EXCLUSIVE DATA
Fad vs. Timeless Fashion Ecommerce Trends
Learn how to build a timeless ecommerce strategy while navigating trends, growing your business, and creating lifetime customers.
Challenging times call for creative solutions
From looming global recession and unending supply chain issues to rising costs of acquisition—the conditions retailers face today have no doubt led to slower growth and eroding margins.
Despite all of those challenges, apparel brands are still pushing for aggressive growth and increased efficiency, with experts predicting the industry will grow 13.7% YoY (Statista, 2022). To achieve that growth over the next 12 months, retailers’ top areas of focus are growing shopper accounts, increasing repeat purchase rates, and improving checkout conversion (Qualtrics, 2022). To put it plainly, it’s never been more important for brands to maximize their resources (which seem to be more constrained than ever before) in a way that will reap the best business results.
It’s also never been more important for retailers to lean in and listen to what shoppers actually want.
Hear what 1,000 online shoppers have to say about fashion x ecommerce
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To help fashion retailers suss out the short-lived trends from the timeless investments, Bolt partnered with YouGov to survey 1,000 online shoppers** to learn about their online shopping preferences and trends in both fashion and ecommerce.
By defining which ecommerce trends are flash-in-the-pan fads and which are timeless, you’ll learn new strategies to remain competitive, build stronger customer relationships, and establish lifetime customers.
How can apparel brands stay relevant, take the spotlight, and deliver the next big thing?
Distracting websites with false urgency and clunky flows
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88%
of shoppers are less likely to
return after a bad site experience
28%
expect checkout to be
2 minutes or less
First impressions matter. And while retailers want to showcase the newest collections, a site that makes it hard to navigate, search and filter will often pay the price with lower conversion and unhappy customers. And a cluttered, confusing website is not the impression you want to leave on customers—since a website is often the first touchpoint in an online customer journey.
According to Sweor research, one bad site experience can cause 88% of online shoppers to be less likely to return. It doesn’t stop there: 22% of shoppers in our survey claim lengthy checkout processes and forms are the biggest challenges when shopping online. In fact, according to Capterra, 28% of shoppers expect checkout to be two minutes or less—so investing in streamlining your checkout is well worth the effort.
Another challenge that shoppers get frustrated with are too many pop-ups or redirects in a checkout flow. While many alternate payment methods (APMs) force merchants to do this to use their solution, this creates a disjointed experience for shoppers, especially on mobile devices. This can result in high cart abandonment and lost revenue and customers. Avoid that costly mistake.
A streamlined customer experience in all aspects
Similar to how 63% of shoppers state that cowboy or western-themed clothing will remain popular over time, a clean and clear web UX is a timeless strategy that will generate revenue and increase the chances of shoppers returning to make more purchases in the future.
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Make sure to create a memorable web experience with an intuitive, seamless UX and checkout flow. Take luxury house Gucci's website which has a very clean homepage, displaying key products without clutter, maintaining a sticky navigation bar for easy search, and keeping the search function within reach at all times.
Here are some proven best practices:
- Create a simple website layout
- Sticky navigation and robust product filtering options that leverage your web analytics can help your shoppers browse quickly. You don't want shoppers to feel lost, distracted or slowed down.
- Use customer testimonials or reviews
- Shoppers want to see how others actually look in products. Bonus points: show real customers in a variety of shapes, shades, and sizes.
Reduce the number of steps and form fields in the checkout journey by offering a quick and easy solution like One-Click Checkout.
Segmentation of customers into general categories
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It might be tempting to just segment shoppers into general categories (e.g. gender) when marketing products or delivering the customer experience, but Bolt suggests taking it several steps further.
In fact, simple customer segmentation can have detrimental effects. Lumping shoppers together can make them feel disconnected from your brand and elicit overall dissatisfaction, meaning they might never return to your store.
Every customer is unique which is why it’s important to go beyond segments to understand shoppers on an individual level, unlocking true customer empathy. A one-size-fits-all approach actually serves no one.
Broadly segmenting shoppers is on its way out, like the bucket hat—with 84% of our surveyed shoppers thinking these once-trendy garments are destined to become a thing of the past.
AI and unlocking true one-to-one personalization with a universal digital identity
Rather than generalized customer segmentation, hyper-personalization is becoming the new norm thanks to artificial intelligence (AI). A whopping 75% of shoppers see potential for positive uses of AI in their shopping experience (Retail TouchPoints, 2023).
75%
of shoppers see potential for positive uses of AI
In fact, AI is on its way to revolutionize the way apparel brands implement one-to-one personalization -enabling them to better reach and build relations with their customers. What’s the most important ingredient? Knowing their shoppers’ digital identities which leads to increased customer lifetime value.
AI also 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. Merchants feel this pain in their balance sheets, with the average return rate for online apparel purchase rising 50% since 2020 to 20.8%, according to 3DLook. But AI is offering to present a real solution to one of the biggest challenges facing apparel retailers. Case in point: The fashion world has been abuzz with Levi’s AI-generated models.
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.
In practice, 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 on them 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.
Guest checkout is a lose-lose for everyone
49%
would rather wear a coffee-stained shirt than reset their password multiple times
32%
of shoppers say remembering their password is their biggest challenge when shopping online
78%
of people forgot a password in the last 90 days
Guest checkout may seem like a quick conversion win for apparel brands, but don’t be fooled—it has long-term drawbacks.
By not requiring customers to create or login to a store account, brands miss out on the chance to build relationships with shoppers and collect valuable data to personalize their experience. This leads to lower retention rates, and higher acquisition costs due to having to re-acquire customers with each purchase.
72% of shoppers checkout as a guest even when they have a store account (Forbes, 2022). Why might guest checkout be appealing to shoppers? Because remembering passwords and account logins is that tedious.
In fact, 78% of people forgot a password in the last 90 days (Help Net Security, 2019). And our survey shows that 32% of fashion shoppers say remembering their account login is THE biggest challenge when shopping online. It is so tedious 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.
This results in a frustrating experience for both parties that could result in customer dissatisfaction, abandoned carts, and lost revenue.
Store accounts and building relationships with shoppers
72%
of shoppers think athleisure is here to stay
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What does this mean for your brand?
We’ve discussed flash-in-the-pan vs. timeless trends and ecommerce strategies to boost business and your bottom line. But what now? Keep reading to see how Bolt can help brands translate these insights into action.
The value of store accounts is compounding. Store accounts unlock the ability to build lasting relationships with your shoppers, eventually turning them into lifetime customers and brand advocates.
By prioritizing account creation, brands can gather vital data and offer personalization, reconciling 5X higher acquisition costs with retaining more repeat customers. Moreover, improving the customer experience can create a loyal customer base and drive sustainable growth and revenue.
Shoppers benefit from store accounts, too—loyalty rewards, exclusive discounts, early access to brand events or promotions, proper personalization and recommendations, and a faster checkout. Iconic retailers like Revolve have mastered this, offering subscription and reordering options for account holders, which encourages repeat purchases.
Like athleisure (which 72% of online shoppers consider timeless), store accounts will stand the test of time with the benefits they bring to both customers and brands.
Bolt—a truly timeless checkout solution
While there is no one-size fits all solution for all of the challenges facing fashion retailers, there is one solution that will work for most any brand: building relationships with your shoppers via Bolt. 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.
All of this helps brands juggle the current economic environment, stay timeless amidst changing ecommerce trends, and meet business goals.
Use Bolt to build relationships with your shoppers in these key ways:
- Offer a frictionless, fast one-click checkout experience
- Empower personalization by identifying returning and guest shoppers the instant they’re on your site
- Seamlessly create shopper accounts so you can grow relationships
- Create satisfied, lifetime customers by integrating natively to your existing branded checkout
Bolt delivers results
50%
better conversion for Bolt account holders
3%
increases in overall checkout conversion
43%
of guest shoppers are recognized and ready for a logged-in, One-Click Checkout
All of this can improve margins and grow topline revenue with a better checkout.
But most importantly? Your shoppers associate your brand with their shockingly simple checkout and not some other payment provider. This results in a smoother experience which creates lifetime customers and reaches business goals by increasing store accounts, repeat purchase rates, and checkout conversions.
Bolt is the classic checkout solution that brings more than just flash-in-the-pan results.
** The total sample size was 1,000 U.S adults aged 18+. The survey was conducted online from March 28th, 2023 to March 29th 2023. The figures have been weighted.