Online fashion has brought designers, boutiques and department stores directly to the consumers' fingertips. And the convenience it brings is unprecedented when compared to a brick and mortar fashion store. Ecommerce is a booming industry.
In 2019, the ecommerce industry in Germany alone is forecast to be worth 58.5 billion euros, increasing 9% (or 5 billion euros) from the previous year. But how would these online fashion brands rank on a brand index?
And why should they care?
Considering the fast changing pace of the fashion industry, knowing how they rank against their competitors should be considered highly important for fashion brands. With 52 fashion seasons in the year now, it can be very easy to lost track of what is trending and, most importantly, what consumers want to buy.
Plus, with more and more people buying online and not just the younger generations, online fashion brands need to be able to cater for all ages, styles, and tastes. The best way to find out if your brand is staying in favor with your target audience is via brand tracking.
Online Fashion Brand Index: the Latana Brand Score
Here's the good news:
We’ve drawn on data from the best online fashion brands Germany. In June 2019, we surveyed 1000 people aged between 18-65 to get an immediate insight into how well a brand is performing.
To be able to accurately rank the online fashion brand, we used the Latana brand score. The brand score is simply a weighted average drawn from aided brand awareness (40%), unaided brand awareness (30%) and brand consideration (30%). The score is then given out of ten.
To compile the brand score, we look at two things:
Aided brand awareness expands on this further by asking consumers which brands they know based on a list of brands provided.
Finally, brand consideration: "which of the following brands would you consider using from the list below?"
Participants were given a list of all brands mentioned in this article. These include: Amazon, Zalando, Bonprix, About You, Baur, Schwab, Asos, Shein, Conleys, and Breuninger. And from these 1000 participants we surveyed in Germany, we present the brand score results, with rankings from best to worst.
Are you ready to find out where your brand ranks?
From Amazon to Zalando: How Online Fashion Brands Rank on the Brand Index
1. Amazon
As one of the Big 4 technology companies (alongside Facebook, Google, and Apple), it’s no surprise that Amazon ranks the highest of all the online fashion brands on the brand index. In 2012, Amazon made a leap into the world of online fashion ecommerce. Since then there’s been the Met Gala and fashion week sponsorships and it boasts a large range of products, fast service, free shipping and returns.
Amongst our 1000 survey participants, Amazon’s brand score ranked at: 6.5, with 92% aided brand awareness and 80% brand consideration.
2. Zalando
Fashion retailer Zalando is a European eCommerce company with headquarters in Berlin. Founded in 2008, Zalando had a 5.3 billion Euro revenue in 2018 and offers both over 1500 high street and high end fashion brands to the European market.
It is expected a European company would rank well amongst the Germany-based survey respondents, and it closed in at second place with a brand score of 5.2 including 89% aided brand awareness and 56% of brand consideration.
3. Bonprix
Servicing over 35 million customers in more than 30 countries, Hamburg fashion retailed Bonprix has been in business since 1986. Bonprix’s website ranks as one of the top 10 most visited websites in the German-speaking market and offers affordable fashion items to the European market.
It ranked highly in Germany, with a third-best brand score of 4.6. Aided brand awareness polled at 79% with brand consideration at 48%.
4. About You
Alongside Bonprix, About You is another Otto Group subsidiary brand. Founded in 2014, About You generated over 450 million euros in revenue in 2018 and ranked as one of the top 5 online retailers in the German-speaking market.
Offering a wide selection of over 200 000 items spanning from 1200 designer brands as well as their own brand, About Yo achieved a brand score of 4.5. This was made up of an aided brand awareness of 68% and a brand consideration of 51%.
5. Asos
British brand Asos was founded in London in 2000 as a fashion brand targeted at the young adult market. It sells over 850 brands and ships to almost 200 countries around the world, with the Asos German brand launched as part of its international strategy in 2010.
Their aided brand awareness was ranked significantly lower than About You, dropping to 37% however brand consideration ranked higher at 54%. Overall their brand score was 4.
6. Baur
Compared to other highly ranked brands Baur has a long history, with humble beginnings as a mail-order company back in 1925. Last year it held a gross revenue of 758 million euros and its ecommerce website focussed on fashion, home and lifestyle products to a target audience of women between 40-55 years old.
It had a brand score of 3.2 with aided brand awareness at 60% and brand consideration at 30%.
7. Breueninger
Since 1881, Breueninger has been serving fashion and lifestyle products to the German market. What started as a high street brand, it evolved into a department store with stores Germany-wide.
It now has an accompanying online store, with fashion and lifestyle products for women, men and children. Its brand score was a 3, with aided brand awareness ranking at 33% and brand consideration ranking at 36%.
8. Schwab
Mail order company Schwab had a brand score of 2.8, made up of brand awareness at 42% and brand consideration at 21%.
9. Shein
Shein ranked a 2 for its brand score, with a drop in aided brand awareness (22%) yet ranked higher in brand consideration at 43%.
10. Conleys
Conleys brand score was 1.5%, with aided brand awareness at 9% and brand consideration again slightly higher at 49%.
Key Takeaways
The difference in brand score and brand awareness between the different brands is not that large as we scale down the brand index. However, there is a very big difference between the best and worst ranked companies: Amazon and Conleys. Therefore, Conleys know they have a log way to go before they can overtake Amazon.
The difference in brand consideration is substantial between Amazon and Zalando - 24%. This is interesting to note for Zalando as Amazon is not predominantly a fashion retailer. It would be interesting for them to look more into how Amazon promotes their fashion section and learn from their marketing campaigns. The difference between the rest of the brands is not as big. This will be good news for the other online fashion brands as it means that with the right strategy, they make be able to overtake some of their competitors soon.
For all other brands besides Amazon, roughly half of respondents would not consider using the brand. This figure can go as high as 79%, as we saw with Schwab, who had just 21% brand consideration. Brands should investigate why that is. Bad reviews online? Unappealing website?
Help Your Brand Rank Higher on the Brand Index
As online fashion brand managers and marketers, what can you draw from this data and how does scoring your brand help your fashion brand’s strategy? Have you previously considered using data-driven insights such as the Latana platform to help your brand?
When you use brand tracking to score a brand index it will quantify how well your brand is performing on the market. It will give you valuable insights you’ll need that will accurately measure your brand’s performance across your target audiences.
You can even use this data to check out how your competitors are performing. In such a big ecommerce industry, online fashion brand managers love these data-driven insights as they can tailor their marketing strategy accordingly.
