Site and mobile optimisation key for online retailers in 2013

Online retailers in the US will prioritise site optimisation, mobile and tablets in 2013, according to a new report from Forrester Research in conjunction with Shop.org.

The State of Retailing Online 2013 (SORO) study shows the aim will be to “improve the customer experience and increase web conversion and loyalty across all devices”.

Over half (51%) of those surveyed cited site optimisation as key, referencing a focus on checkout optimisation, alternative payments, user experience, testing, and product detail page enhancements.

Meanwhile, 43% outlined that they would be focusing on mobile and tablets this year, investing in new or improved mobile apps and mobile-optimised sites, analytics, and traffic and conversion growth.

Shop.org executive director Vicki Cantrell, said: “While direct mobile commerce is still small, mobile services are now an established and significant part of the shopping experience. Retailers this year are smartly investing to create a holistic customer experience across stores, desktop, and mobile to improve conversion rates, grow crucial repeat customer business, and even capture their share of customer demand from international markets.”

Digital snippets: Burberry, Donna Karan, Chanel, Oscar de la Renta, Sephora

As a final post for 2012, here’s one last round-up of stories from around the web surrounding all things fashion and digital over the past week.

We’ll be back in January, as previously mentioned with a very exciting update… Until then, happy holidays!

• Square to announce payment trial with Burberry, its first luxury brand partner [TheNextWeb]

• Donna Karan launches new celebrity dressing app (as pictured) [WWD]

• Chanel strengthens digital brand experience via site relaunch [Luxury Daily]

• Oscar de la Renta taps social media to recruit focus group [L2 Think Tank]

• Sephora wins digital innovator award in prestige category [WWD]

• Dream memes: fashion gets funny in 2012 [Fashionologie]

• The 20 biggest brand fails of 2012, featuring Harvey Nichols, Gap and La Redoute [AdWeek]

• Fashion 2.0: amongst promises of a perfect fit, what fits and what doesn’t? [BoF]

• Shopping sites open brick and mortar stores [NY Times]

• Retail display plays product demo when customers select various items [PSFK]

• How Stylistpick used personalisation to increase conversions by 33% [Econsultancy]

Digital snippets: Burberry, Uniqlo, Jaeger, Rebecca Minkoff, Reebok, Asos, Target

Some more great stories from around the web surrounding all things fashion and digital over the past week:

• Burberry fetes digital at Chicago flagship opening (as pictured) [Mashable]

• Uniqlo partners with GIF artists for holiday campaign [PSFK]

• Jaeger’s new website let down by drab colour scheme [Econsultancy]

• Rebecca Minkoff unveils new site [WWD]

• Reebok edits and refines its social media footprint [AdAge]

• Asos maintains heady rate of sales growth, Q1 up 30% to £165.8m [Reuters]

• Target CMO: content and mobile matters more than campaigns [BrandChannel]

• How eBay became a fast-fashion graveyard [The Cut]

• Five years in and profitable, Gilt refocuses on new leadership, an IPO in 2013 and more [TechCrunch]

• Co-creation: the real social media revolution [Harvard Business Review]

Digital snippets: Diesel, Wrangler, John Lewis, Covetique, Daily Mail, Grazia

Some more great stories from around the web surrounding all things fashion and digital over the past week:

• Diesel’s pre-internet shoe experience challenges consumers to go offline for three days [Creativity Online]

• Wrangler video reveals new Leipzig store design process [Checkland Kindleysides]

• John Lewis seeking to make social media a ‘more integrated’ part of its business [Marketing Magazine]

• Asos invests in luxury resale site Covetique [Telegraph Fashion]

• Daily Mail group launches fashion sharing website [Media Week]

• Grazia magazine launches on the iPad [Grazia]

• In a click, a vivid fashion garden: how technology is enabling a new genre of prints (as pictured) [NY Times]

• Everything you need to know about how mobile wallets work [Business Insider]

• Five ways to assess fashion / tech start-ups [Fashion's Collective]

Digital snippets: Calvin Klein, M&S, River Island, Alberta Ferretti, Net-a-Porter

Some more great stories from around the web surrounding all things fashion and digital over the past week:

• Lara Stone dances to Salt N Pepa’s “Push It” in new Calvin Klein Underwear video (as shown) [GraziaDaily]

• M&S pledges to ‘fail fast and move on’ with £250m e-commerce drive [Marketing Magazine]

• River Island’s brand director Farida Kaikobad discusses social media [DisneyRollerGirl]

• Alberta Ferretti unveils revamped website [WWD]

• Net-a-Porter creates iPad app for entertainment and e-commerce [Econsultancy]

• Createthe Group launches social fashion game [WWD]

• New app Cinemagram draws brands with Instagram-like GIF function [MediaPost]

• Style Coalition introduces online video channel [NY Times]

Vogue.co.uk relaunches

Vogue.co.uk has unveiled a re-imagined website that ties a new navigation structure with a sleeker, more elegant visual approach for its 1.3m unique monthly users.

Informed by information architecture, it debuts a new left-hand browser bar as well as ‘Topic Timeline’ pages that see everything from news stories and catwalk shows to galleries and Vogue covers come together by brand, people or events. The search therefore becomes an important research tool for users, and the site even more of a “definitive, constantly developing archive of each of fashion’s most influential names”.

Editor, Dolly Jones, said: “Inspiring and informing millions of users worldwide, for nearly 17 years Vogue.co.uk has been at the forefront of fashion online, and this re-imagining is the culmination of all we’ve learnt to date, simultaneously taking advantage of the most sophisticated and innovative technologies available. The visual appeal the site delivers as a result of its expansive and engaging images is immediate.  Retaining the unique Vogue spirit and position as the pre-eminent fashion media brand, while capitalising on the smartest innovation going, we could not be in better shape to continue to dominate the sector.”

The new site also allows the Vogue team to mix image sizes and post videos, music playlists and quotes for the first time.

Meanwhile, during catwalk season, a new immersive gallery will incorporate all aspects of a show at once, including backstage, front row and the collection itself. The top panel on the homepage, which normally features a single large image related to one main story, will also be broken up to showcase multiple designers over this period.

As for the commercial aspects of the redesign, it aims to provide a bigger creative canvas than ever before. Jamie Jouning, digital director of Condé Nast, said: “Full screen, responsive HTML5 ads are available for key sponsors, and our best-in-class gallery experience provides advertisers with the opportunity to run hugely impactful gallery interstitials.  In-depth site analysis also guided us towards the creation of bespoke “in-content” ad formats that sit elegantly within the main article experience.”

Built in HTML5 and CSS3, the site is also device responsive, meaning it adjusts to suit the screen being used. Ralph Lauren acts as launch sponsor with a series of ads taking advantage of the technology to showcase its autumn/winter 2012/13 collection.

January to June 2012 statistics show Vogue.co.uk received an average of 29,945,632 page impressions and 1,292,805 unique users per month.

Digital snippets: Uniqlo, Abercrombie, Louis Vuitton, Nike, J.Crew, Club Monaco, Tory Burch, adidas

I’m playing a massive round of catch-up post work and leisure travel… more on the former to follow, but in the meantime, here’s a look at some of the biggest stories surrounding all things fashion and digital from the past couple of weeks. Did I miss anything? Let me know in the comments below…

 

• Uniqlo mesmerises Pinterest users with mass pinning for Dry Mesh Project [BrandChannel]

• Abercrombie & Fitch models cover ‘Call me Maybe’, video goes viral (as above) [Abercrombie & Fitch]

• Louis Vuitton’s new interactive site teaches you how to pack [FastCo.Create]

• Nike becomes first UK company to have Twitter campaign banned [The Guardian]

• J.Crew’s latest online venture, Hello World, invites Scott Schuman and Garance Doré to capture five global tastemakers [Refinery29]

• Club Monaco launches Facebook Timeline app [Mashable]

• Tory Burch resets with app, revised blog [WWD]

• adidas athletes #takethestage in its biggest-ever marketing push [Campaign]

• American Eagle launches #LiveYourLife campaign [FashionablyMarketing.me]

• Fashion to embrace ‘social gaming’ [WWD]

• Nasty Gal’s Sophia Amoruso: fashion’s new phenom [Forbes]

• Pinterest has users, Fancy has a business model [AdWeek]

• NYC and Mayor Bloomberg launch Project PopUp, a fashion tech start-up competition [BoF]

• Mobile payments: what’s taking so long, and who’s going to win? [Business Insider (special report)]

• 10 fashion memes that took the internet by storm [Fashionista]

Digital Snippets: Target, Bloomingdale’s, Nike, Dolce & Gabbana, Barneys, Yoox

Some more great stories from around the web surrounding all things fashion and digital over the past week:

 

• Supermodel Coco Rocha guest edits Target’s Tumblr, stars in ‘Making of a Cover Shot’ video (as above) [Huffington Post]

• Bloomingdale’s launches Big Brown Bag app [WWD]

• Nike marketing boss attacks ‘institutionally analogue’ businesses [Marketing Magazine]

• Dolce & Gabbana launches official YouTube channel, integrates e-commerce [FashionablyMarketing.Me]

• Barneys.com gets a new look [WWD]

• Yoox in talks to set up PPR e-commerce venture, run online sales of all Paris-based brands including Gucci [Bloomberg]

• London fashion: meet 5 startups re-shaping the industry [TNW]

• Pre-ordering designer clothes: how to shop ahead of curve [The Independent]

• Commerce that’s curated just for you [BoF]

• Clothes Horse is blazing the trail for the future of clothing that fits [TNW]

Vogue.fr launches English site

Vogue Paris has introduced an English-language option on its recently relaunched website, featuring a daily selection of exclusive content for its international audience.

The move comes hot on the heels of the site’s reported 130% increase in traffic to 520,000 unique users a month in February 2012; an impressive figure alongside Condé Nast’s English language sites such as Vogue.com, which has 1.2 million uniques, or Style.com’s 2.6 million.

“We know that we have a very international audience, which is why we expect the English edition to drive even more traffic and help us develop the brand,” Sarah Herz, director of Condé Nast Digital in France, told The Business of Fashion. “Our strategy is to embed the style and feel of the magazine across all formats, as it responds to the new way in which we consume information today, and meets readers needs in terms of temporality and mobility.”

The Vogue.fr brand also celebrated reaching 500,000 fans on Facebook recently, and 1 million followers on Twitter (making it the leading French media account on the platform).

Next up will be a new iPhone app next week, as well as a mobile-optimised version of its website. From June, there will be a rich media version of the magazine available on iPad, and an Android app at around the same time.

AnOther mag celebrates site redesign with Spring Clean video

 

AnOther magazine is celebrating the launch of its new site design with an animated short by Polly Dedman.

Referred to as the brand’s “Spring Clean”, the video showcases highlights from the publication over the past year, including its Rachel Weisz, Alexander McQueen, Rick Owens and Victoria Beckham exclusives and its favourite fashion week moments.

The relaunched site brings renewed focus to the magazine’s established AnOther Loves section, a stream featuring luxury products handpicked by contributors worldwide on the basis of inspiration they want to share.

Under the “Current” section meanwhile, it pools content as varied as conversations with leading cultural figures to a meet-the-pets of creatives including Tom Ford and Frida Kahlo column, and a pronounciation guide.