Singapore – As consumer behaviour shifts towards online shopping, retail brands must develop robust e-commerce strategies to engage their target audience, drive sales, and build brand loyalty. Effective e-commerce marketing allows brands to reach a global audience, personalise the customer experience, and utilise data-driven insights to optimise their marketing efforts. With the vast amount of data available, retail brands can understand consumer preferences, predict trends, and tailor their marketing messages, ensuring they resonate with their audience and lead to higher conversion rates.
As more brands enter the e-commerce space, standing out requires a blend of innovative tactics, such as social media advertising, content marketing, influencer partnerships, and search engine optimisation. By leveraging these strategies, retail brands can enhance their online visibility, create engaging shopping experiences, and foster strong customer relationships.
For our latest E-Commerce Marketing Series interview, we recently spoke with Esther Chan, director of marketing at Love, Bonito to learn more about why a well-executed e-commerce marketing strategy is no longer optional but a critical component for success and growth in the retail industry.
These are the trends shaping fashion retail’s e-commerce marketing strategies
For Esther, the key trends influencing e-commerce marketing strategies for fashion retailers like Love, Bonito include influencer marketing, social commerce, and AI integration.
For influencer marketing, she notes that the growth has been apparent, given various factors including the proliferation of social media, authenticity, trust as well as the individual’s ability to trendset.
“Specifically to retail, it is key that our influencers are able to showcase the products in their own way – be it through occasional styling, highlighting thoughtful design benefits or even showcasing our fit as part of their daily lives, all of which makes it relatable to the everyday consumer. For us, it’s crucial to choose influencers whose values align with the brand and who connect with the target audience,” she explains.
As for social commerce, she added, “The integration of shopping features into social platforms has provided immense convenience for customers, given the increased usage of mobile phones across the globe. For brands, this smoothens the transaction process through shoppable posts and live selling sessions.”
Meanwhile, she notes that brands are leveraging AI for creative production which aids in solving customers’ pain points and personalising the shopper’s experience.
“There are many tools in the market, all of which present opportunities to hasten the creation process and to enhance customisation by automating the permutation of items a customer views when they visit the website, all of which is ultimately done to elevate the customer’s browsing experience and solve their pain points,” she added.
How Love, Bonito integrates emerging technologies to e-commerce marketing strategies
Esther explains that emerging technology enhances the customer experience while marketing strategies remain core and should be tailored to the brand’s needs during the specific period of growth. At their end at Love, Bonito, she says that they specifically look at technologies like machine learning, progressive web apps, live-stream commerce and of course, AI.
“For us, we have been leveraging data science and machine learning to improve our customer’s shopping experience as well as to better predict product preferences. In 2022, we launched our first-ever virtual shopping assistant, LBStylist, which was created to provide personalised style recommendations at scale on the website,” she said.
She also added that they have launched their progressive web app for a seamless and responsive user experience on mobile, as well as started doing more live streams and plans are underway for live-selling too. Moreover, they are also looking into onsite solutions that allow for customers to virtually try outfits via diverse models to determine the fit.
“As we cater to an array of Asian women in different markets, we are aware that an outfit can look different on women with different body types, skin colour, height. As such, in line with our mission to create thoughtful experiences, the aim is to provide customers the ability to envision themselves in the outfit before a purchase is made,” Esther noted.
Integration of efficiency and human centricity
When asked about what she can suggest to companies in striking a balance between efficiency and human centricity in their e-commerce marketing strategies, she remarks that it’s not necessarily a balance but an integration of efficiency and human centricity.
In Love, Bonito’s case, she says that they focus on their customers needs and pain points and develop e-commerce marketing strategies around that.
“So, while utilising such technology allows brands to be quicker and more efficient in executing marketing strategies at scale, it also provides an opportunity for us to be more human-centric through personalisation to meet the customers’ needs (e.g. LB Stylist), ease of browsing barriers through VR tools and live-streaming to connect with our community,” she says.
Apart from technology, Esther also says that the company also invests in local efforts such as ground-up community events and social media channels like Instagram, Facebook and Tiktok to connect with our community, while LinkedIn, YouTube showcase more about our corporate storytelling and culture.
“Not forgetting the engagement of local influencers that resonate with our target audience to garner more brand love amongst our audiences,” she said.
The future of e-commerce marketing in fashion retail
In the realm of e-commerce, Esther foresees social commerce as an up and rising sales channel, alongside influencer marketing. On top of that, AI, machine learning, AR and VR are expected to grow in this space to create a seamless and personalised online journey for customers.
“At Love, Bonito, we’ll continuously test and learn with these new technologies and marketing strategies, which is especially important in high-potential markets where we do not have a physical store yet.
She added, “While the e-commerce scene continues to grow, we also expect customers to be channel agnostic – going offline to try on apparel and potentially shopping online for the items, or discovering our latest drops on social media and website and going in person to try the items out.”
***
As we look ahead, the future of e-commerce marketing strategies in fashion retail promises to be an exciting blend of technology and personalisation. The integration of advanced AI, augmented reality, and data-driven insights will continue to reshape how brands engage with consumers, offering hyper-personalized shopping experiences and immersive virtual try-ons.
Social media and influencer partnerships will remain pivotal, but their roles will evolve with emerging platforms and changing consumer behaviours. Brands that successfully harness these innovations while staying true to their unique identity and values will not only drive growth but also set new standards for consumer engagement in the ever-evolving fashion landscape.
