How fashion retailers can blend simplicity and innovation to stay ahead

Fashion is an industry that is constantly evolving with new trends emerging every season.

Just like fashion–where not all trends are timeless–keeping up with the latest technology and digital experiences is an ever-illusive challenge for retailers. To help navigate this dynamic market, Bolt conducted a survey of 1,000 adult U.S. shoppers to understand consumer behavior in the fashion industry. The lifetime fashion customers report provides valuable insights for retailers to cut through the noise and the fads, allowing them to turn their focus to the key trends with unlimited staying power.

1. Complex times demand simplicity

From looming global recession and unending supply chain issues to rising costs of acquisition—the conditions retailers face today have led to slower growth and eroding margins. Despite the challenges, apparel brands are still pushing for aggressive growth and increased efficiency, with experts at Statista predicting the industry will grow 13.7% YoY. To achieve that growth over the next 12 months, Qualtrics shares that retailers’ top areas of focus are growing shopper accounts, increasing repeat purchase rates, and improving checkout conversion.

It’s never been more important for brands to maximize their resources in a way that will reap the best business results. Retailers can tackle their conversion issue–a growing and more pressing problem in today’s climate–by creating a truly seamless checkout experience. This is now table stakes and a top consumer demand, not just a nice to have. The checkout process is a crucial stage in the customer journey, and retailers who want to improve their conversion rate need to ensure that checkout is easy to navigate and without unnecessary steps.

2. Get to know your shopper, obsess over them, and personalize their experience for them as individuals–not just their demographic group

Guest checkout may seem like a quick conversion win for apparel brands, but don’t be fooled as it has long-term drawbacks. By not requiring customers to create or login to a store account, brands fail to build relationships with shoppers and collect valuable data to personalize their experience. This leads to lower retention rates and higher acquisition costs.

Forbes reports that 72% of shoppers checkout as a guest even when they have a store account. Why? Because remembering passwords and account logins is that tedious.

According to Help Net Security, 78% of people forgot a password in the last 90 days. And our survey shows that 32% of fashion shoppers say remembering their account login is the biggest challenge when shopping online. It is so frustrating that 49% of shoppers we surveyed would rather wear a shirt with a coffee stain all day than have to reset their password multiple times.

It’s also never been more important for retailers to lean in and listen to what shoppers actually want. Rather than generalized customer segmentation, hyper-personalization is becoming the new norm thanks to artificial intelligence (AI). By understanding each shopper's unique preferences and behaviors, retailers can offer personalized recommendations, promotions, and experiences that are tailored to their needs.

3. Let new tech drive new results for your business

Your competitors are already using AI, and you should too. Retailers need to adopt new tools like augmented reality, virtual try-ons, and other technologies that enhance the shopping experience and create new opportunities for growth. Retail TouchPoints reports a whopping 75% of shoppers see potential for positive uses of AI in their shopping experience.

The challenge? You can’t personalize without knowing the person, so retailers must identify and create unique digital identities. Not only does this lead to increased customer lifetime value, but it can help customers increase their trust and brand loyalty. AI enables clothing brands to solve one of the biggest concerns that 61% of shoppers face when shopping online—sizing and product fit, according to our survey. Among a landscape seeing skyrocketing rates of returns, AI is offering to present a real solution to one of the biggest challenges facing apparel retailers.

In the very near future, brands could enable shoppers to create digital identities with AI. These identities could be universal, allowing retailers to personalize their site and product experience for every shopper—whether that’s a first-time visitor or a returning customer.

Shoppers can build confidence in the products they’re considering, using AI to create online models with their exact body measurements. They could view how clothes might fit without having to set foot inside a physical store. Imagine all the clothes in abandoned online carts that would be rescued and the lower return rates of ecommerce purchases!

Bolt is no fad–we’re here to stay

While there is no one-size-fits-all solution for the challenges facing fashion retailers, there is one solution that will work for most any brand: building relationships with your shoppers. Bolt’s network of tens of millions of shoppers allows brands to instantly recognize guest shoppers and give them a logged-in, One-Click Checkout experience. On top of that, shoppers are 55% more likely to create a store account, allowing fashion retailers to build lasting customer relationships that will stand the test of time. Combine this powerful benefit with Bolt’s ability to instantly recognize 43% of all guest shoppers, and retailers see powerful results to the tune of 3% higher overall conversion and 10-15% higher checkout conversion compared to guest checkout.