, micro
influencers tend to have more niche, loyal and highly engaged audiences compared to those
with high profiles or celebrity status.

With this in mind, fashion brands and retailers might want to jump on the bandwagon. Not
only are micro-influencers more affordable but they’re viewed as more genuine and
trustworthy by consumers.

Online Marketplaces

Online marketplaces, such as Amazon, Alibaba, eBay, Zalando, ASOS marketplace and
Rakuten, can present both risks and rewards for fashion brands and retailers.

For well-known fashion brands, it can prove a smart step to join one. Almost half of online
sales are made on marketplaces, it typically has positive implications for SEO and can help
brands reach more consumers.

Smaller fashion brands tend to avoid it due to shipping costs and commissions eating into
margins, and their brand getting ‘lost in the crowd’. There’s also an element of loss of
exclusivity which stems from the sheer scale and popularity of these platforms

However, fashion brands that opt out of marketplaces tussle with having to work extra hard to
establish and please their customer base. Indeed, with their huge selections and low prices,
the likes of eBay and Amazon have become the ‘default’ online shopping destination for
many. Amazon has been a particularly big gamechanger, with 44 percent of shoppers looking
for an item there first before searching via Google or going directly to a retailer’s website.
In order to compete with these big players, there are some things you can do:

1. Offer an exceptional, personalised service. Friendly, helpful and knowledgeable staff

who can be contacted via phone, email or social channels will gain your fashion brand
more of an edge over sophisticated online marketplaces.
2. Be flexible and offer a variety of payment/collection models such as ‘click and
collect’.
3. Make the returns process on your items is as simple as possible. According to Gartner,
92% of customers will buy again if returns are easy.

Ultimately, these online marketplaces have raised the bar in terms of what consumers expect
and are the basis by which shoppers judge other online shopping experiences. Therefore, it’s
critical for independent fashion retailers to provide an exceptional shopping experience
online.

Inadequate SEO Strategy

In April, it was hard not to avoid the news of ASOS’ 87% drop in profits. But what went
wrong for the fashion retailer, exactly?

Well, in essence, ASOS launched 200 versions of its website depending on which country the
customer was in. This had a negative impact on ASOS’ search engine rankings (and,
consequently, the traffic to their site). In addition to this, they made multiple changes to the
way users navigate around the website and to the display of new products.

In light of this, you probably read a fair few ‘let’s bash ASOS’ type blog posts regarding their
‘disastrous’ SEO strategy. This isn’t another one of those.

For one, blaming the ASOS digital team entirely is simplistic. Expansion costs and discount
campaigns have been cited as additional contributors to the drop in profits, not just SEO
instability. Plus, there was likely sound strategic thought and good intentions underlying the
digital teams’ decision-making process.

That said, industry professionals are right to highlight what ASOS clearly did not do. One
thing being that they probably failed to use thorough A/B testing to discover the impact the
planned changes would have on user behaviour.

It’s also been pointed out than an experienced SEO should have picked up on the potential
problems ahead. This suggests that, while ASOS does have an internal SEO team, they were
either not listened to or they were not utilised effectively.

Ultimately, this highlights the threat faced by fashion brands and retailers in the event of
failing to implement in-depth testing ahead of mass, site wide changes.

It also drives home the need to actively listen to SEO expertise when it’s provided.
Privacy Issues: -
Over the last decade, cyberattacks have become more frequent and as companies move their
operations online, the effects have become more serious. Hackers can gain access to millions
of customers’ personal data, obtain intellectual property like design files (which are now
commonly stored online) or force a company to take down its website and lose sales.

According to Leach, most cyber-attacks are committed by organised crime networks. E-

commerce companies are particularly at risk, because they collect large amounts of data on
active customers, which has a higher value than generic lists of credit card details on the
black market.

Several major fashion companies have already been targeted. 1.1 million credit card details
were exposed in a three-month attack on Neiman Marcus, while Patagonia, footwear retailer
Office, clothing retailer Bebe and discount department store Kmart have all suffered breaches
in recent years.

So, how can fashion companies protect themselves and their customers?

Know your vulnerabilities:

Cyber threats change every day, so trying to single out a specific threat is “like trying to shoot
a pigeon with a shotgun,” However, by identifying the weak links in their systems,
companies can minimise risk.

Most data breaches occur through email, through human errors like sending documents to the
wrong address. “After that, it comes down to cloud collaboration,”, pointing to file-storage
platforms like Dropbox or Media Fire. “It does create risks for the business,” he says. Files
stored in clouds are protected by the platform’s own cybersecurity measures which a fashion
company using the platform cannot control. An employee working from home can log in to a
cloud platform and download files, exposing them to security risks on their personal
computer.

Companies should work with their cybersecurity provider to create a tailored security
package. Simple precautions like requiring employees to change their passwords every 90
days, removing administration-wide access to sensitive files and not using shared user IDs
can help reduce risk.

Understand servers:

“In 80 percent of data breaches, the businesses that were compromised weren’t even aware
where the information that was compromised was,” Today, most companies rely on third
parties to store the large quantities of customer data they collect and the location of that data
can determine how safe it is.

“People think the cloud is a fluffy, nice thing. It’s not it’s a server room somewhere,”
explains Zaluski. “If it’s in the EU, the laws around information privacy are more stringent
than India or China. China’s notorious for stripping out stuff they want a copy of. That’s how
they do data mining.” We are more likely to hear about a breach in the US 47 states have
laws forcing companies to publicly disclose any data loss but a 2014 report by Verizon
analysed breaches from 95 countries.

Fashion companies should ask questions about the security precautions of their server
providers, before entering into contracts: do they move data between servers in different
countries? Do they use copy data onto a back-up storage centre? Much like the factories that
fashion companies use to make their clothes, cybersecurity providers may subcontract work
to another centre, in another country, without alerting their clients.

Know what you need to protect:

By and large, fashion companies have two types of sensitive information that hackers want:
customer data and fashion designs.

Protecting customer data comes down to “really good authentication — being able to verify a
customer is who they are, and demonstrate that the sensitive information going between the
customer and the merchant is going to be protected at both ends,”.

To protect their designs, fashion companies should conduct a risk assessment of where IP
data (such as design files or manufacturing instructions) is stored, the security assets in place
to support that data, how that data flows through the company’s operations — including third
parties like garment factories — and who has access to it.

Be vigilant with third parties:

Many fashion companies work with a range of third parties to do things like manufacture
products, maintain their websites and process credit card payments. Each one of these is a
potential hole for hackers to climb through and gain access to a business’s network.

Most businesses also buy a third-party solution for cyber security. Having a tight business
agreement with this third party is vital, advises companies to choose a reputable service
provider and write into their contract that both companies will be held accountable for
securing their customers’ data, and then make sure each do their part. For the fashion
business, that might mean regularly updating firewalls and checking that third-party factories
or the company used to process payments also have stringent policies in place.

Hacks are inevitable:

Businesses must plan for when something goes wrong, whether it’s an employee emailing
confidential files to the wrong person or a firewall or antivirus software hack. “It’s one thing
to have a policy, but in my experience, the majority of businesses are unable to execute that
policy when the data breach actually happens,” says Leach. He recommends cybersecurity
“fire drills,” to improve the response from employees and the company’s security solutions
provider, and “penetration tests,” which involves acting as a hacker and trying to attack your
own network, in order to find weak spots.
Search Engine Marketing (SEM): -
Search engine marketing (SEM) is a digital marketing strategy used to increase the visibility
of a website in search engine results pages (SERPs).

While the industry term once referred to both organic search activities such as search engine
optimization (SEO) and paid, it now refers almost exclusively to paid search advertising.

Search engine marketing is also alternately referred to as paid search or pay per click (PPC).

Global trends of SEM:

How many searches are made each day?

The importance of search in influencing product purchase is suggested by this data from
Global Web Index via Datareportal. This shows that "81% of people search online for a
product or service".

74% have purchased online via any device and 67% use mobile shopping apps.

Who has the biggest search engine market share worldwide?

Google continues to dominate search engine use, starting 2020 with an average net market
share of 70.38% on desktop according to Net Market Share. However, this figure is actually
slightly below where it stood at the start of 2019 (75.46%) as Bing’s net share has seen a
slight increase.
Even with the small dip to start the year, Google is still the market leader, which needs to be
taken into account for your digital strategy. This isn’t to say that you should discount other
search engines though, especially as Bing and Baidu have more than a 10% market share
each.

It’s a slightly different story on mobile, however, as Google currently holds 93.87% of the
market share. This is likely due to Google’s continued focus on the importance of mobile UX
factors for SEO.

Desktop vs mobile vs tablet searches

Up until mid-2019, mobile and desktop searches were mostly neck and neck, with mobile just
edging into the lead every few months. However, June 2019 saw mobile account for 50.71%
of searches, with desktop dropping down to 45.53%. Since this point, the gap between mobile
and desktop searches has remained, with mobile becoming the top option for searchers. This
shows that as more people remained connected 24/7 due to the high mobile phone penetration
across the globe, desktop searches are likely to continue to decline.
In terms of the share of searches handled by tablets, these have seen a decline since the start
of 2019. There have been changes in behaviour at key points this year - notably April 2020
which saw a huge number of technological, economic and social changes as Coronavirus was
declared a national pandemic. Regarding audience device type, it seems to have been
accompanied by an increase in mobile search.

National trends of SEM:

Google receives an average of 5 billion searches daily. People are logging on to search for
everything and anything. With so many consumers found in one centralized location, search
engines have become the marketing mecca of the Internet. It's no wonder why companies
strive to rank among the top listings in Google, Yahoo and Bing search engines. Ranking first
means major traffic directed to your site. In order to receive this influx, companies fame-tune
their websites to exhibit compatibility and relevancy necessary for higher rankings in today's
search engines. This marketing strategy is known as search engine, optimization (SEO).
Optimizing your website may seem fairly simple, but there is a specialized method. There's a
chance that search engine optimization can turn into a complex and time-consuming process
for a company. After all. this valuable company time is necessary for managing the business
and creating direct revenue. It is often a smart investment to hire an SEO consultant. A
professional who will not only track your results, but take your SEO plan to the next level by
incorporating expert tactics ensuring that your site will rank among the top search results,
leaving you time to manage your business effectively. Ashworth Creative utilizes a process
that fine tunes your current web presence. Our strategy drives traffic to your website and
converts that traffic into business. Our team of web strategists helps your company utilize
SEO to its full potential.

Video SEO for your website

BECAUSE VIDEO HAS BECOME Just run a Google or Bing search on any topic, and links
to video clips pop-up right-on page one. The reason for this is Thai search engines are
tripping over themselves to provide blended search results—links to news, blog posts, photos,
video and other specialized content all mixed together. To ensure video is included in the
results, search engines give them preferential treatment. This trend presents start-ups that are
able to produce quality video content with tremendous search engine optimization (SEO)
opportunities. In fact. Forrester Research reports that compared with standard SEiO
techniques, a properly submitted video is 50 times more likely to achieve a first-page Google
ranking. And because video is in such short supply, relative to other web-based content, the
competition for search engine attention is less. Many start-ups and entrepreneurs are not yet
taking full advantage of this opportunity. They are not using web-based video, are
disregarding video SEO. or are hying but doing it all wrong. Old-school SEO combines text,
meta data, a linking strategy and site maps lo raise a page s search engine profile and ensure
proper indexing. These techniques fall short lor video, which has no text to index. Although
developers are improving search engine technology Tor discovering video, search engines
need help in identifying and properly indexing video content. Instead, you nail sLtbmil your
video following each search engine's submission and XML-serialization guidelines. Carefully
research each search engine to determine its requirements, keeping in mind that information
provided online may be outdated. Also, avoid packing your video XMI. feed with meta data.
"Most search engines ignore il or may even penalize your feed," says Benjamin Wayne, CEO
of Fliqz, a full-service, plug-and-play video solution provider in Emeryville, Calif. "Focus
instead on including a descriptive title for your video in your XML feed." For optimum
results, Wayne recommends including a permalink site map Thai recollects your XML need
so that search engines index not only your videos but also the pages on which those videos
appear. Using the same title tags to Idabel both the videos and pages tends to improve page
ranking.