Michael Michelis

10 Ways to Prepare Your eCommerce Fashion Store for BFCM

michelis0m — Wed, 19 Oct 2022 13:58:50 +0000

10 Ways to Prepare Your eCommerce Fashion Store for BFCM

76% of consumers plan to shop on an ecommerce fashion store for BFCM this year according to Future Publishing. As the holiday season approaches, eCommerce fashion store owners everywhere are preparing their stores for the busiest shopping days of the year.

If you’re not prepared, these two days can be overwhelming and leave you scrambling to catch up. But don’t worry, we’ve got you covered with 10 ways to prepare your eCommerce fashion store for Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

1. Enable Seamless Product Discovery

When customers visit your ecommerce fashion store for BFCM, they should be able to easily discover your products and feel confident in their purchase. To enable seamless product discovery, start by optimizing your product pages for search engines. Make sure your recommendations show relevant results for your fashion customers, use keyword-rich titles and descriptions to help customers find your products.

In addition, make sure your product pages are mobile-friendly and easy to navigate. Finally, showcase customer reviews and testimonials to build trust and boost conversion rates. By following these tips, you can help customers discover your products and make the purchase process as smooth as possible.

Tommy Hilfiger, one of Intelistyle’s clients, is doing a great job showing their customers how to style each product on their catalogue with a “Matching Items” section. This enables customers to get inspired and visualise an outfit for each product they are interested in.

2. Consider a “Buy Now, Pay Later” Solution

If you’re looking for a way to give your customers more flexibility when it comes to paying for their purchases, a “Buy Now, Pay Later” solution could be a great option for your eCommerce store. With this type of solution, customers can choose to pay for their purchase over time, with no interest or additional fees. This can be a great option for customers who may not have the ability to pay for their purchase all at once. Additionally, offering a “Buy Now, Pay Later” solution can help increase sales and conversion rates, as customers are more likely to make a purchase if they know they don’t have to pay for it all upfront.

For such a solution, you’ll need to find a reputable provider that offers this type of solution. There are a number of companies, including Klarna and Affirm, that offer buy now, pay later financing on purchases made from participating merchants. PayPal has also introduced its own point of sale installment loan program.

3. Incorporate Elements of Gamification

Gamification is the process of using a sense of reward and achievement to encourage someone to take a desired action. Incorporating elements of gamification into your ecommerce fashion store for BFCM can help to create a unique and engaging experience for your customers. Gamification can involve adding elements of competition, rewards, and challenges to encourage customers to keep coming back to your store. By incorporating these elements, you can help to create an enjoyable and interactive experience that will keep customers coming back for more.

4. Try Different Offers on Your Shopping Cart

According to Baymard Institute, the average cart abandonment rate is calculated to be a whopping 69.99%. That means that more than two thirds of your customers will add something to their basket only to never checkout. This presents an opportunity for eCommerce store owners to try a few ways to increase their conversion and eventually increase their revenue.

When your customers add items to your shopping cart on an eCommerce site, you can present them with different offers from the store. These offers can include discounts, free shipping, or other special promotions. By trying different offers, you can find the one that saves you the most money on your purchase.

A great example of such initiative can be seen on Zadig&Voltaire, one of Intelistyle’s clients. They are using personalised recommendations to find the right products to recommend to customers based on their browsing behaviour. Zadig&Voltaire has seen 16% revenue uplift since they started using Intelistyle’s A.I. platform and their conversion rate has increased significantly.

5. Start Your Campaigns Early

Start your Black Friday and Cyber Monday marketing campaigns early to ensure that you are able to take advantage of the holiday rush. By planning ahead and creating engaging content, you can ensure that your campaigns are successful and that you are able to reach your target audience. Black Friday and Cyber Monday are two of the busiest shopping days of the year, so it is important to be prepared and have a plan in place. If you start your marketing early, you will be able to capitalize on the holiday traffic and boost your sales.

6. Add a Sense of Urgency

As the holidays approach, it’s important for brands to anticipate which items will be popular and plan accordingly. One way to do this is by monitoring industry trends and gathering data from backend analytics. This information can then be used to create a sense of scarcity that will prompt shoppers to monitor inventory and get ahead of other shoppers. Don’t underestimate the power of the fear of missing out (FOMO). Send your notifications during off times or add countdown clocks to push customers towards purchase.

Here’s a great example of an eCommerce retailer creating urgency to their audience with a limited time offer.

7. Optimise your Mobile Experience

According to Statista, mobile web traffic has increased by 47% and there is no denying that mobile usage will keep increasing in the next few years. This shift in consumer behavior must be taken into account from eCommerce merchants and they should have a mobile-first approach when they are designing their user experiences.

This behaviour becomes even more relevant on BFCM, where on 2021, 42.4% of all online Black Friday revenue was made through smartphones. It is important to design an intuitive and convenient user experience. This means making it easy for customers to find items on sale, adding products to their cart with a tap, and offering convenient payment options. By paying attention to these details, you can ensure a positive customer experience and increase sales during BFCM.

8. Amplify Your User Experience Across Different Channels

Customers today rarely stick to just one channel when making a purchase. They may discover a product through social media or email, check out prices on mobile apps and marketplaces, and find the best deal on a website. This journey can involve multiple touchpoints, so it’s important to provide an integrated brand experience as customers move through them.

Building an effective omnichannel strategy strategy can be challenging, but if done properly it can do wonders for your eCommerce store, especially on the busiest days of the year.

9. Make Your Offers Stand Out

Black Friday is just around the corner, and if you’re planning to participate in the eCommerce frenzy, you’ll want to make sure your offers stand out from the rest. Here are some tips for making your BFCM offers stand out:

Make them easily accessible. Your offers should be easy to find in your store and on any landing pages you create for Black Friday. If possible, consider making it a button or banner on every page of your website.

Use social media. Social media is one of the most effective ways of reaching shoppers. Don’t forget about it when promoting your BFCM offers!

Make sure your offer is exclusive. Consumers love exclusivity; if they can get something only for a limited time or through a limited number of channels, they’ll be more likely to buy right away rather than wait until later when it’s available elsewhere.

10. Encourage Your Customers to Come Back

Consider creating a loyalty marketing campaign to reward most frequent buyers. The shopping journey of a customer doesn’t end when they make a purchase. Nudging your customer to come back again and again with new offers is a way to start building customer loyalty.

A great example of a loyalty campaigns was executed recently by MaxMara, another of Intelistyle’s clients. MaxMara used whatsApp to send thank you messages and personalised product recommendations to customers that completed a purchase with them. They saw an 18x increase in engagement with this campaign since they used a more personal social media channel to engage with their customers.

Conclusion

Black Friday (and Cyber Monday) is always a busy time for the eCommerce world, and the fashion eCommerce industry is no exception. To best prepare your shop for the influx of traffic, you’ll need to consider these 10 points that we’ve highlighted above. You’ll also want to be prepared in terms of staffing, inventory, and any maintenance or updates that you may have planned. For more information on how you can prepare your eCommerce store for Black Friday and Cyber Monday, feel free to send us an email at: hello@intelistyle.co.uk

The post 10 Ways to Prepare Your eCommerce Fashion Store for BFCM appeared first on Intelistyle.

10 Must-Have Salesforce Apps For Fashion Stores

michelis0m — Thu, 29 Sep 2022 11:29:38 +0000

10 Must-Have Apps For Salesforce Fashion Stores

Salesforce Commerce Cloud, the CMS (Content Management System) platform of Salesforce has currently around 5 thousand merchants and the majority of them fall within the fashion industry. While setting up your fashion eCommerce store on any CMS has evolved to be a straightforward experience, finding the right apps that can boost your sales or improve your operations can be challenging.

With thousands of SaaS companies offering similar solutions finding the best apps for your Salesforce fashion store is not an easy task. To help out new merchants with this process we’ve compiled the top 10 Salesforce apps for fashion stores.

1. Adyen

Adyen provides a modern end-to-end infrastructure connecting directly to Visa, Mastercard, and shoppers’ globally preferred alternative payment methods. Adyen’s unique unified commerce payments platform makes it easy for your shoppers to move seamlessly from online to mobile to a physical store. With one single platform, merchants can streamline operations, reduce costs, and optimize results. Adyen supports hundreds of alternatives, including digital wallets like Apple Pay and Samsung Pay. With Adyen RevenueProtect, merchant’s can maintain their defenses without compromising their shoppers’ frictionless checkout experience. Adyen has offices across the world and serves customers including Facebook, Uber, Spotify, Casper, Bonobos and L’Oreal.

You can find the app here.

2. Intelistyle

Intelistyle is one of the best apps used by fashion stores to increase sales and conversion. They have been working with some of the biggest fashion brands in the world like H&M, D&G, Tommy Hilfiger, Macy’s, Yoox Net-A-Porter, Zadig&Voltaire and MaxMara helping them increase their sales by up to 16%. Intelistyle has won multiple awards in the fashion space with the latest one being recognised as the top fashion AI product of the year by CogX.

Intelistyle app offers:
1. Complete The Look Recommendations & Visually Similar
Intelistyle generates automatically personalised complete the look recommendations for all the products in a merchant’s store to help them cross-sell and upsell their products easily. It also has visually similar recommendations in case one of the products goes out of stock, so merchants don’t lose that sale.

2. Virtual Try-On
Outfit recommendations can be shown on real models so customers can visualise the full look.

3. Fashion Attribute Tags
Tagging all your products manually with the right labels and attributes can be a time-consuming experience. Intelistyle uses AI to automate this process for you and help you manage your products better.

You can find the app here.

3. FormAssembly

FormAssembly is a data collection platform that helps organizations streamline their processes. It offers a visual, no-code workflow builder that makes it easy to map the flow of data, and integrates with Salesforce and other solutions. It has advanced security features, including HIPAA and PCI DSS Level 1 Certification, encryption at rest, and others.

You can find the app here.

4. Accounting Seed

Accounting Seed is a native accounting solution on Salesforce that connects your front and back office. They work with high-growth, small to midsize companies across the globe, with particular strength in US and UK accounting. With Accounting Seed, you can achieve faster time to close, real-time insight into business performance, and elimination of manual accounting processes.

You can find the app here.

5. Drift

The Drift app provides sales reps with real-time visibility into the digital activities of their contacts and accounts, so they can engage with the right people at the right time. With Drift, sales reps can also create quick, personalized videos and GIFs to engage buyers and customers.

Additionally, reps can instantly move their chat conversation into a phone or video call. Drift also sends sales reps real-time alerts when an account they own visits your site. Finally, Drift’s Fastlane feature allows qualified buyers to skip the form queue and be instantly routed to sales or book a meeting for later.

You can find the app here.

6. FedEx Shipping

The FedEx app brings two of your favorite online services together – FedEx Shipping and Salesforce CRM. With this app, you can natively integrate FedEx Shipping inside Salesforce CRM, and enjoy features such as the ability to send mail or ship packages to any lead, calculate and compare FedEx rates, generate and print labels to standard and thermal printers and track shipments automatically – all without ever leaving Salesforce.

You can also integrate with all the order management and supply chain management apps you love, such as Kenandy, Accounting Seed, Conga Composer, Glovia, Ascent, Cloud Conversion, ChikPea, Veeva, Rootstock, and FinancialForce. Plus, with Chatter, you can follow any shipment and get real-time updates on your Chatter feed.

You can find the app here.

7. Yotpo

Yotpo’s cloud-based architecture, which is headless and API-first, enables brands to collect reviews, photos, and videos from customers easily. The solutions offered by Yotpo are also certified to work with Commerce Cloud SiteGenesis and Storefront Reference Architecture. This architecture enables brands to display reviews, photos, and videos from customers throughout the buyer journey, which builds trust, social proof, and increases sales.

You can find the app here.

8. ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign is an email marketing and automation software that helps businesses automate their marketing efforts. With Salesforce and ActiveCampaign integration, businesses can sync their data and automate their marketing efforts.

ActiveCampaign can help you close more deals and grow your existing customer base by aligning your sales & marketing team together.

You can find the app here.

9. DocuSign

DocuSign’s lightning ready integration for Salesforce allows users to create, send, and track standard agreements from the Opportunity or Account page. The signing experience is intuitive and can be completed from practically any device. DocuSign is the market leader in electronic signatures, with over 700,000 customers and hundreds of millions of signers.

You can find the app here.

10. Jotform

Jotform is a no-code form builder that allows users to create dynamic forms and automated workflows. The product includes a number of different features such as document management, collecting e-signatures and payments, team collaboration and an analytics tool to stay on top of your data. Jotform also eliminates manual data entry with prefilled forms, auto-generated reports and dashboards as well as many seamless integrations so you’re able to maximize your Salesforce productivity.

You can find the app here.

Final Thoughts

Salesforce Commerce Cloud is a powerful CMS tool, but it can be even more powerful with the right apps. There are a number of great apps out there that can help salesforce stores to automate tasks, manage their inventory, and even track their sales. With the right apps, a salesforce store can be a well-oiled machine that helps to increase sales and efficiency.

The post 10 Must-Have Salesforce Apps For Fashion Stores appeared first on Intelistyle.

E-Commerce Product Recommendations: The Ultimate Guide

michelis0m — Thu, 01 Jul 2021 13:56:36 +0000

E-Commerce Product Recommendations: The Ultimate Guide

If you’re looking for an achievable way to keep customers happy while also growing revenue, implementing e-commerce product recommendations into your store is a must.

Far from a new concept, e-commerce product recommendations, also known as ecommerce recommendations, have been around ever since the first brick-and-mortar store opened its door. However, while some of the biggest e-commerce stores have been recommending products for years, too many retailers with online storefronts are yet to make use of item recommendations. As a result, countless retailers are neglecting an ingenious technique that has a host of benefits, from improving user engagement to decreasing shopping cart abandonment to increasing average order value.

What Are Ecommerce Recommendations?

Ecommerce recommendations are exactly what they sound like: products that are recommended to a brand’s customers based on what the brand thinks they may like and want to purchase.

In a physical store, recommendations generally come courtesy of knowledgeable shopping assistants. For example, a store clerk may tell you what’s been selling really well or recommend an item based on the product you’re holding in your hands, but that doesn’t quite meet your requirements. In an e-commerce store, however, recommendations are based on algorithmic decisions and data.

Online, product suggestions can be generic or personalised and can be delivered across a variety of platforms and channels, including on-site, via email, or even social media apps.

Generic recommendations are based on things like crowdsourced recommendations and social proof and tend to include trending products, new arrivals, and daily deals, among other things.

On the other hand, personalised recommendations are unique to every visitor. They can be based on things like customer attributes, situational context, and browsing history.

For example, if a visitor to a fashion e-commerce store looks at graphic tees, the next time this visitor visits the same online store, they may be able to see recommendations for graphic tees they haven’t seen yet. Similarly, if a customer buys a graphic tee, the store may send them a personalised email with outfit suggestions. Not only does this inspire customers and make them feel special, but it also provides an opportunity for brands to cross-sell and, in turn, increase their bottom line.

4 Benefits of E-commerce Product Recommendations

There are many benefits to recommending customers specific products. Here are just some of them:

1. Better user experience

If you make it hard for customers to find what they’re looking for, they will be less likely to buy from you. In an Accenture study, almost half of respondents admitted to leaving an e-commerce store because it was poorly curated.

Customers that leave your site unhappy probably won’t want to return to your e-commerce store in the future either, and if they have a really bad experience, they may even decide to boycott your physical store (if you have one) next time they’re near one, as well. That makes sense — why would they waste their time if they know from experience that your shop doesn’t sell anything they like?

The good news is that the opposite is also true. By making it easier and faster for shoppers to find products they love, brands can improve their customers’ experience and foster loyalty. Tellingly, more than one in two customers are more likely to return to a site that recommends products.

2. Higher customer engagement

Netflix, which in 2016 placed a value of $1 billion a year on its personalised recommendation engine, rapidly learned that users have a very short attention span and that it is important to draw them in with relevant recommendations within 90 seconds or less.

“Consumer research suggests that a typical Netflix member loses interest after perhaps 60 to 90 seconds of choosing, having reviewed 10 to 20 titles (perhaps 3 in detail) on one or two screens,” the company wrote. “The user either finds something of interest or the risk of the user abandoning our service increases substantially.”

The same holds true for e-commerce sites. When brands show visitors relevant products, they are more likely to engage them, which increases time on site and leads to a lower bounce rate. One report found that customers who are shown item recommendations not only stay on an e-commerce site longer but are also more likely to return for a follow-up session and compare prices less.

Personalised e-commerce product recommendations are especially powerful. According to the Accenture report mentioned above, more than 9 in 10 customers prefer to shop with brands that recognise them when they return and offer relevant suggestions — which brings us to our next point.

3. Increased revenue

In 2013, more than a third of Amazon’s revenue came from its recommendation engine, according to a report by McKinsey & Company. Today, this number is likely much higher.

Whether it’s through showing customers daily deals, items that best match their keyword searches, or products that are frequently bought together, Amazon is a pro when it comes to increasing order value through up-selling and cross-selling, decreasing shopping cart abandonment, and, ultimately, using recommendations to grow overall revenue. Increasingly, other brands are following suit.

The numbers speak for themselves: new customers who click on recommended products are 70% more likely to make a purchase within that session, whereas returning customers who click on recommended products are 55% more likely to buy the product shown.

4. Easier inventory management

Ecommerce product recommendations can also make your employees’ jobs easier.

For inventory management teams, recommendations can help with inventory forecasts and setting product prices. If you offer customers items they desire, you are much less likely to end up stuck with products that no one likes.

On the off chance that you do end up with old, unwanted stock, you can use product suggestions to point customers towards these items, as well.

Ecommerce Product Recommendations Placement

Now that you know all about item recommendations, you may be wondering: where should I place them? We did a whole blog on this with 68 examples, but for a quick version, here are eight critical areas where your brand should use product suggestions:

Homepage

Incorporating recommendations on their homepage can help brands use what is often the first point of contact for customers to its full potential.

Popular products, trending brands or categories, new arrivals, and daily deals are commonly used to entice new customers on whom online retailers may not yet have any data on.

Conversely, for customers returning to your site, incorporating more personalized recommendations, such as items picked exclusively for them or suggested searches based on their previous browsing history, can work wonders in encouraging them to make a purchase.

Check out how Etsy does this:

Search page

To make it easier for shoppers to find the items they’re looking for, ecommerce stores can recommend products that best match their search query. For example, when customers look for something specific on Amazon, the tech giant shows items they most likely want to see as well as top-rated products for that particular keyword.

For items that may fall into various different categories, it’s a good idea to curate them by specific collections, as Wayfair does with pillows:

Brands that want to stand out should incorporate visual search to help customers find precisely what they’re searching for quickly and easily.

Category page

Customers may not always know exactly what it is they’re looking for, but the product category page should try to anticipate their wants and desires — and e-commerce product recommendations can make that possible.

Whether it’s top-rated or popular products, product suggestions can help ensure shoppers don’t have to scroll for what may seem like forever to come across products that interest them or are the best:

To create a sense of urgency, brands can also highlight products that are low in stock on the category page, prompting users to click on the item that catches their attention.

Product page

To keep customers who have already landed on the product page browsing even after they realize that the item is not suitable for them, incorporate recommendations that show visually similar products or items that are frequently bought together:

In fashion, recommending items to complete the look can go a long way in helping brands cross-sell their customers.

Checkout/cart page

The checkout and cart pages offer an excellent opportunity for up-selling and cross-selling. Try recommending complementary products, popular items, or even products that the customer has brought previously — this works especially well for grocery stores and or sites selling items that a customer might buy on a regular basis.

For example, here’s what customers see when they go to check out on IKEA:

404 page

Every marketer’s biggest nightmare, the 404 page doesn’t have to mean the end of your customer’s journey. If the 404 page displays recommendations — whether they’re popular products, previously viewed items, or products similar to the one that returns a 404 page — it can actually create opportunities and inspire your customers instead of disappointing them.

Pop-ups

Overused and annoying pop-ups are out; relevant pop-ups are in. When used appropriately, pop-ups can turn hesitant customers into loyal brand advocates. Try using pop-ups with heavily discounted items when a visitor is about to leave your ecommerce site or show them personalized recommendations when they’re inactive on the page for a while:

Retargeting campaigns

To recapture uncertain visitors and keep customers coming back for more, brands should utilize product recommendations in their retargeting campaigns as well.

Recommending products in email newsletters works really well, but brands should also make use of social media platforms where their customers spend the majority of their time, like Whatsapp. In retargeting campaigns, brands should highlight new arrivals and sales as well as popular products.

To go even further, ecommerce retailers can also recommend shoppers products explicitly chosen for them based on their browsing and purchasing history or, in fashion, give them ideas on how to wear a piece of clothing.

Next steps

There’s no doubt about it: product recommendations are among the most powerful tools in any brand’s arsenal.

However, the science of recommendations tells us that getting suggestions right is vital. According to research, irrelevant recommendations have about the same impact as no ecommerce recommendations at all.

To make the most out of item recommendations, your brand needs to collaborate with a partner that not only understands the power of recommendations but also has the capacity to personalise them for optimum effect.

Ready to get started with your product suggestions? Get in touch with us today. Still wondering if recommending products is the way to go and how to integrate recommendations into your store? Take a look at part two of this blog post series — 68 Examples of Ecommerce Recommendations Your Ecommerce Store Can’t Ignore.

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The post E-Commerce Product Recommendations: The Ultimate Guide appeared first on Intelistyle.

15 Must-Have Shopify Apps For Fashion Stores in 2025

michelis0m — Tue, 15 Dec 2020 07:17:00 +0000

Shopify has over a million merchants on its platform and around 25% of them fall within the fashion industry. It’s one of the most popular industries and one of the most competitive ones. While setting a fashion store on Shopify can be easy and straightforward, finding the right apps for your store can prove a challenging and daunting experience. To help you out with this process we’ve compiled the top 15 Shopify apps for fashion stores.

1. UpPromote

The power of affiliate marketing is to use affiliate’s voices for reaching a wider customer and increasing revenue. And UpPromote: Affiliate Marketing is one of the best Shopify apps to support you build, track and succeed with affiliate marketing.

No technical knowledge is required, UpPromote is friendly even if you are a newbie. With this app, each affiliate will have an auto-generated affiliate link which leads directly to your store. In addition, if you want to assign coupons for members, the app can do that automatically. The app allows you to track all referral orders and your affiliate’s performance via multiple tracking methods.

The highlight of UpPromote is UpPromote marketplace in which you can approach more qualified ambassadors. The more affiliates join your program, the more customers know your brand. Besides, you can expand your affiliate team through Converting customers to affiliates feature, or Multi-level Marketing feature. Therefore, UpPromote is a great supporter for you to succeed with affiliate marketing.

2. Omnisend

Omnisend is the go-to email and SMS marketing platform for ecommerce stores. With Omnisend, you can automate your marketing campaigns, reach your customers across multiple channels, and drive more sales — all while building stronger relationships with your customer.

Here are some key features of Omnisend:
• Multichannel marketing automation: Reach your customers wherever they are, whether it’s email, SMS, or push notifications. Create custom workflows that trigger automated messages based on customer behavior, purchase history, and more.
• Personalization: With Omnisend, you can personalize every message to make it relevant and engaging for each customer. Use dynamic content blocks to add personalized product recommendations, discounts, and more.
• Segmentation: Segment your audience based on their behavior, interests, and purchase history. Create targeted campaigns that speak directly to each segment, and see higher engagement and conversion rates.
• Reporting and analytics: Get real-time insights into your email and SMS campaigns. Track your open and click-through rates, and sales, and use that data to optimize your campaigns for better results.

Whether you’re just starting out with email marketing or looking to take your campaigns to the next level, Omnisend has everything you need to succeed.

3. Adwisely

Adwisely is an online ad automation platform for eCommerce stores. It helps online store marketing managers create and manage efficient ads on Facebook, Instagram, Google, and YouTube. Once you sign in, you can either set up a campaign by yourself – this should only take you a few clicks – or contact their support team if you have questions or need help. Adwisely combines the ad automation with human expertise & work with a wide range of markets and products categories. The account manager they provide can monitor the ad results, provide improvement suggestions and send regular reports on ad activity. As a result, Adwisely users get high return on ad spend – on average, their ROAS is 600%-700%.

4. SuperCEO

SuperCEO helps you get your daily business metrics on your mobile app and email daily. You can get accurate store sales insights to track your store’s growth from the total sales, new VS repeat customers, to the average order value on a single tap. It also helps you learn your daily business metrics instead of making decisions from your gut feeling.

Here are some key features of SuperCEO:

• Real-time insights on your mobile and email: You can get tailored real-time store metrics on your mobile & email every morning.
• Monitor revenue, cost, and profitability metrics: Now, you can unlock your store’s revenue growth with crucial metrics. Discover trends & insights to drive growth.
• Deep dive into data: Compare sales metrics by days, weeks, and months & discover insights and trends.
• Updates via notification: Get notifications on your mobile for critical sales metrics.

5. Tada

Marketing strategies have been remodelled from being solely digital to a more personal focus. And now, marketing strategies are progressing to even include a psychological aspect of customer behaviour and preferences. Nowadays, gamification pop-ups are used as a marketing strategy to give a game-like experience to the customers. Instead of usual pop-ups that offer a discount coupon, you can create gamified email pop-ups with the help of tools like Tada. Tada offers various gamified and exciting popups that allow Shopify store owners to capture more subscribers and increase sales and conversions. Gamified email-popups not only helps in building your email list but also increases the effectiveness of your pop-up campaigns. You’ll also be able to increase conversion rates as well as your coupon usage rate. Ultimately, you’ll be able to create a memorable website experience.

Examples of few games that the successful stores are using include – game of cards, wheel of coupons, ‘spin to win’ wheel, digital badges, reel of coupons, and much more.

6. Smile: Rewards & Loyalty

Smile is one of the most popular reward and loyalty Shopify apps for fashion stores in the marketplace. It is currently being used by more than 25.000 merchants and keeps growing. A reward or loyalty program is a must-have in your fashion store, as it can help you improve your retention, so your customers will keep coming back.

With Smile app, you can run three kinds of programs: a loyalty points program, a referral program or a VIP program. Once you choose the program you wish to run, your customers can start collecting points for a variety of actions like purchases, friend referrals, registrations or social media shares/follows. These points can later be redeemed for discounts, vouchers, free shipping or other customised rewards.

7. Intelistyle

Intelistyle is one of the best Shopify apps for fashion stores to increase your sales and conversion. They have been working with some of the biggest fashion brands in the world like D&G, Tommy Hilfinger and MaxMara helping them increase their sales by up to 10%. Intelistyle has recently made its award-winning AI technology available for Shopify merchants, so they can get advantage of all the features they offer a fraction of the price!

Once you install the app, you will get:
1. Complete The Look Recommendations & Visually Similar
Intelistyle generates automatically personalised complete the look recommendations for all the products in your store to help you cross-sell and upsell your products easily. It also has visually similar recommendations in case one of your products goes out of stock, so you don’t lose that sale.

2. An AI Fashion Chatbot
Your customers can get styling advice from an AI stylist that will help them find what they are looking for easily.

8. Product Filter & Search

Have you ever wondered how easily can your visitors find what they are looking for in your store? Product Filter & Search allows you to create different filters for your search and allows your customers to search the products they are looking for by title, description, product type or even SKU.

Its smart search engine offers spellcheck, autocomplete and smart auto-suggestion in the form of thumbnails providing a great user experience. It is currently installed in over 7000 stores including brands like Mavi, Banana Republic, Lacoste and more.

9. Pinterest

You are probably already familiar with Pinterest, one of the biggest social media channels with over 300 million users. Pinterest Shopify app allows you to connect your store to your Pinterest account and quickly publish product pins to reach more customers. It basically gives you another sales channel to increase your reach and get discovered by new shoppers.

To sweeten the deal, Pinterest offers $100 ad credit when you connect your account to the Pinterest Shopify app and run your first ad.

10. Wanelo

Wanelo is another sales channel you can use to reach more customers. Their marketplace is bringing together 800K stores and 50M products, all shoppable from one place. Once you install the app, you will have to go through their review process (which might take a while) and then you can start selling your products in their marketplace.

Unfortunately, Wanelo is only available for US customers at the moment.

11. Oberlo

If you are just starting out and don’t have any supplier yet, Oberlo is the perfect app for you. Oberlo allows you to dropship your products directly from AliExpress. They even have a chrome extension, so you can discover products from AliExpress and add them to your store with a few clicks.

Once you have imported your selected products, you set your prices and you are ready to go. The moment an order comes in, you just confirm the order inside the app and that’s it. You don’t need to worry about logistics or inventory.

Aside from Oberlo, there are many other Shopify dropshipping apps for adding products to your store. Most of them are free to use and compatible with a variety of suppliers, not just AliExpress.

12. Rise: Gift Cards

Rise is a great app if you are looking to create a loyalty or rewards program for your customers. It includes a variety of marketing tools you will need to increase loyalty, retention, and satisfaction. You can use store credit to manage rewards and loyalty cards or set up a referral program to get your customers to advocate for your store.

Your customers can also send branded, digital gift cards and gift vouchers directly to gift recipients via email. The variety of their features give you the opportunity to structure your loyalty program as complicated as you want.

13. SEO Optimizer

Search Engine Optimisation should have a constant place in your marketing mix. SEO optimizer is currently installed in over 382,000 stores and runs automatically SEO improvements for your store. It will take over your technical SEO optimization, so you don’t have to worry about the continuous changes in Google’s algorithm. They run updates for your store daily to make sure everything is updated to best practices.

The app doesn’t guarantee increased search engine rankings, but they use the latest and best practises to optimize your store.

14. Klarna

You won’t find Klarna on the Shopify marketplace. Klarna is a direct payment method that allows your shoppers to pay at a later date. What’s more, is that you are getting paid full upfront, while your customers can choose to pay for their orders with a variety of options. One of the best Shopify apps for fashion stores to increase your conversion. The bad news is that is currently available only to merchants in Austria, Germany & Sweden.

Klarna is enabled by default when you set up Shopify payments provided you pass their review process. Once approved, your customers can choose Klarna as a payment option on checkout. They have also a Shopify app that provides customized messaging to let your customers know instantly how they can pay before they buy.

15. Size Matters

One of the most common reasons your customers are returning their clothes is that the fit wasn’t right. Size Matters allows you to create size guides for your customers to help you minimize returns. The app can easily be customised to the look and feel of your store, but most importantly it’s free!

Final Thoughts

There are a number of Shopify apps that can unlock new features and functionalities for your site and can provide a better customer experience for your customers and more sales. While the apps above are some of the best Shopify apps for fashion stores in the Shopify App Store, there are plenty more that can leverage your store to the next level. It all comes down to you to find the best app that suits your unique needs. Happy selling!

The post 15 Must-Have Shopify Apps For Fashion Stores in 2025 appeared first on Intelistyle.

Personalization: How to find the right personalisation partner

michelis0m — Mon, 16 Nov 2020 14:50:06 +0000

Whitepaper:
Evaluating Solutions

What's Inside

Overview

Choosing the right company to partner with for your personalisation initiatives can be a daunting task.

And It’s no wonder. With so many companies offering an array of different functionality even industry veterans find it hard to understand the differences.

In this whitepaper we will break down all the different options, all from the prism of your needs.

Your Needs

The first place to start from is your own needs as a company. When making this decision, you need to think about:

Your Goals and KPIs
The channel you’re looking to optimise
Whether this is a core capability for you and whether you’re looking to build or buy the technology.
What’s the vendor’s track record delivering results.

Goals: Acquisition

What are you trying to achieve? What KPIs do you want to optimise? For example, are you looking to increase acquisition, conversion, basket size or repeat purchase rate?

If your goal is to optimise acquisition, then you need to focus on tools that optimise your marketing spend, allow you to reach new acquisition channels, optimise your organic traffic and SEO. These tools will often operate off site or focus on optimising content on your website...

Whitepaper: How to find the right personalisation partner

See what solution will yield the best results for your business based on the KPIs you want to optimise.

Read about the personalisation providers for Fashion AI and AI styling by evaluating the core functionalities that they provide.

Discover if it makes sense for you to build on your own solution or whether you’d rather focus on your strengths while partnering a strong player in the market.

Get your free copy:

The post Personalization: How to find the right personalisation partner appeared first on Intelistyle.

The Times Report: Data-Driven Fashion Personalization

michelis0m — Tue, 30 Jun 2020 16:30:03 +0000

Will hyper-personalisation shrink our echo chambers and interest bubbles? Will TV soon have personalised ads?

The Personalisation special report, published in The Times, explores the pros and cons of retailers using artificial intelligence to recommend products and outfits online and looks at how so-called “dark patterns” are manipulating consumers. The featured infographic focuses on data-driven personalisation and how delivering custom experiences to individual consumers, based on their behaviours, requires both huge volumes of quality data and the right strategy to ensure success and return on investment.

IN THIS REPORT:

What does personalization really mean?
Your personalization strategy needs a shake-up
The benefits of personalization in the workplace
Addressable TV: the pros and cons of ads made just for you
The AI Stylist
What are dark patterns and how are they tricking you?
What does personalisation 2.0 look like?

Download the report for more information.

Get the free report

The post The Times Report: Data-Driven Fashion Personalization appeared first on Intelistyle.

Blockchain, A.I. and Other Game-Changing Fashion Technology in 2022

michelis0m — Thu, 02 May 2019 05:06:40 +0000

This article has been updated for the latest developments in fashion technology as of 2022 and was first published in May 2021

The world’s most significant and profitable industries are facing massive changes thanks to advances in technology. More specifically, blockchain, artificial intelligence (AI), new types of financial transactions and a number of other big leaps in tech are responsible for these ongoing changes to how most industries do business.

Focusing on the fashion industry in particular, these are some of the technology we expect to transform businesses on both online retail and in-store operations.

Blockchain Will Fight Counterfeit Products & Streamline The Fashion Supply Chain

The distributed ledger technology called blockchain is mostly known for being the foundational tech behind cryptocurrency. More generally, a blockchain is basically a string of chronologically arranged code. Each new block of code on the chain requires every computer with access to the blockchain to approve the addition of that data via a shared cryptographic solution, which translates to peer-verified security in every data transfer, addition or modification. It all happens nearly instantaneously, without any of the red tape commonly attached to security protocols. And this same technology can be used to protect products and ensure quality in the fashion industry.

Label Tags Will Redefine Origin and Ownership

Each individual fashion item can be tagged with labels attached to blockchains, which allows everyone in the supply chain to verify its origin, ownership and every time it has changed hands. The LuxTag Project took to Medium to detail how some fashion designers are already taking advantage of this potentially revolutionary technology as a product integrity solution. Back in 2017, Londoner Martine Jarlgaard produced the first smart label-tagged garments. Scanning the tags gave users time-stamped info on everything about the garments – from raw material acquisition and factory information down to how the finished products were packaged and delivered. Similarly, fashion retailer Babyghost used near-field communication (NFC) chips to tag its 2017 summer and spring collection. This allowed customers to use the NFC tags to find out everything they wanted and needed to know about every Babyghost product.

Supply Chain Transparency

Apart from ensuring product integrity, this can also push fashion labels to be more honest about where they get their raw materials, how they conduct labor practices and everything else customers in 2020 (and beyond) will be concerned about. Essentially, information sharing and supply chain transparency are about to become realities in the global fashion industry. This technology is a potentially huge boon to managing the fashion supply chain, the fight against counterfeit goods, and corporate social responsibility.

Competitive Payment Options Will Dictate Retail Preferences

In recent years, payment platforms such as Paypal, Amazon Pay, Payoneer, Venmo and Dwolla have played increasingly large roles not just in online retail, but in various other spaces such as vacation rentals, gaming and service industries. The reason is simple: these payment options offer the convenience and security that some more traditional methods lack. By and large, newer, more innovative payment platforms are now making things even easier for both customers and product and service providers.

A payment technology that has already changed the way customers shop is the buy-now-pay-later services that allow customers to buy a product today and pay for it later. Klarna is one of the service providers at the forefront of this technology in the fashion industry.

Another example is the service called Paysafe Pay Later allowing customers to delay payment until after their ordered products have been shipped, all in a way that doesn’t impact the company’s cash flow. A New Zealand-based gaming company details how online casinos now use the Paysafecard, which is similar but slightly faster than using VISA and other debit/credit cards. Independent of bank, card or other personal financial information, Paysafe instead relies on a single, 16-digit pin to credit money to a customer’s account and verify transactions. It’s currently seeing heavy use in gaming and retail – two of the biggest revenue sources on the web. And it’s just one example of a new payment service that could prove to be a deciding factor in how customers choose which fashion retailers to shop from in the future.

Artificial Intelligence Will Change Everything

There are several reasons why Intelistyle cannot help but cover how AI will change the face of retail. For one thing, AI algorithms are responsible for well-informed and relevant product suggestions for online retail customers. For another, AI can be used to predict trends and product demand, allowing retailers to be better at managing inventory and catering to customers’ needs.

Though they may seem simple, even those small perks can help retailers avoid serious problems – such as the massive surplus Under Armour faced in 2018 when it overestimated product demand and wound up $1.3 billion the hole! And even this is only scratching the surface of the benefits A.I. can provide to retailers.

When integrated into a chatbot, AI can help fashion retailers scale their personal styling services and improve their omnichannel customer service experience.

Examples could go on and on, but even the relatively brief write-ups above provide a picture of how a small handful of tech innovations can and will revolutionize the fashion retail business.

The post Blockchain, A.I. and Other Game-Changing Fashion Technology in 2022 appeared first on Intelistyle.

Clothing Rental Market In The Era of Sustainable Fashion

michelis0m — Mon, 19 Nov 2018 20:22:25 +0000

This article has been updated for the latest developments in the fashion rental market & sustainable fashion in 2020 and was first published in November 2018.

The Fashion Rental Market in 2020

Peer-to-peer lending is not a new idea, it has always been an integral part of our wardrobe crisis solutions. What’s different in 2020 is the scope and scale of “borrowing” clothes and the impact this new market has on sustainable fashion.

Over the last few years, the fashion rental market has seen tremendous growth both in popularity as a consumer trend and as a business model.

The core reason for this expanding demand from both established fashion retailers and conscious consumers is the perception of rental as a more sustainable and circular consumption option to fast fashion while offering a budget-friendly route to an infinite wardrobe. According to industry estimations, half of fast fashion is disposed of within only a year.

2019 saw fashion brands and retailers up their game in taking more responsibility for their environmental and social impact by launching ambitious sustainable fashion initiatives. And the rental market fits in perfectly with a more responsible and sustainable fashion industry that has reduced waste output.

In 2020, the rental fashion concept pioneered by Rent the Runway and adopted by niche platforms is hitting the mainstream with global retailers – even fast fashion giants such as H&M – launching rental lines.

Steps Towards A Sustainable Fashion Industry

While the growth of the rental and second-hand markets are very promising steps for a circular industry, there will always be consumers who won’t jump on this train where ‘new in’ is never new. Add the carbon footprint of sending, returning and dry cleaning those rented goods to the equation and some industry experts believe rental fashion isn’t enough to address concerns around sustainability as a one-stop solution.

This is exactly why fashion retailers need to get better at demand prediction, assortment mix planning, and personalised offerings so that one of the biggest barriers between our industry today and a more sustainable future – overproduction and stock waste – can be tackled at the root. Retailers who know exactly what demand looks like in real-time and effectively match the right products to the right customers will organically reduce stock waste, benefitting both their business and the environment.

Fast fashion has tried to answer women’s pain to renew their closet often, by overproducing bad quality apparel… says Nadia Khattab founder of La Garde-Robe, an online clothing rental business for women.

Talk to us about your latest venture and what excites you about it?

In October, we were finalists of the Mass Challenge 2018 accelerator program in Switzerland and we ended up the 10th top start-up of the cohort. A very encouraging result and promising for the future. We are sponsoring several events in Switzerland this year and we are developing our pop-up strategy. Unfortunately, we can’t share more details for now. Stay tuned.

What is the profile of your customers and how do you see that developing?

Our average customer is 32 years old. She works quite hard and even if she doesn’t, she has a busy life with kids and family. Time for her is value. She likes to try new styles and loves to discover new designers and brands. She has a couple of events in a year’s time related to work, weddings and parties for which she is really happy to rent an outfit. Sometimes, she decides to drop her closet at La Garde-Robe LGR and enjoy the concept of making another woman happy.

How do you think fast fashion has impacted the clothing rental market and what does a sustainable fashion industry look like?

Fast fashion has tried to answer women’s need to renew their closet often, by overproducing bad quality apparel, with a designer look-alike style but at the cost of the ecosystem. The user experience, in the long run, is bad because people understand more and more about the environmental impact (Burberry & H&M scandals).

Our customers are just getting annoyed about it. They look for alternative and less harmful solutions. The rental market satisfies the pain of renewal, matches the fast-fashion price point and is sustainable. The cherry on top of the cake is it helps promote emerging designers and new brands.

How do you see the future of the clothing rental market?

In the US, the rental market represents 1% of women’s wardrobe. We are not there in Europe but I believe it is reachable within the next 5 years.

I see new rental businesses growing every day like mushrooms which is really amazing. It is just answering to people’s needs.

What are the hottest initiatives in sustainable fashion right now?

The fashion revolution: it is a global movement that runs all year long born after the Rana Plaza collapse in 2013. They launch impact campaigns like #whomademyclothes last year.

What are the biggest trends in the fashion industry that retailers should keep an eye on right now and why?

Trends come from customers. For example, body dictates are weaker than ever. You see it by just looking at plus-size Instagrammers becoming super-stars on social media.

The market is giving direct feedback to brands. The fashion industry needs to adapt its sizing and create more alternatives to the average regular fit. I think it is a huge market. When we launched LGR we received so many calls from women struggling to find a dress that fits them right.

Which one habit makes you more a productive business leader?

I put myself in my customer’s shoes. I create scenarios like: I have a one hour break to find a dress for my date tonight… After one hour of getting lost in the crowd of high street shops, I realise you can’t find anything really great for a decent budget. Except if your understanding of a decent budget is upwards of a few hundred. But those women are not our market…

The post Clothing Rental Market In The Era of Sustainable Fashion appeared first on Intelistyle.

Michael Michelis

10 Ways to Prepare Your eCommerce Fashion Store for BFCM

10 Ways to Prepare Your eCommerce Fashion Store for BFCM

1. Enable Seamless Product Discovery

2. Consider a “Buy Now, Pay Later” Solution

3. Incorporate Elements of Gamification

4. Try Different Offers on Your Shopping Cart

5. Start Your Campaigns Early

6. Add a Sense of Urgency

7. Optimise your Mobile Experience

8. Amplify Your User Experience Across Different Channels

9. Make Your Offers Stand Out

10. Encourage Your Customers to Come Back

Conclusion

10 Must-Have Salesforce Apps For Fashion Stores

10 Must-Have Apps For Salesforce Fashion Stores

1. Adyen

2. Intelistyle

3. FormAssembly

4. Accounting Seed

5. Drift

6. FedEx Shipping

7. Yotpo

8. ActiveCampaign

9. DocuSign

10. Jotform

Final Thoughts

E-Commerce Product Recommendations: The Ultimate Guide

E-Commerce Product Recommendations: The Ultimate Guide

What Are Ecommerce Recommendations?

4 Benefits of E-commerce Product Recommendations

1. Better user experience

2. Higher customer engagement

3. Increased revenue

4. Easier inventory management

Ecommerce Product Recommendations Placement

Homepage

Search page

Category page

Product page

Checkout/cart page

404 page

Pop-ups

Retargeting campaigns

Next steps

15 Must-Have Shopify Apps For Fashion Stores in 2025

1. UpPromote

2. Omnisend

3. Adwisely

4. SuperCEO

5. Tada

6. Smile: Rewards & Loyalty

7. Intelistyle

8. Product Filter & Search

9. Pinterest

10. Wanelo

11. Oberlo

12. Rise: Gift Cards

13. SEO Optimizer

14. Klarna

15. Size Matters

Final Thoughts

Personalization: How to find the right personalisation partner

Whitepaper: Evaluating Solutions

What's Inside

Overview

Your Needs

Goals: Acquisition

Whitepaper: How to find the right personalisation partner

The Times Report: Data-Driven Fashion Personalization

Blockchain, A.I. and Other Game-Changing Fashion Technology in 2022

Blockchain Will Fight Counterfeit Products & Streamline The Fashion Supply Chain

Label Tags Will Redefine Origin and Ownership

Supply Chain Transparency

Competitive Payment Options Will Dictate Retail Preferences

Artificial Intelligence Will Change Everything

Clothing Rental Market In The Era of Sustainable Fashion

The Fashion Rental Market in 2020

Steps Towards A Sustainable Fashion Industry

Fast fashion has tried to answer women’s pain to renew their closet often, by overproducing bad quality apparel… says Nadia Khattab founder of La Garde-Robe, an online clothing rental business for women.

Whitepaper:
Evaluating Solutions