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Fashion brands are increasingly competitive on the international scene. This is photographed by the 2023 edition of the Digital competitive map by ContactLab, a company of the TeamSystem group, which analyzes the performance of 32 international fashion brands and 48 Italian brands that join the Altagamma Foundation.
«Since Covid they have entered the digital field directly with a notable acceleration in both efforts and investments – said Marco Pozzi, senior advisor of Contact Lab -. The real revolution underway is that of the complete redesign of the logic and user experience: brands have begun to understand that the shopping experience goes beyond the homepage and have greatly developed the navigation bar, the search engine, the category pages of product. All in the name of storytelling and a call to action, trying to engage international consumers.”
The scenario in which brands operate, moreover, is increasingly global. Compared to 2022, large international brands have chosen to invest in extending their online shop in the Far East such as Singapore (where 20% more of the brands in the panel have started their own direct e-commerce), Hong Kong (+17% ), Taiwan (+15%). Presence in the Middle East and Gulf is also increasing: Saudi Arabia (+19%), United Arab Emirates (+14%), Qatar (+12%) and Kuwait (+12%). The facilities in Mexico (+21%) and in Australia (+9%) and Brazil (+9%) are also growing. The Italian brands, smaller than those analyzed in the international sample, have focused heavily on Poland (where 94% of Italian brands are present with direct e-commerce, compared to 85% on average) and on Turkey (56% vs 38%) – geographically close markets that communicate with Russian customers – and, with double the average coverage, in India (50% vs 24%) and Indonesia (42% vs 21%). The Italian panel, however, is less active than its international competitors in China (67% vs 91%), Japan (88% vs 97%) and South Korea (77% vs 91%). «China is a complex market in which the conversion of brand sites is much lower than those of large ecosystems such as Tmall or Jd.com. The Chinese site, however, can always have an important role in terms of telling the values and history of a brand – continues Pozzi -. Korea is an important market in terms of trendsetting.”
The desire to enter the field in the “first person” of the brands is also linked to the intention to strengthen omnichannel, with the increase in cross-channel services offered by the sites of the major fashion and luxury brands, on which it is increasingly it is easy to find the possibility of making or personalizing an order to pay and collect in store (on 91% of sites, compared to 79% in 2022), book an appointment in store (88% vs 84%), buy directly online but with collect in store (74% vs 68%), return an item purchased online in store (71% vs 47%). Italian brands are still behind on this level: only half of the brands offer the opportunity to personalize an order and pay for it or collect it in store; 58% allow you to book an appointment in store, while less than half (48% and 42%) offer the opportunity to buy directly online but with collection in store or return an item purchased online in store.