By Emma Gamble

As an Executive Search Consultant specialising in fashion e-commerce I have the challenge of finding the best people for my clients. Things that can switch a headhunter on and off in that first call.

1. Know your figures, if you are managing a budget, whether it be marketing specific or a full P&L, a lack of financial acumen is a big turn off to Headhunters and employers- every client is watching their costs and it’s all about the ROI!

2. Don’t just talk about your responsibilities- talk about your achievements. What did you do to drive fashion sales this summer for your business? 

3. Be clear on your professional goals and objectives. Good headhunters want to find the right thing for you as well as the right thing for their clients.

4. Be realistic with your salary expectations- headhunters know what is realistic in the market. You should be given a financial incentive to make a move, but your reasons to move company should not be all financial ones- Headhunters can sense this and we steer clear.

By Emma Gamble, Director at Gamble & Yeates

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By Helen Brown, founder of Catwalk Genius

Congratulations on your decision to purchase…

MyAwesomeOnlineFashionBiz.com!

Please read these operating instructions thoroughly before use.

1. Cool design not supplied
Your customers spend most of their online time on beautifully-designed pages. The look of the site will be a critical factor in establishing your credibility with new visitors, so invest in professional design and photography.

2. Select a business model
Are you competing with Net-a-Porter? ASOS? If so, please plug in your multi-million marketing budget into socket A. Or, you could choose to exploit online technology in a way that nobody else has – and become remarkable. 

3. Install a slick user experience
Navigating your site may seem obvious, but guessing the best layout is an expensive gamble. Better to take a leaf out of Jakob Nielsen’s book and test your design regularly with the help of typical members of your target audience. 

4. Find your audience
If you just build it, they almost certainly won’t come. If you don’t have the budget for those Vogue advertorials, you’ll need to invest wisely in marketing and PR. Social media is your friend, as long as your firm has an authentic, interesting voice.

By Helen Brown, founder of Catwalk Genius

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Where Google innovates in text search Empora leads the way in visual search for fashion.

Empora.com the place to shop the uk’s top retailers

You thought shopping by shape meant body shape, but now, thanks to Empora, it can mean shopping by the shape of an item, not to mention colour and price.

How does it work you ask; Well, click ‘view similar’, on any item that you like the shape of, and Empora returns other items of a similar shape.

Take a look at this example.

Top row – shape matches.

Middle row – shape and colour matches.

Bottom row – Colour matches.

Give it a go at www.empora.com

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Myself with Kristina O’Connor

Kristina O’Connor may have studied Spanish and Italian at Birmingham University for four years but her passion is online retail.

Having beta launched Store Society, at the end of last year, Kristina is now tasked with developing phase two of the website with a relaunch which took place last month.

I recently caught up with Kristina (whose father is a TV favourite) to find out more about Store Society.

What is Store Society to the average fashion shopper?

Right now, many would think of Store Society as a social network.

The site connects fashion lovers with each other allowing them to share their latest looks and be inspired by each other’s style.

Members have the standard social network tools available to them such as status updates, messaging, recommending, rating, following and befriending, but Store Society is much more than that.

Store Society relaunched August 2009

How does Store Society help boutiques?

If you are a fashion retailer you can get your store listed on Store Society now, for free, which allows you to engage with our members.

Simply filling in location and opening hours is enough to be useful to a user.

However, upload your logo and add some product, and instantly your store becomes discoverable in our browse and search functions.

Stores can promote products, sales and offers directly to members. This is useful for stores that aren’t yet online; it gives them a presence with the intention of assisting footfall.

Retailers who do operate transactional sites can deep-link their items to product pages on their own websites. All free.

Do you see Store Society as an alternative to a boutique creating a website, or is it more of a promotional tool for them?

I’ve spoken with a number of boutique owners who say that they just don’t have the time or money to build a decent website.

Store Society gives stores a professional online presence that is quick and simple to create and very easy to maintain, with instant traffic from the UK and beyond.

The majority of independents don’t have transactional sites, which is something Store Society is working on.

Stores will be able to sell directly from the site in the near future.

Myself with Kristina O’Connor at the London Fashion Network’s first birthday party

As a new media entrepreneur you must have picked up a few technical learnings on the way.

Every day I’m learning something new! I would say the most significant thing I’ve learned so far is the importance of social media, full stop.

As more people choose to shop online, the use of social media is increasingly important as a way for stores to attract attention in a crowded market place.

Through social media, stores can create a personality and communicate directly with their customers, helping to engender loyalty and generate traffic, which in turn leads to sales. Communicate first, sell second.

Name three of your favourite fashion websites?

Peter Versus Toby - An Australian boutique with a sense of humour and some fantastic prints.

Doc Dog - A Brazilian with some really fresh yet feminine designs.

Billy Boyce Clothing - A London based boutique all about funky contemporary street fashion.

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Check out Store Society

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I’m very excited about The Online Fashion Agency which launches late this year in association with Amethyst Group and Olswang.

As well as being a consultancy, with experts working on marketing and business strategy for online fashion retailers, it will also be a news resource.

It will be packed with news about e-commerce and digital publishing for the fashion industry.

Those in the industry will be kept up to date with what everyone else is doing, whilst consumers will receive expert advice on savvy online shopping.

Plus, bloggers will be the first group of creatives to be signed up to the Talent House.

Sign up here and email talk.to@theonlinefashionagency.com for business opportunities.

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Just because a website uses a blogging platform for content, in my eyes, that doesn’t make it a blog; even if the publisher calls it a blog.

So what’s the difference between a fashion blog and an online fashion magazine?

Well, today’s fashion blogs are written by individuals the readers have a relationship with.

The blogger posts photos of themselves; in outfits, at parties and even at work.

An online fashion magazine is newsy.

The news isn’t what the writer’s wearing, where they’re going or what they do for a living.

The news is what someone else wears, where someone else goes or what someone else does.

A fashion blog is…
Shoegalfi, Style Salvage, Disneyrollergirl

An online fashion magazine is…
My Fashion Life, OSOBLOG

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Schway has teamed up with London College of Fashion for an interactive look at their graduate collection.

Schway is an online mix ‘n’ match fashion site where customers can dress mannequins virtually – with both outfits and accessories, and then purchase on the retailers site.

Schway is in its early stages at the moment and needs to grow its collections for mass appeal.

The graduate collection makes up the sites most eclectic and original pieces so far, and though we get no real idea of fabric and feel for the pieces, the graphic interpretations of the clothing get the core design across.

Obviously the graduate collection is not available for purchase, but LCF have succeeded in taking their designs into the digital world, an advantage that serves both fashion lovers, and the graduates themselves.

The collaboration is set to continue with more projects on the way next year.

See the application, sponsored by Fashshot.com, in action here.

‘London College of Fashion and Schway - taking designs into the digital world’ by Amy Tipper-Hale

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Read my Drapers blog, ‘Will Simon Fuller’s Fashionair.com get 22m viewers?’

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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

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The future of fashion magazines has made me loose sleep over the past few weeks. Their demise is predicted as imminent and now the only discussions worth having are how we’re going to format it all online.

I think Fashionair.com may have it cracked. Fashionair is a new website launching in September by Spice Girl’s ex-manager Simon Fuller. Whilst we were gagging for girl power and plastic pop back in the mid nineties, the end of the noughties has bought about a more pressing need – an interactive, fashion forward and graphic conscience website.

Fashionair looks like a cut out collage of my favourite issues of Vogue. The imagery is busy without being overwhelming – you want to click on everything because it’s bright, sparkly and inviting.

Fashionair has a good use of space and colouring, and so far – no irritating pop-up ads.

Where the site really excels is on video content. They have ‘Style Council’ which is basically a fashion-shopping channel for discerning customers. The joy being that whilst the video is playing you can click on the product, which is being displayed on the site at the same time.

‘Fashion Insider’ gets some of the biggest names in fashion on the site so that we can go poking around their wardrobes and interactively living their fashionable lives.

The Personal Style section really works – items such as ‘7 Days of Chic’, with designer Saloni Lodha, takes us on a fashion guide through her holiday wardrobe – this time we can buy high street replicas of what she’s wearing by clicking on the screen.

I suspect in September Fashionair will be in every favourites bar, and the ultimate lunchtime browsing experience.

‘A preview of Simon Fuller’s Fashionair’ by Amy Tipper-Hale

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Which online fashion stores does NOW magazine editor Abigail Blackburn rate?

Read my latest Drapers blog, ‘Interview with NOW magazine editor Abigail Blackburn (Part 2)’

See Part 1 of the interview here

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What does the internet mean to the editor of Britain’s premier celebrity weekly?

Abigail Blackburn, editor of NOW magazine, reveals her must-read websites, views on blogging and the role of showbiz gossip forums.

So, what are your favourite websites?
Abigail: I’m a regular on Wonderwall, The Superficial and People.com (and its Celebrity Baby Blog).

My guilty secret is First Lady of Style because I actually don’t feel my week’s complete if I haven’t checked out what Michelle Obama’s been wearing - I obsess about all her belts and most of her dresses.

First Lady of Style & Deadline Hollywood Daily

I also check out Deadline Hollywood Daily for US industry gossip, Girl With A Satchel to keep up with Aussie media gossip and The Style Editor because, in all seriousness, NOW’s Alison Tay is an enigma whose blog is always full of surprises, even though I can see her desk from my office.

It’s the only way I can keep up with her. 

The Digital Spy Showbiz forum has a huge user generated blind items thread. What part, if any at all, do gossip forums play in getting new stories for NOW?

A: They play a role if there’s suddenly a big interest or outcry over a celebrity who’s key for NOW’s cast list.

So if there’s a massive reaction over Jennifer Aniston or Cheryl Cole then we may well pick up on that and mention it as part of a feature.

However forums don’t generate complete stories for us as they’re still one step too removed from the celebrity and tend to be litigious. Our news team always work with great sources or they wouldn’t get any story past our lawyers.

Do you see blogs as a way to spot new writing talent for the magazine?
A: Mainly in the sense that it helps to loosen up the writing of staff who are currently blogging as well as writing on the page for the print mag.

Blogging lends itself to a much more informal style and letting that filter through to the magazine makes it feel more contemporary.

I get lots of emails from people asking me to check out their blogs, but I’m afraid I don’t always find the time to take them up on their offer, thanks to the 100+ emails I receive daily.

See Part 2 of the interview here on Drapers Online.

The new look NOW is on sale. See more on www.nowmagazine.co.uk

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The Online Fashion 100 are now voting for the ‘Star’ of the industry, with the winner to be announced, and an award presented, at an event, sponsored by Fash Shot, next month.

Who will win?

Read my latest Drapers blog, ‘Who is the Star of Online Fashion?’

Download Online Fashion 100 for a reminder of the names.

If you’re on the list email vote100@reallycontent.com with the three names you think should win, by June 12th.

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Online retailers are constantly thinking of ways to eliminate barriers to purchase.

Shoppers do like to feel and see fashion, but the success of home shopping and the growth in online fashion retail speaks volumes.

If people are given enough textually and visually they’ll feel confident in purchasing.

One barrier to purchase is fit – we normally tend to fit into standard sizing for clothing, but when it comes to lingerie fit is more important.

That’s why online lingerie retailers have to work that little bit harder to secure a purchase.

The KnickerPicker.com website allows you to see videos of models wearing underwear available to but online from a range of stores.

You pick a model with a similar body shape, choose the lingerie, see how it looks on a real woman, then click to purchase.

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