Small fashion businesses’ digital dilemmas: How to grow and scale

The world of fashion is forever changing and evolving, primarily online. Now that fashion is no longer just in-person, businesses are working diligently to try and find ways to grow and scale their businesses in this new, robust age of technology.

Marketing Costs 

Compared with traditional or pre-pandemic marketing, digital marketing can bring specific challenges to the table. This holiday season, most businesses are dealing with the climbing costs of online ads, as well as their decreasing efficiency. If big brands can redirect their budgets to celebrity influencers and TV ads, smaller fashion designers need to focus on customer retention.

Customer Retention

Customer retention is defined as a company’s ability to keep its customers’ business over time. It’s one thing to attract a steady stream of new customers to buy from you once, but if you can establish a regular customer base and rely on them to make repeat purchases, you’ll be in a much more solid position. Online, small fashion businesses can use technology to their advantage to improve their customer retention rates.

Brand Identity

Whether online or offline, a business’s brand identity is vital to its success. Brand identity is the core of the entire company; it represents what a business stands for, the values it believes in, and what it aims to do in the marketplace. Every company needs a distinct brand identity, especially in the fashion industry.

Customer Service

Customer service, especially online, has become a major selling point. Having a team or online system in place to handle customer support requests and complaints is vital for all businesses, but mainly retail companies, when it comes to returns or damaged items.

Technological Innovations

Technological advancements have made it even easier for small businesses to serve their customers, keep them coming back, and make the shopping experience more seamless and personal for everyone who interacts with their brand. But technological advancements put financial pressure on businesses, demanding constant upgrades and continuous investment.

What are the solutions?

Growing a small business is no small task, especially in the digital space. If fashion entrepreneurs keep an open mind, there’s nothing they can’t accomplish or achieve. The names of the game are adaptation and innovation. It’s just a matter of choosing the right tools—and those tools are already out there, for example, shopping apps.

Shopping apps are becoming a cost-efficient way to boost sales post-COVID and add a more personal touch to the online shopping experience. For small fashionpreneurs, it’s a way to reduce marketing costs, increase customer retention, build a brand identity, and improve customer service. Also, with app builder platforms, entrepreneurs don’t have to worry about tech support or upgrades.

Apps help brands reach out to their customers through push notifications whenever there’s a promotion or a new item in store. Thanks to some builders, such as Pocketfied, creating an app takes less than 24 hours, from concept all the way to its launch on AppStore or Google Play.

With app builders like Pocketfied, fashion entrepreneurs don’t have to worry about updating an inventory: their mobile apps are synced to their Shopify stores and updated automatically. The platform also offers some customer-focused features, such as Apple Pay support, to create a seamless purchasing experience.

For small fashion brands, using shopping apps in addition to websites, social media, and online listings provides customers with more opportunities for engagement. When entrepreneurs diversify their platforms, they diversify their brand and their selling power.