If you are planning to or have already launched your brand then you know that the fashion industry is highly competitive in nature and requires continuous innovation and development. This goes hand in hand with the changing consumer demands and trends which drive the market.
Analysts project a 12.3% Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) in the period until 2025, this shows that even though the market is saturated you can count on your audience steadily growing in the future.
Developing countries highly contribute to this growth, such as India, owing to the shift in consumer behaviour, growing purchasing power and increasing urban population. For these reasons, selling fashion accessories could be a great opportunity either to start a brand offering this category or increase your product range with accessories.
Attracting New Customers
Generally, new customers like to buy into a brand starting with a smaller purchase to test out the quality and the products themselves, so it’s easier to attract them with accessories that may be cheaper than other products.
Incorporating and accessorizing your outfits can make both the apparel and the accessories more appealing to your target market as this way you can not only sell a product but a lifestyle as well.
Including accessories in your product range can help you offer a wider and diversified variety without majorly increasing your overhead. To learn more about the accessory options we have to offer feel free to book a complimentary quote!
Building Customer Loyalty
With the right accessory range, you can show your existing customers that you are familiar with their wants and needs. The key here is to really understand both your inventory and every single returning customer so either your sales staff or your website’s algorithm can offer the perfect complementary products for them.
This will show them that you care and they will feel that you can offer a solution for all their needs so they just simply won’t search any further.
Facilitating Techniques
You can also use them for your cross-selling and up-selling strategies to further boost your revenues.
These sales strategies are widely used by brands and retailers but in-store and online across all industries and could also highly benefit your brand, so let’s get familiar with them and read through our tips.
Upselling
Upselling refers to the strategy that is focused on selling a superior or more expensive version of the product your customer is currently looking to buy.
This can be done by either offering them a higher, better model of the product or the same product with a value-added feature that raises its perceived value.
Cross Selling
Cross-selling is a strategy that is selling related products to a customer that is looking at or already owning one of your products. These products generally belong to different product categories but are complementary in nature and design.
This could be a wallet or a cardholder that has a similar design as the bag your customer is looking at or placed in the cart in your e-commerce store.
Bundling
Bundling is offering a mix of products that are highly related or even essential for each other. This is quite often used together with a discounted price that will increase the perceived value of the offering and make your customers feel that they made a great bargain.
You can either use pure bundle or mix bundle offers in your e-commerce store, which means that you either offer bundles only or products can be bought either individually or as a part of a bundle.
Now let’s see our top tips on how you can use these selling techniques in your shop to increase your revenue and the value of your customer’s carts. For more information on up-scaling your fashion accessories inventory check out our Services to see just what we can do for you.
1. Shop The Look
Offering a whole look to your customers can be a simple product page cross-selling technique of products that fit together and are recommended to be worn together.
Shooting lifestyle images for your products is a great opportunity to prepare for this strategy. You can use those accessories on your pictures which you plan to cross-sell as part of an outfit.
This will likely help you to sell more products at once and also to inspire your customers who are less creative in dressing up for an occasion or unsure of their fashion sense. At Solasta we offer Product Photography for all of our designs, this useful feature will not only attract more leads but also better showcase your inventory.
2. Post-Sale Cross Selling
Once a purchase has been completed, it is not necessarily the end of a relationship between the brand and its customer.
Once a customer makes a purchase in your store, you can always use cross-selling as a part of your email marketing strategy to invite back your customer to look at products that are complementary to their previous purchase.
3. Cross Selling To Your Existing Customers
Cross-selling is easier once you have existing customers who have visited your site and purchased your products on several occasions. At this point in time, their previous purchases are great indicators of their personal taste, their willingness to spend and the frequency they purchase at.
In this case, you can target them with a time-limited offer in a personalized marketing email. These offers and tiered discounts create a sense of urgency, especially when the addition of a cross-sell item enables them to secure a larger discount.
4. Displaying Your Products In Collections
One of the easiest ways to cross-sell your related products is to display them in collections and offer the collections on your website rather than the individual products.
Collections can be arranged based on a certain design, colour palette or by complementary functions. This won’t require any continuous effort from your side, just simply upload your products to your website with the pre-planned collections in mind.
5. Reward Your Customers For Spending More
Many brands offer free shipping, discount on future purchases, free gifts or other perks to customers if they spend more.
Giving a reward to your customers if they exceed a certain threshold and make them more open for your cross- and upselling offers. If they only need to spend a couple of dollars on a complimentary item to get a benefit that they perceive as valuable, there is a high chance that they will be doing so.
6. Promote New Arrivals
Highlighting new arrivals is also a commonly used upselling technique as you are promoting new, full-priced and probably more expensive items.
As a fashion brand, your products that just arrived are newsworthy and in trend at the moment. For this reason, your customers are likely willing to buy into them if fashionability is something that they perceive as added value.
7. Create Daily Offers
If your intention is grabbing the attention of existing customers and returning visitors, creating daily offers is the way to go for you. This is a great way of upselling featured products as the limited offer creates a sense of urgency or exclusivity that is a great call to action in most cases.
When you are creating these offers, make sure you pick the most profitable items from your collection and make sure the timing is right to feature them as the “Product Of The Day”.
8. Customer Reviews And Comparisons
Showing reviews from previous customers and other highly rated items on each of the product pages can also be a way to upsell. Featuring products with reviews can increase credibility and trust among new customers.
Comparison of other products can attract the attention of customers that only were intended to spend within a low budget. These can ultimately convince them to purchase the product at a higher price point if it is recommended by their peers.
9. Gift Wrapping
Offering gift wrapping might not seem like an upselling opportunity to you but it can increase the transaction value and the satisfaction of your customers as well.
This technique will not increase your revenue significantly but you are already winning if you manage to add a couple more dollars to your customers’ basket.
10. Customization As A Service
People love to bring a part of their individual style to their fashion purchases, thus customization could be a great upselling technique for your business. This will not only add value to their purchase but also strengthen brand loyalty and increase customer satisfaction.
As you can see, cross-selling and upselling is not just about offering an additional or a more expensive product for your customers. To successfully close a sale, try and get into the mind of your customer and focus on their motivations and needs and create your offers accordingly.
Be creative and trial more of the above-mentioned techniques to see which of these generate the best results and stick with those. If you’re in the E-commerce industry or looking to expand into this industry then we are here for you! We offer leading class designs and custom printing to bring all of your dream products to life. For more information feel free to reach out to us via our Contact Page.
