New York Fashion Week has transformed into a digital attraction for everyday shoppers rather than just a cloistered spectacle for industry insiders, with legions of people now getting a peek at the shows, clothes and models via live stream or social media.
That’s why research on Fashion Week social engagement is especially revealing about the challenges and opportunities for retailers as they try to use social media to sell clothes and goods.
L2, a research firm that studies brands’ digital impact, analyzed the social media posts of 192 fashion houses Feb. 1-18. L2 looked at engagement, a measure of how many users were enticed enough by a post to “like” it, comment on it or share it from their own account.
On Instagram, the women’s brands posted an average of 20 times and generated an average of 92,000 interactions per post. The engagement numbers on the other social platforms are paltry by comparison: On Twitter, where women’s brands posted an average of 26 times, tweets averaged 490 likes and 1,117 retweets. On Facebook, brands posted an average of eight posts each that generated 8,000 interactions each.
Men’s fashion brands generated less social engagement overall. But the pattern remains the same: Instagram accounted for the vast majority — 89 percent — of social engagement.
“Instagram is dominating the field,” said Liz Elder, an L2 research associate.
Retailers and brands have experimented with “buy buttons,” in which shoppers can order goods without leaving the social network where they stumbled on them.
This season, fashion houses including Burberry announced they would move to a shop-it-now runway show in which items on the catwalk are up for sale in stores and online almost immediately. Traditionally, clothes seen on the runway don’t hit stores until about six months later.
This shift could be the setup for a lot of impulse buying.
Elder noted that Instagram is a younger social channel than Facebook and Twitter, one where it could be easier for brands to get exposure and add followers. “Arguably, since it still has an organic presence, Instagram would be the best place to start,” Elder said.
The study seems to be a sign that fashionistas are fast-moving targets — and that retailers will have to be nimble to capture them.
