Macala Wright Lee is the publisher of FashionablyMarketing.Me. Wright Lee is a retail consultant who specializes in marketing consulting for fashion, luxury and beauty brands. You can follower her on Twitter at @FashMarketing.  Social media and digital technology have forever changed the retail industry. In 2011, brands and retailers have reached a tipping point, digital innovations have decentralized commerce, and real-time consumer demand for designer merchandise has forever changed retail production cycles.  Many fashion brands, mocked for their inability to move with the web because of a fear of accessibility, are no longer fighting the flow. Through their embrace of social media and social commerce, fashion brands are now innovating and profiting from their online marketing strategies. Luxury and premium brands are starting to lead the way for all retailers looking to connect with their customers and build online revenue channels.  In order to understand just how far fashion has come in the past few years, I spoke with James Gardner, CEO of CreateTheGroup, a New York-based digital firm that has established itself as a leader and pioneer in the fashion and luxury retail segments. Gardner said that “In 2010, we saw an explosion of experimentation in social media. Luxury brands earned an immediate connection with consumers through streaming runway shows and creating Facebook and Twitter personas. In 2011, luxury brands will be looking at how to capitalize on this immediate interface with consumers by connecting social media to digital commerce.”  Online shopping is becoming a socially connected event. As shoppers discover new products and reflect on their purchases, they are increasingly sharing their thoughts with their social networks and influencing perception among their peer groups. “Luxury and premium fashion brands must embrace and facilitate this sharing of information and create experiences that drive sales within social networks,” said Gardner. “When our client Juicy Couture added social sharing features and consumer product recommendations, their product purchase conversion rates increased 160%.”  During the past year, the luxury market experienced a digital tipping point, with many brands rolling out new e-commerce sites, social media campaigns and mobile applications. Gardner and his team believe that a digital revolution is changing how luxury and premium fashion brands market themselves, connect with their consumers, and sell their products. It’s even changing the production cycle.  Twitter and Facebook have become established, trusted social communities, but brands are looking for new ways to communicate with maturing online audiences. Recently, DKNY, Donna Karan’s bridge collection, partnered with BigLive, a new streaming/chat room technology, to bring viewers a preview of the spring collection that would be debuting in stores shortly. Certain items featured in the live fashioncast were already available on dkny.com for purchase during the show. Just over 1,200 viewers actively participated in the DKNY fashioncast hosted by DKNY’s Twitter persona, DKNY PR Girl. In an interview, I asked DKNY, “BigLive is a relatively new technology, why did you choose to use it?”  BigLive was a way for DKNY to connect with a range of customers across its different brands. By using social media tools, they were able to speak in a way that made the most sense for their clientele, said Patti Cohen, EVP of global marketing and communications for Donna Karan International . Thrilled with the results, Cohen said they’d be looking for more ways to use BigLive and reach out through digital tools.  Luxury fashion brands are now capitalizing on the social media foundations they laid in the past three years on Facebook, Twitter, Meetup and Foursquare. Marc Jacobs Intl. is doing exactly this by continuing to leverage its established social media channels to create an online experience of New York Fashion Week for its fans.  For A/W 2011, Marc Jacobs Intl. will be live streaming both MJ Collection and MbMJ shows in high definition to bring the focus to Jacobs’ designs. The brand is the first to stream in 9:16 portrait view, and is making the shows viewable via their website, smartphones and the iPad. The Marc Jacobs Intl. Facebook Page will also feature a tab that users click on and, using Facebook Connect, are brought to the show video player where they will be able to “Like” and comment on it. Users mentioning @MarcJacobsIntl or using the #MarcJacobsLive hashtag will see their updates in real-time while watching the show online.  The brand will revive the Marc Jacobs “Fashion Victim” Foursquare badge, with an updated design for 2011. Users who check in to any MJ store in the U.S., UK, France, or Italy will unlock the badge from February 5 to 19. The brand is also incorporating MeetUp into the 2011 experience, and at the MbMJ show, there will be a VIP NYC Meetup that includes show tickets for four randomly selected users who unlocked the Fashion Victim 2011 badge in New York City stores.  Daniel Plenge, who manages web and digital presence for Marc Jacobs International explained: “By embracing a participatory media experience using either Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare or Meetup, Marc Jacobs fans are able to get a 360-degree perspective of what we’re about. Using these connection technologies, we want our fans to be a part of the Marc Jacobs community, which is in the original spirit of the brand created by Marc and Robert in 1984.”  In June, Oscar De La Renta debuted Backstage Pass, a members-only shopping destination with exclusive products, private sales and a boutique hosted on OscarDeLaRenta.com. Backstage Pass features original Oscar De La Renta collections, not merchandise specifically produced for online private sale sites. Steven Mathieu, retail manager at large of Oscar De La Renta, shared his insights on why the luxury retailer opted to create their own members-only site instead of using secondary sale sites like Gilt. “We prefer to control ourselves exactly how discounted merchandise is presented to our customers. The amount of merchandise is limited as we buy very carefully and usually have just enough stock left over to offer reduced price merchandise on Backstage Pass once per season. Besides offering items at reduced cost, we can offer exclusive, very limited edition items. It’s actually easier to do this ourselves than have someone else do it for us. We can run flash sales on Backstage Pass very quickly and easily. We can put together a flash sale in a matter of hours. It’s like a club.”  Sometimes secondary sales sites don’t make sense for luxury fashion brands. In 2011, we will see more luxury brands incorporating private sales into their own e-commerce, as it allows them to provide exclusive offers to a wide demographic of online customers and circumvents the revenue limitations that are currently found when working with private sale sites.  In 2010, social media decentralized online commerce. Now, luxury retailers are fixated on mobile commerce more than ever.  “This year, luxury brands will refine their cross-channel strategies to connect with the consumer across all mediums,” said James Gardner. “This year alone, our luxury retail clients saw an average 200% increase in mobile visits versus last year on our sites; they saw another spike after Christmas to about 230% year-over-year. Currently, mobile accounts [form] 10% of their online traffic and 5% of their sales; that’s a seven to twelve time increase over last year.”  Mobile allows customers to shop with brands on the go. Gardner mentioned new technologies like image recognition (Google Goggles), barcode scanners (Amazon Barcode Scanner) and barcode apps (Red Laser) are making the process even easier. “Any product a [consumer] sees becomes an instant sale,” he said.  When it comes to digital media, the largest challenges for luxury brands have been discovering how to effectively leverage all the options available to them, giving the consumers more access to the brand and then communicating to those customers in a tone of voice that is consistent across all mediums. Now comfortable in their digital skins, it appears that luxury brands are benefiting from the socialization of retail.  - 3 Ways to Design Your Own Clothes Online - 4 Online Platforms for Personalized Style Advice - Why the Fashion Industry Is Betting Big on Branded Online Content - 7 Stellar Examples of Branded Content from the Fashion Industry - 12 Tech Toys for a Geeked-Out Wedding
What are luxury brands doing to boost revenue streams from the social web? Check out these tactics from the likes of Marc Jacobs and DKNY.