Traditionally, consumers used to walk inside stores to buy apparels and accessories, mostly based on the feedback of their peers or motivation of salespersons. Cut to 2018, people now have technology at their disposal and expect brands to come to them at the tap of a button. They want things ‘now’ and any extra effort i.e. ‘friction’ in the purchase journey makes them abandon it and can throw a spanner in the growth story of a brand or business.
With increased connectivity and choices, the attention span of the new-age consumers is diminishing and with this in context, brands have to now ensure seamless and immersive experiences for consumers and to enable them to make the final purchase, thereby reducing friction effectively.
As per a report commissioned by Facebook, authored by KPMG and Nielsen, titled- ‘Eliminating Friction in Fashion Path to Purchase’- over two-thirds of the total friction in the category is caused by media.
The research shows that friction can happen during three main stages of the purchase journey- awareness, consideration and intent.
In a highly penetrated apparel market, nearly one out of five buyers abandon the purchase journey. More than two-thirds of friction loss is driven by dissatisfaction with media touch-points across the purchase journey.
Meanwhile, in the fashion accessories, a high-engagement category, nearly half of the total friction loss is observed at the intent stage, where consumers evaluate last minute offers and prices. Further, contribution of media to friction is a whopping 80% at intent stage.
In the digital journey, mobile can play a pivotal role as mobile-enabled journeys are 14% shorter. The number of mobile internet users in India is expected to reach from 420 million in 2017 to 677 million and nearly 65% of apparel purchases in 2022 are expected to be mobile-influenced, while nearly one out of three purchases is expected to be Facebook-influenced, each growing nearly three times.
Therefore, brands have a USD 66 billion opportunity to re-look at their marketing strategies and adapt to the fast-evolving mobile-first internet economy of India.
Also, mobile has the potential to reduce media friction by three percentage points across the apparel purchase journey.
Similarly, mobile-ending journeys are 25% shorter in the fashion accessories purchases and by 2022, 7 in 10 purchases in this segment are expected to be mobile-influenced, nearly half of which are expected to be driven by Facebook. And when the numbers are put together, mobile has the potential to reduce media friction by three percentage points across the apparel purchase journey, and four percentage points in the accessories buying journey.
This points out to the fact that just by focussing on mobile in the media mix can help fashion brands tap into nearly USD14 billion sales opportunity and reduce average CPA by 5%. Incremental spend on digital mediums could offer a better experience to the consumers and higher economic value to the marketers and mobile-influenced opportunity of about USD190 billion in fashion path to purchase.
Hence, it is important for brands to adopt different pathways, with digital as a bedrock, and interact with customers. They can send personalised messages, enable one-click purchases, provide videos of appealing customers, give them ‘try and buy’ offer at home, introduce VR for trials, install chatbots, etc.
India’s fashion market is projected to grow at 15% CAGR till 2022, and in a bid to make the most of it, brands have to look the digital way or the highway.
Here’s the full report on Zero Friction Future Zero Friction Future
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