Fashion ecommerce marketing guide: the state of email marketing and SMS

For fashion brands, pandemic headwinds have yet to ease up. In the BoF-McKinsey State of Fashion 2022 survey, the top 3 words fashion executives chose to describe their business and industry were “recovery” (59%), “challenging” (50%), and “changing” (42%).

While some fashion brands prospered in 2020-2021, especially those focused on consumer trends of comfort and new work-from-home styles, the majority of fashion brands had to quickly pivot to stay afloat, with consolidation and bankruptcy as their next best bet.

Many pandemic-related issues persist—specifically, supply chain woes including logistical bottlenecks, manufacturing delays, high shipping costs, and materials shortages. Fashion brands must increase prices in response, while squeezing their margins and supply on hand.

And those rising prices are hitting particularly price-conscious consumers. Inflation is growing in the US and globally, causing bear markets and concerns about a long-term recession. Consumers, as a result, are holding their wallets tighter.

As a result, discount fashion brands and luxury fashion brands are likely to see the most stabilisation in this market. It’s mid-market brands that will be squeezed as consumers shift their buying habits and brand preferences based on macroeconomic forces.

How can today’s fashion brands market their way to success in this environment?

The short answer is to nurture customer relationships and develop omnichannel experiences.

The long answer is much more nuanced than that.

To help you navigate this new fashion ecommerce landscape, we’ve gathered the top trends, benchmarks, examples, and more so your team can build a crisis-proof strategy that builds a stronger brand along the way.

In the guide you’ll learn about:

• The state of fashion: DTC-only is no more
• The future of fashion ecommerce and marketing
• The top 5 fashion ecommerce email and SMS marketing trends
• Email marketing benchmarks for fashion
• SMS marketing benchmarks for fashion
• Fashion ecommerce SMS and email best practices for integrated marketing
• 9 fashion industry SMS and email examples for omnichannel communications