Former Shop Direct boss Mark Newton-Jones has urged fashion businesses of all sizes to put mobile at the forefront of their strategies, followed by video and social media.
Speaking at the Drapers Digital Forum today, Newton-Jones said mobile, video and social media have “morphed together” to define the shopping behaviour of the next generation of consumers.
“[Of the three], mobile is the most important; it’s the future of shopping,” he told delegates. “But to try to create the look, feel and ambiance of your brand [on a mobile] is hard. They all look much of a muchness at the moment, so businesses need to apply new technology [to stand out].”
Newton-Jones said putting mobile first was a must for businesses of all sizes, including SMEs.
“Get your mobile working from the get-go,” he said, adding that desktop can wait. “Some 28% of four year-olds have a tablet, up from 9% in 2012. They are going to bypass desktop and they are the future shoppers.”
Newton-Jones described Facebook as the “daddy” of social media and insisted that the channel is “not about selling”. He said: “Social is about amplification – about service, product, reviews, bloggers, content. It’s engaging, it’s not about selling.”
Fact Box: Engaging Digital Content, Mark Newton-Jones
Mobile and Video
By 2015, 100% of sales will touch a mobile device
40% of sales at Shop Direct come from mobile
12bn YouTube videos are watched every month (considerably more than TV)
100 hours of video are loaded to YouTube every minute
28% of four year-olds have tablet compared to 9% in 2012
Number of Facebook “likes”
Asos: 3 million
New Look: 2.8m
Bohoo: 1.9m
House of Fraser:295k
Debenhams: 258k
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