2/11/10  As reported recently by WWD. Oscar de la Renta, Donna Karan, Target, Urban Outfitters, Gucci, Louis Vuitton and Rachel Roy are all doing it.  “Fashion houses, designers and retailers are rushing into the free social media phenomenon that is reshaping not only interpersonal communication, but how apparel, accessories and beauty products are marketed and sold.” I was really interested to see an article in the Times on the increased importance of blogs within the fashion industry.  So what does this buy fashion brands. The ability to support their brand personalities on real-time technology and form relationships with a community of customers, particularly consumers for whom the Web is an important sources of information.

It wasn’t that long ago that Sir Philip Green, CEO of Arcadia in the UK, owners of Top Shop, Miss Selfridge and other leading retail fashion chains, dismissed offhand a new social networking website called Mint, setup by fashion students. So it was interesting to see Sir Philip invite fashion bloggers to its HQ for a preview of its Autumn / Winter lines. This is part of a broader trend in which retailers have been forced to find new ways of influencing key opinion-formers on the internet, which is the sector’s fastest growing sales channel.  As stated in the WWD article the newness of the platforms has made quantifying the sales impact of social media tough to pinpoint, although companies cite rising Web traffic and more customers using promotions.

According to Leon Bailey-Green, founder of the Online Fashion Agency ‘right now, bloggers are ruling the online fashion space. Arcadia are thought to be punching below their weight online – for example, ASOS, the fashion retailer that operates entirely online receives more visitors than any of Sir Philip’s brands.

As frivolous as a bloggers preview seems, fashion experts are unanimous in their increased importance, which began at the top end of the market. Two years ago Chanel invited bloggers to Paris for a VIP tour of Coco Chanel’s apartments. Its now, common for bedroom bloggers to have their own section at fashion shows, elbow to elbow with conventional fashion media.

More importantly, it is estimated that 40% of all fashion sales are influenced by the internet (15% of actual fashion sales are online), so retailers increasingly see the need to win hearts and minds online.

This is a problem because consumers are notoriously fickle and disloyal on the internet. Over 60% of consumers have increased their use of price comparison sites, and 45% said that they would leave the website immediately if it failed to show them what they wanted on the first page, according to Avail Intelligence Trust Index (http://avail.net/en).

So it seems that fashion brands and retailers really do need to take fashion bloggers seriously now and will find it difficult to get their attention when they become mainstream. It will certainly affect sales.