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Digital Britain Posts
Web fashionistas just a click away from mainstream acceptance
October 19th, 2009
I was really interested to see an article in the Times (www.timesonline.com) on the increased importance of blogs within the fashion industry.
This is a sector I have been strongly associated with for many years, so my interest was tweaked.
It wasn’t that long ago that Sir Philip Green, CEO and supremo of Arcadia, owners of Top Shop, Miss Selfridge and other leading retail fashion chains, dismissed offhand a new social networking website called Mint, setup by fashion students. If he couldn’t see an immediate financial opportunity, forget it.
So it was interesting to see Sir Philip invite fashion bloggers to its HQ for a preview of its Autumn / Winter lines. This is part of a broader trend in which retailers have been forced to find new ways of influencing key opinion-formers on the internet, which is the sector’s fastest growing sales channel.
According to Leon Bailey-Green, founder of the Online Fashion Agency ‘right now, bloggers are ruling the online fashion space. Arcadia are thought to be punching below their weight online – for example, ASOS, the fashion retailer that operates entirely online receives more visitors than any of Sir Philip’s brands.
As frivolous as a bloggers preview seems, fashion experts are unanimous in their increased importance, which began at the top end of the market. Two years ago Chanel invited bloggers to Paris for a VIP tour of Coco Chanel’s apartments. Its now, common for bedroom bloggers to have their own section at fashion shows, elbow to elbow with conventional fashion media.
More importantly, it is estimated that 40% of all fashion sales are influenced by the internet (15% of actual fashion sales are online), so retailers increasingly see the need to win hearts and minds online.
This is a problem because consumers are notoriously fickle and disloyal on the internet. Over 60% of consumers have increased their use of price comparison sites, and 45% said that they would leave the website immediately if it failed to show them what they wanted on the first page, according to Avail Intelligence Trust Index (http://avail.net/en).
So it seems that retailers really do need to take fashion bloggers seriously now and will find it difficult to get their attention when they become mainstream. It will certainly affect sales.
Do the Oldies matter?
May 16th, 2009
‘The fastest-growing group using the Internet are the over fifty-fives’.
That’s fact apparently. Although I don’t come under this category (!) we need to look seriously at an ageing population and the online marketing implications going forward. My 81 year old father-in-law is online at least 2 hours a day and is far more adept than some I have seen at half his age!
Take for example Figleaves, an online underwear site, which is now launching an underwear range specifically aimed at the 30 and 40-something women who buy its bras. No longer is online for youth. The average age at the video library site VideoJug is 40, and higher still for the cooking section of the site.
Some of the most successful sites relish in their mature customer base. Take Glassesdirect, for example, where Jamie Murray, it’s founder and CEO says ‘we’re concrete proof of the rise of the silver surfer – they have been integral to our growth’. And then what about the highly successful and profitable John Lewis site, which wouldn’t get my 20 year old anywhere near it!
Buying wine online also appeals to an older age group, as has been seen by Laithwaites Wines. They are selling online to people well into their 60’s and 70’s. But the marketing channels will be very different from those of a much younger age group.
Whereas there is little point in emailing under 30’s this has to be the route for an older customer. This younger group communicate almost exlusively through social networking sites – Facebook, MySpace and now Twitter, although it seems inevitable that this way of communicating will become the norm across the age spectrum. SAGA is apparently looking at setting up their own social networking site, so this is only around the corner.
But one word of warning – Spam is just as irritating whether 18 or 80.
Is ecommerce the way out of recession?
April 1st, 2009
In the UK, we are digital addicts.
Whilst we have ony 20% of the US’s population – our ecommerce market is 60% of the size of theirs. It’s the largest online market in Europe. 70% of Brits are now online – a very high percentage internationally – and online sales account for 17p in every Pound spent in the UK.
‘Ecommerce is the Noah’s Ark of retail in the recession. People naturally turn online when they want value, and those etailers that provide it will secure a place on the Ark to better times. Those that don’t will not be able to get on’, commented Jamie Muray, founder and CEO of Glassesdirect.com.
This wave of success is being driven by some smart individuals, mainly London based, and often women (able to excel outside of corporate stereotypes) who are focussing almost exclusively on innovation and creativity. From these, significant profits are now being made, and there is little or no discussion about recession. In fact the attitude amongst these entrepreneurs is to find new market opportunties in the chaos.
Take for example moo.com, which at first glance would look like a small London based printing business. They have skillfully expoited the web to sell abroad to increase profits and economies of scale. They now export to over 30 markets globally and the website is translated into 6 languages.
Or what would be seen as a traditional online ‘off-licence’, Laithwaites.co.uk is now shipping wine across the globe and is doing strong business in viticultural markets such as France, Australia, the US and Germany.
Peter Fitzgerald, from Google UK recently commented ‘Ecommerce will not be the only road out of recession for the UK but it will be one of the main ones’
Napoleon said we were a nation of shop-keepers. Well now we are now fast becoming a nation of e-tailers.
Lord Carter gives keynote speech on ‘Delivering Digital Britain’. We were there.
February 24th, 2009
The Crunch Breaker and the Leaptomorrow team (www.leaptomorrow.com) attended a breakfast function earlier today where Lord Carter, Minister in Her Majesty’s Government for Communications, Technology and Broadcasting gave a keynote policy speech on the future of Digital Britain.
The eagerly awaited Carter Report revealed little newness and was a telling tale of the position the UK Government is now in. ‘We’re not quite sure what to do’ was mentioned various times by Lord Carter, but in his brief overview of the report, which he has led, he highlighted several key areas the UK Government will focus on in their digital policy, which are briefly as follows:
1. Infrastructure – the Govermement have a commitment to link up to 90% of the UK population to high speed digital broadband, although no time span was given.
2. Content – the decision to turn off analogue for TV would not be followed in other media such as radio.
3. Proficiency – trying to balance the ‘openness and freedom’ of the Internet with finding solutions to illegality and piracy.
4. Digital Government – there is a commitment to delivering easier access and allowing the user to trail the goverment bodies. Plus Universal service.
5. Training – people who hold the future should be trained. Need to retain know how in the UK where we lead in design, graphics and the computer games industry.
All very interesting (!?) but luckily we had two other speakers offering challenging questions too – Neil Burkett, CEO at Virgin Media and Paul Bazelgette, sector guru, and responsible for Big Brother among other things..
- Public Utility vs Boosting the Economy – needs to be the latter. All very well making broadband available to all but we need to see a financial dividend. We need to make digital far more commercial and driving entrepreneurial opportunity. Currently a social dividend exists; and economic dividend does not.
- Old Organisations vs New Organisations – there’s no point in the Government pumping money into yesterday’s industries. We, as taxpayers, should not be protecting old business models that cannot be sustained. Allow these to wither and die.
And the lessons for small and medium sized businesses?
Think laterally. How can you use all aspects of New Media and grow your business? Think beyond your normal boundaries – the government are committed to widening fast speed connections, both land based and wireless. We, as entrepreneurs are those who have to come up with the triggers to drive new growth.
One thing is for sure. Things will be very different after this recession. There will be winners and losers. Let’s make sure we’re in the former.