Fashion Retail Goes Digital in Christmas 2017

Christmas is undoubtedly one of the busiest shopping periods of the year, so retail businesses must invest in their marketing efforts to get the most out of their festive season sales. Businesses can already enjoy the ideal opportunity to introduce promotions and deals with big shopping events like Black Friday and Cyber Monday already built-in to the calendars of UK shoppers.

As retailers are the biggest investors in Christmas advertising, competition is fierce, especially for the key sectors, such as fashion retail. Big Christmas ad campaigns are now par for the course for businesses who want to capture the attention of festive consumers. However, should businesses stick to traditional forms of marketing or do people respond more to digital promotions?

Fashion Retail & Digital Christmas 2017

The Advertising Association has forecasted that Christmas 2017 will see the most ever spent on seasonal advertising by retailers. During the final quarter of 2017, there has been almost £6 billion spent, a year-on-year increase of 37% since 2010.

Christmas promotions are clearly an important part of a company’s business plan. For example, John Lewis are a company that have cemented their place within Christmas TV advertising. Their campaign is something that consumers wait for with anticipation each year and signals the start of the Christmas shopping season for many.

Their Christmas campaign for 2017 starred Moz the monster and was produced by legendary film director Michel Gondry. It reportedly cost around £1 million to make, with a further £6 million spent on TV slots and instore advertising.

Christmas Advertising: Traditional vs Digital

SMEs may not be able to pump the same resources into Christmas advertising as the big corporations, but they can utilise the more affordable platform of online advertising instead, which also has the ability to generate sales.

The amount spent on TV ads is expected to fall slightly as big brands begin to utilise social media like Facebook and Twitter, which is expected to increase 40% to £234 million according to advertising analysts, WARC.

With the purchases made from mobile devices growing, as well as clicks on online ads displayed to internet-users, online advertising can’t be overlooked this Christmas. Especially not with Black Friday and Cyber Monday, two of the biggest shopping days of the year, being predominantly online.

When Christmas shopping in 2016, 46% of millennials reported using retail-related apps for their shopping and if year-on-year online shopping trends are anything to go by, this is likely to grow for Christmas 2017.

Festive Online Marketing Strategies

So, what online marketing strategies should be adopted at Christmas for businesses in fashion retail. Digital Christmas in 2017 could be a strong strategy to adopt to make the most out of your festive sales.

There has been a shift in the way consumers make purchases and engage with brands to ensure customer loyalty. Brands now have to consider our lifestyles and daily habits in order to maintain our interest and content marketing and social media has been a key way that businesses can become more accessible to consumers.

Communicating your sales and Christmas products on social media can be a way to promote your products in the festive shopping period. Take inspiration from Aldi’s Christmas character Kevin the Carrot from 2016 – the retailer cleverly set up a Twitter account for Kevin full of veggie puns and festive messages that has continued into 2017.

Another way to make the most of social media is by allowing your consumers to buy your products directly from platforms such as Instagram – this makes buying your products easier for consumers, whilst also providing an additional valuable revenue stream for businesses in fashion retail.

Join the Digital Christmas Revolution

2017 is the year that your fashion retail business should consider moving your Christmas promotions online. With consumers using the internet more and more for their festive gift purchases and increasing demand for ease when shopping, it makes sense to utilise online channels. By using social media and content marketing, you can capture the attention of festive shoppers, which could be just as effective as using traditional methods of marketing this Christmas.

If you are interested in our Fashion Digital Marketing services, contact us today!