This is a guest post by Netta Kivilis, Head of Marketing at Custora.
We recently analyzed data from some of the fastest-growing online fashion, accessories, and lifestyle retailers in North America — brands such as Bonobos, Crocs, Trunk Club, The Tie Bar, Live Out There, and Choxi. Our goal was to understand what makes these high-performance retailers different from everyone else, and how these differences led to a growth rate that is almost double that of the overall average e-commerce industry.
We supplemented the quantitative findings with insights and advice shared by some of the retailers included in the study.
Email Marketing = A Top Channel
We discovered that email marketing is the third largest online marketing channel for these retailers (after online search – free and paid – and affiliate marketing), driving 11.1% of all online transactions.
One of the things that differentiated the highest-performing online fashion retailers from their competitors was their approach to tracking, collecting, and analyzing customer data and incorporating it in their email marketing programs. It makes sense: Knowing as much as possible about your customers – including their demographics and shopping preferences – can be immensely useful for creating different emails for different customer segments.
Here are three unique ways these online fashion retailers are collecting and using customer data in their email marketing programs.
“We’re all about building deep customer profiles. We want to record all customer preferences — he doesn’t like red, a certain shirt brand doesn’t work for him. Intimately getting to know him so we can do a better job of serving him.” —John Tucker, VP of Member Experience, Trunk Club
1. They get customer data… from their customers
“We have to create an experience where customers want to tell us more about themselves. If people are going to do work to educate you about what their needs might be, they need to see the reward of that, the payoff.
It’s like rating movies on Netflix – it’s fun and I do it because I believe it’ll lead to better recommendations. It’s a virtuous cycle of reinforcing the user’s desire to give input.”
—John Tucker, VP of Member Experience, Trunk Club
These retailers create win-win user experiences where their customers are motivated to share their preferences and demographics, and are rewarded for doing so.
Retailers use varied incentives, such as coupons (“fill out this survey for 20% off your next purchase”), game mechanics (earn stars or points, become a “VIP customer”), or simply a compelling user experience (Trunk Club features a beautiful Pinterest-like experience where customers “Like” items).
“We’d like to see less ‘guest’ check outs. A big part of building loyalty is offering incentives to create a profile. That’s a big part of the personalization and curation piece for us.”
—Tim Grace, VP eCommerce, The Tie Bar
2. They supplement self-reported customer data with demographic data
This one is straight-forward: Additional demographic data, such as location, gender, income, or family status, can be helpful in segmenting and targeting customers in email campaigns.
“We also supplement their data with demographic data, like zip code, so we’re aware of the current weather where different customers are and we don’t send sweaters to someone in LA.” —John Tucker, VP of Member Experience, Trunk Club
3. They track and store customer behavior data
In addition to customer demographics and preferences, these retailers constantly track and analyze customer behavior across marketing channels, devices, and stores / online – including customer purchase data, on-site behavior, and store purchases.
“Understanding the data underlying the customer’s decision making process is key. Once we understand the data, we can use it to create very explicit, relevant communication at the right time. Using customer segmentation more efficiently is also important. We want customers to receive fewer emails from us, but more relevant emails.” —David Nagy, VP Marketing, Live Out There
Tying It All Together
Ultimately, it boils down to understanding what makes customer segments different from each other, and being able to use these customer insights to communicate the right message to the right customer at the right time – via email and other channels.
The best performing fashion retailers understand that collecting, tracking, and analyzing customer data is the foundation of truly knowing their customers – and make the required investments to make it a reality.