How to increase brand loyalty: Fashion e-commerce edition

What is brand loyalty? How can you increase brand loyalty in fashion e-commerce?

As fashion designers ourselves, we’d give the following succinct answer: It is the backbone of any successful business. Period.

Before, brand loyalty mainly meant that you had to have a good product. Today, this is still the basic rule. However, there are a few more layers to building a trusting, positive, and long-lasting relationship with your customer base.

Whether your customers stick with you has never been more important…and more challenging. The fashion industry has become increasingly diversified; it has also seen waves of innovations and new standards among companies.

The e-commerce craze fueled this progress further, and now we’re seeing designers and consumers interact in various interactive ways. Social media, giveaways, mobile apps – these are only a few examples of engaging with your target audience.

Everything is (and has to be) more creative, more colorful, more exciting. We had plenty of eye-opening experiences with our own fashion brand.

As always, there’s a catch, though.

The catch here is that consumer expectations have also become way stricter.

It makes sense, as they are increasingly surrounded by choices. They’re in a goldmine with all the shovels provided. They know they have the upper hand. Because let’s face it – it’s never been easier for a customer to switch to a competitor of yours. Once they have an unsatisfying experience with your brand, it’s over.

At the same time, it’s gotten increasingly harder to acquire new leads. With so many fish out there in the sea, you need to provide nothing short of excellence.

So, where do you go from here as a designer or brand?

We have a strategic solution for you. But first, we need to clarify one thing…

Exactly how picky have consumers become?

“A lot” doesn’t say much, so let’s take a look at some numbers.

Salesforce is a master at gauging consumer attitudes, and they have a revelation:

80% of consumers think that the experience you provide is as important as the products or services you offer.

65% of them expect you to adapt to their ever-changing needs and preferences.

That’s steep!

You can see the survey here, it’s a recommended read for any self-respecting brand.

Instant gratification is a key factor. Consumers have grown accustomed to online shopping that’s exactly one click away and to user experience ensuring a seamless purchasing process.

But in the case of fashion, there is one very important, very special factor driving consumer satisfaction – or the lack of it.

The #1 reason you’re losing customers

It’s no secret – fitment is the ghost haunting the hallways of the fashion industry. We’ve talked about this in our post dealing with the challenges of customer returns.

Did you know the following, though:

If a first-time customer has to return their purchase, there’s an 80% chance that they will never shop at your site again.

Now, add to this the fact that clothing is the leader in returns among US retailers with a staggering 24% (source, applies to online sales). Three-quarters of these returns were due to none other than fitment issues.

The picture seems pretty grim, doesn’t it?

We’re talking about a lot of lost opportunities to increase brand loyalty for your fashion e-commerce store. And let’s not dig deeper into economic pressure, as most consumers expect brands to cover the return costs.

A few years ago, retail analytics software Edited pointed out that 85% of consumers go back to a specific brand because of the fit. Things haven’t changed much since then. It makes perfect sense – if you know that what you buy fits you, you will stick to the proven formula.

In other words, as a designer you can have one very important competitive advantage: getting the fit factor right.

If you manage to do this, you’ll not only keep your existing customers – you’ll see new people flocking to your brand too.

But how, you might ask. How can I do this?

Well…

The key to the fitment headache: Data personalization

Personalization has been THE keyword in the fashion industry for close to a decade.

Going back to the Salesforce report, 84% of the respondents said that being “treated like a person” and experiencing custom-tailored offers will win them as a customer.

An already long time ago, this Harvard Business Review article discussed data, transparency, and trust – and collection that leads to products/services that “make life easier”, are “entertaining” or save money for consumers.

At the same time, other reports outlined how 60 to 70% of fashion and apparel customers say that a personalized shopping experience and custom product recommendations are somewhat or very important.

Things haven’t changed in this regard. This is where our solution comes in.

Thе Size Sense approach to uniting fashion brands and consumers

As designers ourselves, we understand how delicate it is to foster brand loyalty – and exactly how important it is to deliver well-fitting clothes to your customers. We also know that personalization is the future of fashion.

Leveraging our practical knowledge, we created our Shopify app to help fashion brands:

1. Decrease customer returns and increase brand loyalty in fashion e-commerce.
2. Tap into those 60% of online shoppers who are afraid of purchasing because of sizing uncertainties.
3. Provide a precise answer to customers’ most pressing question: “What size am I?”

What Size Sense does is help you cut down on abandoned shopping carts and product returns.

But if we’re to speak in more practical business terms, our algorithm bumps both the lifetime value (LTV) of your customers and their average order value (AOV).

Which ultimately translates into boosted revenue and drastically increased brand loyalty.

Our secret that’s soon to be your secret?

It’s the personalization we provide.

Back in 2017, the Boston Consulting Group reported that retailers who implemented personalization strategies saw a 10%+ increase in sales.

Since then, the appetite for personalization customers has only grown. In late 2021, McKinsey revealed that brands that excel at custom-tailoring their catalogs and messages generate 40% more revenue than average (source).

Not only this, but 76% of customers get frustrated when they don’t receive a personalized interaction.

Ouch!

Size Sense works in a very simple way. All customers need to do is fill in their measurements in the Size Sense module on your Shopify store. Our algorithm will then estimate the size they need.

We compare it to customers having their own personal tailor.

Our proprietary algorithm covers a wide variety of garments. We extract data from product-specific size charts provided by brands. Then, we align it with customer measurements while considering factors such as product design, fabric elasticity, and individual preferences. Thus, our software ensures a personalized fit for each customer.

Currently, our algorithm’s accuracy stands at 94%.

No, this is not an exaggeration. Estimating the size your customers need hasn’t been easier and more intuitive – and we deliver the solution straight to your eCommerce store.

Check for yourself and give it a try. It’ll make a difference.