Carly Newnham’s final project concentrates on affiliate fashion sites and social networking. The student, who is doing a Fashion, Media & Promotion course, asks...

“Why does osoyou.com only concentrate on online promotion of the site?”

Leon says...

“Sites such as OSOYOU concentrate on online promotion simply because it’s most effective in terms of result and cost.

By marketing online they are able to attract immediate connection as the user will click to view the website. By marketing offline you’re reliant on people typing in the URL or brand name.

Where you do see websites like OSOYOU promoted offline, it is usually because they are affiliated to a magazine publisher.”

Carly also asks...

“What is a reasonable number of retailers for a start up affiliate site to have?”

Leon replies...

“Nowadays an affiliate website can start up with hundreds of retailers by using feeds. How many a website starts with depends totally on the complexity of the design, and the technology capabilities an affiliate has.”

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The Saturdays are creating a capsule collection for online fashion store Rare Fashion.

A myriad of party dresses and wet look leggings, Rare Fashion has everything you need to perfect that celebrity look on a Saturday night out – watch out Lipsy.

Where Lipsy grew its market having its products seen on reality TV stars, Rare is upping its profile with official endorsement from The Saturdays.

Mollie, Una, Frankie, Rochelle and Vanessa have already been seen out and about in Rare dresses, and no doubt the store will have seen an increase in sales from the association with Britain’s newest girl group.

Working with The Saturdays will give Rare an opportunity to create online PR that will have lasting effects.

My first thought would be to use the group for interview opportunities on music blogs – with links back to the Rare Fashion website that will help its SEO forever.

The discussion of the deal and the range itself will naturally attract incoming links to the website which again, helps with SEO, but will also drive relevant traffic.

Universal search is becoming more important; a video of the girls discussing their range on YouTube may appear in Google’s search listings when people search for ‘The Saturdays’ - great for pulling in an audience that is actively interested in the girls.

The tie up will also no doubt also be added to the group’s Wikipedia page, which will be perfect for brand association for the lifetime of the group.

Most importantly Rare is getting in there early. They will be the first online store to have a huge amount of links pointing to them from pages mentioning The Saturdays and fashion – so Google will naturally associate Rare with fashion and The Saturdays.

So in years to come when they’re the next big fashion thing guess which store will be more likely to rank highly when people search “Frankie Sandford’s Style”?

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I recently met up with the lovely Shannon Edwards, who heads up ShopStyle Europe, to discuss all things online retail.

Shannon and I have been in contact over email since last year, but we were prompted to meet by a mutual friend who described Shannon as “one of the nicest people you’ll ever meet”.

And it’s true, she really is… and very funny too! Shannon told me that she used to appear on TV shows like The View (which is America’s version of Loose Women) to discuss online shopping, but cut the showbiz because “when your mum stops watching it’s time to give up”.

When we got onto the subject of online retail we spent the best part of half an hour putting the entire retail industry to rights!

What was clear with Shannon is that she understands online and retail as separate entities, as well as online retail as a whole.

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Regular readers will know I get to meet a lot of successful online fashion retail entrepreneurs. I hear all the stories about how they started to get where they are today, so here are my tips for making it in online fashion retail (not to be taken too seriously! it is April 1st).

1. Get married – For some reason online fashion businesses seem to work best as duos. Must be something to do with yin and yang.

2. Do it in your 30’s – That way you’ve either built up some useful contacts having worked in the industry or you’ll be at the “f*** it, let’s do it” stage in life.

3. Start the business at home – And stay there for as long as you can to save money. You might annoy the neighbours with noise from delivery vans (and it might be illegal) but don’t go anywhere until you start getting s*** through your letterbox; that’s when it’s time to get an office/warehouse.

4. Market it yourself – If you have to hire a consultant (like me), get advice on what YOU can do to market it yourself, keep all the execution in house in your control and remember it’s ok to make mistakes as long as you learn from them.

5. Have children – Yes they’re cute, but they’re also a constant reminder that you have to make a success of the business as you’re spending their inheritance.

6. Show your face – There’s little room for shrinking violets in this business. Our media takes an increasing amount of interest in the owners of businesses, as they can generate interesting stories from personalities.

7. Wear your product – OK, so Nick Robertson didn’t dress up like Posh or Kate Moss, but he saw a customer demand for look-a-like items and wore the values of the ASOS brand on his sleeve. What was your reason, other than profit, for going into your online fashion retail niche?

8. Find a niche – Do you really have a niche? Are you just a me-too? What could your niche be?

9. Bore your friends and family (and their friends and family) to death – Tell everyone and his mum about your business. Always have a story ready, the more unusual the better as they’ll then tell their friends.

10. Read this blog regularly.

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I recently met up with Vanessa Knox-Brien and Baukjen de Swaan Arons, the founders of online success story Isabella Oliver, at their office in north London.

With a day packed full of meetings, lunches and international conference calls, back to back and all timed to precision, I waited patiently for my time with the entrepreneurial pair.

In the few minutes I was sat in the waiting area, which is part of the open plan office, I could hear the creative team discussing the wording of the next newsletter.

As you would expect my 360 glance of the office uncovered every fashion company must-have; magazine and product cut outs plastered to the walls. Isabella Oliver’s office was everything people outside of the industry imagine the fashion business to be – glamorous, exciting and everything but dull.

But as we know fashion retail is a challenging business and whilst glamour’s good, it doesn’t get you everywhere.

As I moved into the meeting room to chat to Vanessa and Baukjen it quickly became obvious why Isabella Oliver turned over £800k in its first year when the company began in 2003.

Their shrewd business acumen blends well with their determination to build a brand that puts the customer first; Isabella Oliver always delivers above and beyond expectation. It’s this attitude that has driven the brand’s word of mouth appeal, something ever so crucial to the success of a start up brand.

During our meeting I asked where they would take the brand next, given that other big players in online retail have considered launching flagship stores, but this particular avenue it seems isn’t on the agenda.

Vanessa and Baukjen believe that whilst you can expand into other areas (like the non-pregnant collection they have recently launched), a brand must have some core values, and one of those for Isabella Oliver is online retail – and don’t they do it well.

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Gemma Cartwright, founder of Catwalk Queen, is one of Britain’s most popular fasion bloggers. I asked Gemma about Catwalk Queen’s editorial process, the influence of fashion blogs and what items, available online, she’s coveting.

Who is the Catwalk Queen reader?
She’s a young woman interested in fashion, shopping and celebrities who wants mainstream fashion news in an easily accessible way.

She shops on the high street but aspires to buy designer, and she probably loves a bit of quirky vintage too.

How do you decide day to day which stories to cover?
We have a calendar of big events; award shows, fashion weeks, big movie premieres, album releases and so on, and tailor content to fit that.

We also look at seasonal trends, so we’ll cover swimwear in the run-up to Summer, coats in Autumn etc. But a lot of it comes from what happens on a daily basis. What we see on the news wires, picture agencies and our RSS feeds each day.

I’d say about 60% of the content is unplanned, and is a reaction to what’s happening at the time.

What’s your take on email press releases sent to multiple editors using the BCC field?
Not a problem at all, so long as it’s well-targeted. I understand that no PR has the time to personalise every single email.

But you’d be amazed at the amount of useless press releases I get because people haven’t read the site before adding me to their mailing list.

Also, if they forget to blind copy, that’s another matter!

Do you think retailers understand the growing influence of fashion blogs?
Most of them. The shift is still happening, but it’s so much better now than it was a few years ago.

I remember one particular high street store once told one of my writers flat out “We don’t do online” when she called for information. A year later, they were schmoozing me with lunches, freebies and competition prizes, and to credit them, they were very open about the fact they didn’t ‘get it’ in the past.

The important thing to remember is that it’s not just the PR you need to persuade, it’s their client!

What is your top tip for brands that want to feature on Catwalk Queen?
Read the site and understand what it is we write about (for example, we don’t cover accessories or shoes outside of our outfit picks because we have other blogs devoted to them on our network). And then give us something interesting to write about!

And finally, which fashion items, available online, are you coveting this season?
Firstly I’d love an Esther Williams bikini. She used to star in films in the golden era of Hollywood, and her swimwear range is made to vintage patterns like the ones she wore. The photos on the site are awful but the bikinis themselves are perfect for that pin-up girl look!

Secondly, Kurt Geiger Fashionistas ‘Mayfair’ shoes, which have hat netting on the vamp. They’re gorgeous!

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Everyone agrees that it is important to retain online audiences; with marketing and PR budget spent to get people to a website that acquisition becomes more cost effective each time they return.

For online stores the product range goes some way to acting as sticky content which encourages people to return.

Content, in the form of blogs, video and podcasts, are increasingly being used to encourage repeat visits.

Online store Koodos has chosen to host the Bargainista blog as its sticky content.

Bargainista blog sits on www.koodos.com/blog

Bargainista regularly publishes the best discounts to be found at online fashion stores.

In marketing terms it’s a bold move to promote competitors. Some will say it’s counterproductive to push retail traffic to a competitor but I think it’s a good way for Koodos to encourage repeat visits.

From a branding perspective by mentioning and promoting the deals of other stores, Koodos is telling its customer it is so confident of its own position in the market that it is happy to link to others.

Over time the customer will associate Koodos with bargains, regularly returning to the blog to find new discounts and deals – and by controlling the blog Koodos can use it to market its own store.

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With online fashion retail seeing traffic growth of 31% it’s easy to see why there has been a growth in fashion content websites. They’re all vying for a share of the affiliate and advertising revenue that comes from having a successful online magazine.

But if these websites are serious about generating revenue in this climate, they’re going to have to throw brand awareness out of the window and create solutions that help retailers directly drive sales.

The larger retailers that have the budget for brand awareness campaigns will stick to the established high traffic websites and blogs that have been around for some time, as they deliver the mass reach they’re after.

Neutrogena runs advertising campaigns on established fashion website OSOYOU.com

Newer publishers have an opportunity to serve the many online fashion retailers with smaller budgets and niche product ranges.

It’s these retailers that will be more creative with their marketing approaches, looking to publishers for inspiration, as the publisher knows – or at least should know – their users best.

Sticking to a niche, to be more relevant to retailers and visitors, will be the key to success of the many upcoming online fashion magazines; it’s all about standing out from the crowd.

Visitors and page views are important metrics, but marketers will pay more if they are convinced your audience is engaged in a subject applicable to their product selection – something you demonstrate over time with consistent quality content on that subject.

It’s all about taking the user from your website to a retailer. If you’re known for having content on one subject, your visitor will be coming to you for that one thing – you know what they want and you can lead them into buying it.

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I was recently joined by Chantelle Znideric for lunch at Sushinho restaurant in Chelsea.

Chantelle is a stylist who works with clients on a one-to-one basis to revamp their wardrobes and create looks that work for them.

When she’s finished making her clients feel good about themselves the Surrey based stylist is working behind the scenes with digital marketing professional Hayden Allen-Vercoe on a series of web projects, including those which promote her styling service.

Just type ‘personal stylist’ into Google and you will see the hundreds of personal shoppers across the country appear in the search results all vying for attention, but Chantelle’s TopStylista website www.personal-stylist.co.uk takes the #1 prime position.

Teaming up with Hayden, who is also her fiancé, has seen Chantelle benefit from the huge amount of website traffic that being #1 for personal stylist brings.

With that achievement under their belts, the couple are also focusing on bringing personal styling to the masses through iStylista, a virtual service where you can download a customised style guide after answering a few questions.

Understanding that the success of an online application or service is based on continual innovation, Hayden and Chantelle are making some very exciting developments to iStylista which will link personal styling with online retail.

And if that wasn’t enough you’ll also catch Chantelle and Hayden reviewing luxury brands (including the Sushinho restaurant where Chantelle and I dined) for their website Lussorian.

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Beauty brands are often asked to provide items for goody bags to give out at fashion parties.

Alice Stone holds W7 Press Powder from Pink Drinks goody bag

At London Fashion Week the Metropolitan Hotel hosted its Pink Drinks party, which is a fashion industry favourite.

There are lots of fashion press and buyers at the hotel to see new collections from top designers, so placing something in the goody bags of this event is a good move for brands that want to get noticed by fashion journalists.

This kind of marketing opportunity is a good way of promoting a website too.

By placing a URL on the product journalists can tell their readers where to buy the product, whether it’s the brand’s own store or an official stockist, making it a good marketing opportunity for that store too.

It’s probably one of the least exploited forms of offline marketing by online stores.

In this climate PR agencies could consider doing deals with online stores to charge them a per feature fee when they get them credited for a brand they are working to promote – of course with the full agreement of the brand.

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Who needs celebrity style when you can get the look of ‘man on the street’?

Stitsh.com launched last year

Stitsh.com features a weekly updated gallery of stylish people out and about in the UK, allowing you to click on items to buy online.

The website makes money by taking a commission of sales when you click through and buy.

It does look very London to me which I think could put off a lot of people outside of the M25 – Every town has its own style so I would like to see a more diverse range of people and the ability to browse photos by locality.

Locality and super user generate content, by local selected style spotters, could be big drivers for a service like this.

Some of the street style looks I like

Because of its “I want to see what people are wearing” and “I want to see my photo” nature Stitsh can easily grow its audience by viral marketing – local content is easy to relate to and is one of the few areas well exploited on the web.

With a local emphasis Stitsh could be used as a platform to pre-shop, where the user seeks style inspiration before shopping on the high street.

This means the model of affiliate revenue, taking a commission for every web sale, would have to be supplemented by another form of advertising.

Being local, it would make sense to have each town/city sponsored by boutiques.

With that strategy Stitsh’s challenge would be to ensure there is enough regular content for each sponsored town/city.

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Last week I went to the On | Off catwalk show which is sponsored by online fashion store Oli.co.uk.

Me with Kate Lapthron

Celebrities on the front row included former model Jodie Kidd, actress Jamie Winstone, All Saint Melanie Blatt, DJ Jodie Harsh and Sugababe Heidi Range.

Enjoying the show: Melanie Blatt, Jamie Winstone and the Lennox sisters

I recently wrote about the importance of online retailers sponsoring events like this as the brand association with cutting edge fashion will, albeit indirectly, have an impact on conversion rates.

Jodie Kidd has a range at Oli.co.uk

The fashion store’s association with On | Off has seen it become talk of fashion blogs which is excellent for brand building and positioning.

What’s important is that Oli encourages blogs and online fashion magazines to link to their website, as this will help with their search engine visibility.

Last season’s show, attended by Peaches Geldof, attracted a write up and link on Glamcanyon.

Online features: Glamcanyon and Wonderland

More recently the On|Off show was featured on Wonderland Magazine but without a link to the store.

Oli could ask Wonderland to add a link to the post – it’s a process known in the online marketing community as ‘link reworking’.

Link reworking is asking for a link on a blog or article to a brand that is already mentioned in the piece but not linked to.

I hope next season the brand engages with more bloggers who have the ability to directly affect their search engine visibility.

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The Metropolitan Hotel has a pink party twice a year during London Fashion Week.

Fashion crowd pack the Met Bar

The event coincides with designers showcasing their collection to buyers and press at the London hotel.

The party, attended by over 300 people in the fashion industry, has already been blogged about by Bianca Pal and Liz Lamb.

There were a lot of people taking photos who will no doubt blog (or tweet) about the party after the London Fashion Week “come down”.

Enjoying the party: Me and guests

I think premium hotel brands wanting to be synonymous with fashion should encourage this type of coverage by actively inviting fashion, luxury and lifestyle bloggers and online journalists to events.

The more links the hotels get from these websites the higher their visibility will be in the search engines when people search for hotels.

Entertainment was provided by the SKIP Theatre

These blog posts and articles will also appear in the search listings when people search using brand led terms such as ‘met bar’ or ‘metropolitan hotel’.

The appearance of articles from luxury websites when searching for the brand creates positive and relevant associations with the hotel.

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I recently received a 50% off voucher for The Avalon, a restaurant in Clapham, which led me to think about how restaurants could use local content to market themselves online.

Many are using 2 for 1 offers and 50% discounts to encourage people to visit their restaurants, with the main advantage of such promotions being to capture data, primarily email addresses, for future communication.

It can also be an opportunity for restaurateurs to find out where their diners are coming from – just by asking customers for their home town they can find out how far people travel to get to their eatery. It all helps to build up a profile of the customer.

Restaurateurs may rely on regulars and people who happen to be passing, but that’s not true of other local attractions which people research before visiting.

That’s why it’s important for restaurant websites to include local content, particularly landmarks and attractions of interest, which people may search for in Google.

To get that local content seen and rated by the search engines, restaurants will need to attract links to their websites from websites and blogs.

One way to do this would be to invite bloggers to the restaurant to review it – they may have smaller audiences but they would be more likely to get an SEO friendly link from a blog than a larger website.

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My-Wardobe.com’s co-founders Andrew and Sarah Curran joined me to have lunch at Bentley’s Restaurant in Mayfair.

Me with My-Wardrobe CEO Sarah Curran

Innocently humble (probably a result of living outside the London fashion and media bubble) the couple oozed a work hard, play hard, have fun mentality. Complete without the airs, graces and complacency that sometimes follows successful entrepreneurs.

If anyone lives by the “you get out what you put in” mantra, it’s these two. They, and the team at My Wardrobe, have put in three years of hard work to build one of the biggest successes in British online retail, now recognised by the industry at the Drapers Etail Awards.

I am always interested in hearing the motivations of online entrepreneurs for starting their businesses, and the Curran’s told a story that would read well on the pages of Tatler.

A combination of love, business, family and of course fashion, it’s one of a couple who cleverly capitalised on a growing industry at the right time, in the right way and for the right reasons.

Online designer fashion store My-Wardrobe.com

I admired the fact that their interest in the creative and financial aspects of running the business was equal – something rare in this industry.

I will end on my suspicion that some of the success must be down to the epitomising of their own customer somewhat.

You’ve seen all the makeover shows where the stylist lives the life of the person their dressing, and not only do Andrew and Sarah eat and breathe My Wardrobe they certainly live the lifestyle too.

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