KPMG, world’s leading provider of tax and advisory services, reported that mobile phones could decrease ‘media friction’ helping fashion brands with increased sales worth approximately US $ 5 billion for apparels and US $ 9 billion for accessories.
Any unnecessary additional effort, incremental step or inconvenience that is primarily caused by a media touch-point, is defined as ‘Media friction’ such as loading, buffering, switching channels/windows, or holding for service.
According to the report in apparel category, almost 19 per cent and in fashion accessories 22 per cent of the consumers drop-out due to friction, and more than two-third of this friction is caused by the media.
This was revealed in the report entitled, ‘Eliminating friction in fashion path to purchase’ released with the collaboration of Facebook and Nielsen India.
About 3,000 people were surveyed for the study. According to the study, by the year 2020, almost 2 out of the 3 apparel and 7 out of 10 accessories purchased will be mobile-influenced. This may result in increased sale via fashion e-commerce in the coming time. Thus, the marketers should increase their marketing activities on mobile with the boost in their market mix.
Moreover, it was reported that the 2 per cent of the contribution in the total retail is from the e-tailers. Reason being, the increased awareness about internet, social media, and e-commerce which has increased sales in tier 2 and below cities.
Also, for consumer awareness and communication, brands are switching to digital platforms over the print media. Instead, technology such as sequential advertisements and analytic based micro-targeting, is being used for advertisements and to bring the customers towards POS.
Moreover, brands are also using technology like virtual reality where customers can view the product from every angle possible, giving them a 3D view. This helps in breaking the touch-and-feel factor.
The report further revealed that the mistrust is still there regarding the online shopping as the customer still considers inspecting the product in real before investing in it. The customer continues to be concerned about the product view/colour in real, delivery, and return of the product.
Completing online payments can also still be a challenge, since, 23 per cent of online consumers were found mistrustful at the point of sale (PoS), compared to 2 per cent of retail store/outlet.
