The London Fashion Network recently held an event on e-commerce merchandising.

The panel: Lee Friend, Zia Zareem-Slade and Gary Day-Ellison

I recommended two of the three panellists, Lee Friend and Zia Zareem-Slade, both extremely knowledgeable in all things online retail, but specifically visual merchandising on the web.

Myself with Fashshot’s Lee Friend

Along with branding expert Gary Day-Ellison the trio offered some helpful tips to up and coming retailers.

Some of the tips offered by the panel…

- If you decide to use model shots be aware some customers can be put off by models with certain hair colours
- Write decent copy about fabric and materials; how will it sit, feel, flow etc?
- Design your website to show as many preview images as possible
- Don’t be distracted by innovations in mobile technology, get the basic offering right first
I’ll post the podcast of the event when it becomes available

Comment on this article ...

Online stores of bricks and mortar retailers are sometimes at risk of boring token operations of the physical store.

Not known for anything in their own right, the websites merely act an alternative platform for purchase or pre-shopping.

But many are now beginning to develop their own identity with online only exclusives.

This week the House of Fraser website has an exclusive on Calvin Klein World Cup themed underwear.

Alone, these kinds of specials won’t set the world alight. But regular exclusives will work to develop the customer’s attachment to the online brand.

And that slowly developing attachment will lead to the online operation being seen as more than a token operation to the physical brand, but a valuable accompaniment to it.

Comment on this article ...

Featured in Joanna Perry’s ‘The next generation of e-tail’ in this week’s Retail Week.

Read the article on the Retail Week website

Comment on this article ...

I recently met up with Joanna Perry, the technology expert at Retail Week.

If you’re readinig this you must know Retail Week as a must-read for those in, erm, retail.

Drapers is the staple for the fashion industry, and Retail Week has a particular focus on what’s happening generally in the sector of consumer selling.

Joanna covers retail technology for the publication, everything from IT systems to e-commerce issues.

She quickly picked up on HabitatTwitterGate, and was - albeit unwittingly - quoted in The Telegraph’s coverage of the fiasco.

Joanna and I spoke about some of the hot topics within online fashion retail, including creating blogs.

Setting up and strategising content on blogs is something I help fashion brands with, so I was more than happy to answer the reader dilemma recently sent in to Retail Week (featured here).

Joanna and I at the Online Fashion 100 event / Photo courtesy of Fashshot

Joanna hosted the Retail Week Technology Awards last month and was in work the next day despite the 4am finish.

She made a Twitter plea in the morning for a McFlurry. I don’t know if she got it, but she did have drinks and canapes at the Online Fashion 100 event that evening!

Comment on this article ...

40 Ways To Look Fabulous on a Budget (’Dig For Discounts’) - Scarlet, July Issue, out now

Download a digital issue at www.scarletmagazine.co.uk

Comment on this article ...

Read my Drapers blog, ‘theOut of my size – but they do fit, honestly. theOutnet.com’s appeal’

Comment on this article ...

Littlewoods has rebranded and I’m very impressed.

So what am I impressed by… the Homepage is minimal in feel, giving users the option to browse product or interact with content.

Content is strong at Very. Loving Louise Roe’s street video and the VIP Loungue where customers can chat to Caprice, Simon Webbe and Miranda Levy to name a few.

Very is yet to appear in the natural listings for its own brand name, but they seem to be investing in paid search until this changes.

Well, here’s one SEO friendly link to help - Visit Very, the new online fashion store the e-commerce industry will be keeping a ‘very’ close eye on.

Comment on this article ...

The Beth Ditto collection was as I expected. There is nothing shy or retiring about this plus size extravaganza.

Some expect the larger women to hide under black smocks and grey scale, and whilst there’s certainly black in the Ditto range – it comes in cropped biker jackets, sequins, and bold prints.

Though Evans has previously been a footnote on the high street fashion favourites, this collection is going to fly off the shelves, and the size eights and ten’s will just wear it baggy.

A new website www.bethdittoatevans.co.uk has been specifically created to drive traffic to the collection.

Going live from the 9th July the site contains streamed music (all the latest Gossip, of course), animated flash based light transitions between pages, as well as a “Backstage Pass” which will hold video content of the designer/star herself.

It will feature full-screen lookbook campaign shots by Rankin, including a share section that enables fans to download iphone desktops and screen savers. The domino countdown clock, in honour of her fabulous domino print scarves, has started. 

The site is all very interactive, aimed at the Beth Ditto fan-base age with links that can be shared via facebook and youtube. The site is kept fairly separate from the official Evans website, in hopes that they’ll attract a far larger amount of independent traffic.

I’m certain they will - there’s nothing about this collection that screams, “plus size” – only “fashion first”.

‘Grand Gossip - Beth Ditto for Evans’ by Amy Tipper-Hale

Comment on this article ...

Dopamine is the chemical which fires a pleasurable feeling in the brain.

We’ve all heard the phrase ‘retail therapy’, and know that shoppers feel elated after purchasing. That’s the dopamine neurons being released in the brain.

Wolfram Schultz, a neuroscientist at Cambridge University, conducted a series of studies with monkeys.

He measured the release of dopamine neurons in their brain after giving them juice (the reward). Naturally it went high.

He then presented them with a loud noise, just before giving them the juice.

Over time, because of the association of the loud noise and being given juice, the monkeys began releasing dopamine whenever they heard the noise. Simply because they associated it with getting juice.

Online fashion retailers always receive an upsurge in traffic and sales when they send out an email newsletter, particularly to those who have purchased before.

Perhaps the email newsletter is the loud noise, which shoppers associate with finding that perfect item (the reward).

The brain releases the neurons way before the shopper has even clicked through.

Comment on this article ...

I was recently joined by the lovely Kristine Kirby, Ecommerce Director at Lipsy, for lunch at Mortimer’s in Soho.

It’s just round the corner from the Lipsy office, where I popped into later, and is the place to catch the ecommerce team lunching or winding down (should you want to stalk them).

I have loved watching the growth of Lipsy over the years.

The marketing and PR behind the brand has been fantastic. You won’t find a weekly celebrity magazine without seeing someone pictured in Lipsy.

Whether it’s Duffy, Jessica Taylor, Paris Hilton or Bianca Gascgoine, who seems to live in the clothes, someone will be wearing it.

Now with physical stores and owned by Next Plc, Lipsy is an example, to other own brand online fashion stores, on how to manage growth, change and expansion.

Over lunch Kristine and I chatted about future plans for the Lipsy website, and the current online fashion market.

We went back to the Lipsy office where I popped in to say hi to the (hard working) team and see some of the samples for Autumn Winter 09.

Lipsy has a real signature look. If it isn’t shiny or glistening, it’s bound to have embellishment.

Even the office calculators are blinged up.

Love Lipsy. And wish they did a men’s range!

Comment on this article ...

Burberry certainly provides a satisfying web browsing experience.

Simple and easy to navigate, the clean web design ensures the focus is on product rather than the latest advertising initiative.

Products are viewed with ‘back’ and ‘front’ perspectives, as well as a substantial zoom that’s smooth and quick - rather than the downloading mission you’ll find on Google maps.

Personally I’d like a 360 degree view, but the zoom allows those all important tailoring details that set luxury brands apart.

I like their product information – which is satisfyingly detailed and enticing, along with easy to understand delivery information.

But what really works on the site is the detailing on their catwalk collection – which has the same zoom function and product detail as the ready to wear.

Another feature that works is the ‘also recommended’ – displaying other items that work with the product. Cheaper than a stylist.

‘Burberry provides a satisfying browsing experience’ by Amy Tipper-Hale

Comment on this article ...

Retail Surgery: “Lots of our competitors have set up blogs on their websites. If we create one, what should we write about and how successful could we expect it to be?”

See my answer in Retail Week June 12 issue, or on the Retail Week website.

Comment on this article ...

I was asked to comment on home shopping businesses diversifying their offering, for Catalogue e-business magazine.

The article Diversify or Die features in the June issue, out now.

Read the article online on the Catalogue e-business website.

Comment on this article ...

Contributed ‘Good Shop, Bad Shop’ in Retail Week.

Comment on this article ...

Why am I excited about the impending birth of Tesco’s online fashion store?

Read my latest Drapers blog, ‘Tesco will upset the online fashion retail market’

Comment on this article ...