In the last ten years, online shopping has experienced a steady increase across the world, which has forced some major shopping institutions to close some of their shops or minimize their brick and mortar branches. This is similarly true in the fashion industry as more and more people are experience the convenience, economy and other advantages of buying online. While the online market continues to grow however, competition also becomes tougher as more virtual stores open, competition becomes globalized and customers demand for better products and service.
In an effort to create the best products, service, experience and deals in our fashion online store, we would like to gather suggestions and feedbacks from our online customers, sellers and influencers and other stakeholders in creating well designed fashion retail online platform.
Questions for Customers/ Shoppers
What do you want to see? Because online shopping does not allow you to feel and touch the item, visual images are all the more important. In line with this, we would like to gather data on what customer prefer when it comes to image presentation. Would you want multiple photos of every item i.e. in different angles? Would you want zoom feature to allow for better and clearer viewing? Would you want the product images only or incorporating models wearing them? What other products you want included in a fashion store? (shoes, bags, jewelries, accessories, etc.).
Do you want a feature that allows you to view how the product might look on you or would look like in any person considering varying factors such as size, colors, and fabrics, among others? What brands do you want the online store to carry? What is preferable price range of fashion products do you like to see? (luxury brands, Mass produced, Hard to find or those that cater to specific fashion niche. Finally, what are the basic concerns do an online shopper need? How fast should a website load to your internet access device? How much and what information detail do you need for a product? When it comes to checking out process, what is a simple and easy check out process for you? What kind of delivery options do you prefer? What kind of immediate assistance will provide you with your personalized needs?
Questions for Sellers/ partners
The concern of sellers and merchandizers on our online fashion site would vary greatly depending on the kind of market that they are targeting. What kind of business model do you prefer? (whole selling or retailing) What kind of payment processing system should we use? (Credit card, Google wallet, Apple pay and Paypal) What format of selling do you prefer? (fixed price or auction format) What other promotional schemes do you want? (product bundling, product comparisons, third party reviews and additional resource provision) How often should product items be updated aside from seasonal changes and to balance the need of preventing obsolescence of older products? Should we require only registered customers or itinerant guests to shop? How do we simplify the checkout process?
Questions for Influencers
Influencers play a critical role in digital marketing for any virtual store. But how exactly do we attract influencers to help us? What product position do you prefer for fashion? How do we attract and engage influencers to your site? What memes, taglines or other gimmicks can we use for a fashion site through which we can entice, or appeal known fashion authorities? What creative activities can we conduct where we can invite influencers to participate? And how can we make our site more accessible and understandable to influencers. What type of influencer do we actually need? (a maven or a fashion expert, a salesman or a connector with a direct reach to our potential customers) Where can we actually find influencers for our brand or site? (social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Reddit, Weibo Google, others) What are the advantages or disadvantages of each site application? Should you focus on Google using Google search or Google Alerts or other niche search engines for automated research? What tools and features do influencers want to see in a fashion portal engine? (shopper analytics and segmentation, target E-mail marketing, and customer Loyalty programs and banners and category pages) What influencers look for as customers themselves? (comprehensive product categories and product details, great Online shopping experience, Timely customer service assistance, Secure payment and Product recommendations)
