With an estimated value of £17.8 billion, online sales accounted for 6.7% of retail sales in the UK in 2009 (Mintel 2010). Today, as online shopping is evolving, retailers that have expanded or completely moved online are seeing a healthy growth in their revenue.

With market leaders such as M&S and Next increasing their margins through their multichannel strategy and visible online presence, it is safe to say that e-commerce is become a  key revenue driver for brands. As online sales figures continue to grow, fashion brands really need to focus on their digital marketing strategy and realise that  if they don’t, they will lose money!

Capitalising on your online presence is key and one of most important factors is getting your search and SEO strategy right. If you’re looking to take share from your competitors, how can you even begin to do this if consumers can’t even find you?

With an unbelievable 90% of users never going past the first page of  search results, ranking highly for popular  keywords is a clear money spinner. 

In fact, ranking on the  first page in  Google is like having a good looking shop window, attracting potential customers and maximizing your appeal. Even if you have the most amazing dresses, shoes or handbags, no one is going to click on your site if it’s on page 50!

Which one of these websites do you think gets more clicks?

This one?

Or this one?

I’d feel pretty confident guessing it’s the first one!

It is always surprising to notice how little some fashion etailers are investing in search. Search is probably the most used feature on a website and because of this, a good search engine is a quick way to stand out from the crowd! The fact that ROIs are solid and visible is further reason to really get your search strategy right. How?  Well just to get you started you can:

Get your basic SEO right: Research your competitor keywords, plan your keyword strategy, index your attributes, do technical audit and just make sure your site is fully optimized

Create relevant and rich content: this is probably one of the most important things to think about. If you want to get your brand talked about, you need to create relevant, rich and innovative content, be it a blog, video, event or competition to appeal to your key influencers. Fashion etailers have a huge advantage online as the fashion community is so prolific. Spending time engaging with influencers, providing content and listening to conversations will all help with improving your natural search positions

Implement visual search: create, host and seed images and videos to make the visual components of your site stand out and be easier found

Improve customer experience: make your site easy to use with lots of great content so people come, stay and eventually buy.  Factors such as ensuring your navigation is user friendly, improving internal search and having lots of rich content (trend advice, videos, blogs) will not only get you better visibility on Google but will also make you more attractive to your target audience

Be a leader not a follower: always stay ahead of the game in your industry by finding out what your competitors are doing and listening to your customers.  Thinking ahead and being innovative with your search and content strategy is the only way you can lead and rake in the profits

As shopping online is becoming more and more part of everyday life, fashion e-tailers need to realize that consumers are becoming less brand loyal and more likely to  buy what appears in their search results.