Zoe King is currently on work experience with Core. A student at Manchester Metropolitan University studying Fashion Marketing, Zoe takes a look at the rise of online shopping and the effect this has had on many well-known high street brands.

As Zara, a fashion brand that prides itself on the absence of brand advertising, prepares to launch a transactional website, we have taken a look at the role of online shopping or ‘e-tailing’ within the fashion industry.

E-tailing is the fastest growing sales channel in retail and most UK high street retailers are now multi-channel brands, having a transactional website alongside their stores.  The addition of the website is obviously great for business – it gives loyal and new customers the opportunity to purchase the products whenever and wherever, so transactions are not bound by restrictions such as store opening hours.

E-tailing also provides an interface between the retailers and its customers, communicating the latest product and lifestyle news; and in my experience the best of the retailers’ websites are updated almost constantly. As an extension of the website, savvy retailers will regularly communicate with registered users via Twitter, Facebook and with HTML mailers.  All of this activity is intended to encourage brand loyalty, drive traffic to the website and ultimately to generate sales.

So it is clear to see why retailers are placing such a strong emphasis on the online side of their business.  It is so easy to browse at home or in the office and to show your friends and colleagues what you’re thinking of buying to wear at the weekend, or to your next pitch or meeting.  The huge success of online retailers such as Net-a-Porter and ASOS could call into the question the future of the High Street shopping experience but personally, I actually prefer the social interaction in visiting the stores with friends or family.  Call me old fashioned, but I want to see what the clothes are going to look like on me, not a professional model!

A major advantage for fashion businesses trading online is that they can position their brands as luxury as they like, and then just add the individual prices accordingly. Online shopping eliminates some of the obvious differences between up market designer labels and discount retailers, depending on how well they have crafted their website.

There are obviously tonnes of smaller boutique shops, not to mention some major players such H&M, who have not joined in with the transactional website trend (yet).  I like to think they tend to understand the importance of the shopping experience and for that reason, as a clothes lover I would much rather visit an exclusive boutique than a high street store.

Pure players ASOS picked up on the clear advantages of e-tailing and decided that they would trade purely online with no need for a store, and it has worked amazingly for them. The attraction of ASOS is that its own brand is exclusively online and so people feel like they are buying original pieces. Although massively popular, the ASOS brand gives the impression of being different only because they launched purely online. Having said this, ASOS was originally based on celebrity’s style (As Seen On Screen), putting stars names to pieces that were practically copies of whatever they had worn when photographed.

The fact that we became massive fans of copying celebs to that extent says something about our tendency to follow the crowd, and the danger of us becoming clones of those that are in the spotlight.

‘Best sellers’ sections of websites also point people in the direction of the most popular (common) pieces, leading those that are easily lead to basically buy what everyone else is wearing without visiting the shop to browse the collection for themselves. E-tailing draws customers in and subtly tells them what to buy. It’s brilliant for business, but not for individual style.

Tell us what you think – why not leave a comment below….