Why retailers make themselves invisible to their prospects

Selling ready-to-wear in stores is absolutely not difficult. In the end, you just need to have a good product, a good geographical location, and a beautiful brand.

So what about the sale of ready-to-wear online? ....well it's even easier: you just need to have good products, and a good price.

This is what a (very) large majority of customers who are not familiar with the sale of ready-to-wear in stores think.

Ready-to-wear: a poor perception of the reality of the sale

None of this in fact. This would be a very narrow vision of the complexity of the sale of ready-to-wear. It is a marriage of the two that is necessary. It's not one OR the other, it's one AND the other.

Arousing desire

It was in 1852 that Aristide Boucicaut founded Le Bon Marché in Paris, the world's first department store. To encourage women to buy, it arouses desire: they can touch the products, and even try them on.

This is the key to success: AROUSE desire. This is the very essence of the existence of a ready-to-wear point of sale

Augmented reality makes it possible to visualize a product "in situ", for certain types of purchases (ready-to-wear, jewelry, etc.). People still prefer to visualize these products concretely in store to be able to better project themselves.

The sensory and emotional aspects are perfectly in line with a more global trend in society: the return to basics.

People are more important than ever

The clients doe not consider themselves as just an IP address. They want to have a useful shopping experience, which takes into account their purchasing situation and which offers them emotions, as a real added value.

This myth of "rational" purchasing is being debunked on all sides. The large ready-to-wear houses have understood this well: Otherwise how to explain the purchase of a jacket for 12.000 euros, a pair of shoes for more than 1.000 euros, a watch for 7.000 euros etc. ? because the signature of the jacket is from a great couturier?because the sole of the shoes is red? Because the watch brand is the most famous in the world?

Actually… yes: this is what all the major ready-to-wear houses bet on the most: BRANDING (the identity of the brand). This involves story-telling, the principle of telling the story of the brand through anecdotes, facts and sometimes even a few legends. Thousands of hours of training for sales consultants on the subject. Endless spending on marketing below and above the line on the subject.

This is the reason why the physical store continues to exist. It will disappear the day it is the ability to dream, this ability to arouse desire will also have disappeared. The day when maybe we will all be cyborgs, no doubt.

And yet the major ready-to-wear houses are invisible to their new customers

So how do the major ready-to-wear houses make themselves invisible to their new customers?

This is where it gets exciting:

Imagine a big name, a great ready-to-wear brand,

Now imagine what does this big brand sell the most? a sweater, in cashmere, a pair of shoes called "pump", , or extravagant sneakers.

That's it, can you visualize it?

Now go to google and search for this product. Not the product name as you know it, but rather the kind of product like for shoes you would lokk for a pair of wedge or sneakers.

And let me know if you find this brand on the first page of results. The first page. Just the product in the search engine. Then?

The answer is NO. None of these big ready-to-wear houses investing millions in their websites appear.

And yet, all of them are looking to attract new customers to their stores.

Louis Vuitton, Burberry, Saint Laurent, Givenchy, Balenciaga, Balmain, Dolce & Gabbana, Versace, Prada, Dior, Valentino are obsessed with a major indicator of their business: the conversion rate. The percentage of customers who actually purchased from everyone who entered the store.

67% of potential consumers consult at least 11 sources of information online before making their decision, and entering the store. And brands make themselves invisible to these buying customers.

An example with 3 key figures: My ultimate most valued brand (MVB), Loro Piana

LORO PIANA – 80% of their turnover comes from 15% of their loyal customers. It is therefore a promised land for prospecting since 85% are new customers.

And yet:

Poorly indexed by robots

1. Loro Piana appears 632 times on the first page of Google searches if the name of the house is in the keyword (example: Loro Piana cashmere sweater). In B2C you would need an index of more than 10,000 minimum

A potential loss of ready-to-wear sales of 45 million euros

2. Loro Piana is the world leader in the finest textile materials in ready-to-wear, namely cashmere and vicuña. Cashmere represents 18100 searches and Vicuña, 9900 searches per month in France, on google. And not once Loro Piana's website appears on the first page of results.

   16. Average price of a cashmere item at Loro Piana: 890 euro x 18100 searches / month = 16,109,000 euro of sales potential to new customers. Yes, new customers because if you know Loro Piana, you would search for the name of the House. And then you are not a new customer by definition

   17. Average price of a vicuña item at Loro Piana: 4600 euro x 9900 euro = 45.540.000 euro of sales potential to new customers

Invisible on the word most important to them

3. 2672 visits per month to the Loro Piana website is less than 100 per day. On just two keywords they lose 32400 searches per month on their flagship subjects! Isn't there a contradiction in your opinion?

3 things to remember to no longer be invisible to your new customers

The FEVAD mentions a sector that is now worth more than 100 billion euros, affects more than 40 million French people and has more than 200,000 sites which, this year, are expected to record nearly 2 billion transactions. (source: 2020 edition of the French e-commerce map, Fevad)

A website is made to sell

1. A ready-to-wear house investing millions in a website that does not play its role of selling is losing money. She makes herself invisible to her potential new customers. I invite you to consult your brand's SEO on https://agence-web-cbs.fr/fr

Omnichannel to recruit new customers

2. Every ready-to-wear brand has launched into omnichannel. It must therefore apply the same techniques for recruiting new customers. It can't just be satisfied with its strong brand identity. As demonstrated above, it loses an incredible number of potential customers.

The sale of ready-to-wear is also on the web

3. The physical sale of ready-to-wear (sales advisor in a store) is a link in the chain. Betting everything on digital would be a mistake. No or little desire, a cold or distorted customer experience, the "unreasonable" purchase impossible, etc. On the other hand, investing millions of euros on the web, which does not sell, is heresy. Betting everything on your brand name is either arrogance or ignorance. Because this ignores the 40 million French people who consult a sales site before buying

So if you want to check if your site is also invisible to your new customers or prospects if you prefer, as in the case of Loro Piana (which weighs more than 2 billion euros in turnover), then I invite you to do a free 100-page audit of your site (which normally costs 4500 euros) on: https://agence-web-cbs.fr/formation-seo/audit-seo/

Actually not 3 but rather 1 thing to remember

Don't ignore your new potential customers as a ready-to-wear business! In France alone, 40 million French people consult an average of 11 specialized sites before buying. A search that translates into 2 billion transactions.