Mobile to influence $190 Bn fashion sales by 2022 – Zero Friction Future report by Facebook

Reportedly, e-tail constitutes two per cent of the total retail in India today. With the 4G revolution and increased handset and internet penetration alike, e-tail is all set to grab a larger chunk of both organized and unorganized retail in the coming years. This, however, also implies that consumers now have reduced attention span and expect a seamless path to purchase to products which can be bought at a click.

In such a competitive and demand-intensive market, it is important for brands to understand various reasons that could lead to dropouts from the path of purchase. These potential dropout causes can be termed as “friction” and can cost companies a fortune.

Friction is elements such as an extra step in product purchase or unnecessary wait time leading a consumer to abandon the purchase journey altogether.

Facebook recently commissioned a report authored by KPMG and Nielsen, titled- ‘Eliminating Friction in Fashion Path to Purchase’. The report suggests that consumer pain points leading to friction majorly happen across three essential stages. These stages of the purchase journey are awareness, consideration, and intent.

In the highly competitive apparel market, almost one out of five buyers, abandon the purchase journey and more than two-thirds of friction loss is driven by dissatisfaction with media touch-points across the purchase journey.
Meanwhile in the high engagement fashion accessories category, media friction accounts for 60 per cent of total friction in the fashion accessories purchase journey. Further, contribution of media to friction is 80 per cent at intent stage and nearly half at the top of the funnel.

However, mobile could prove to be the big solution. Mobile can help apparel brands in the apparel category tap into potential sales opportunity of approximately USD5 billion by reducing media friction.

While in the accessories category, Mobile could help accessories brands tap into potential sales opportunity of approximately USD9 billion by reducing media friction.

Brands can tap into a potential sales opportunity of USD 14 billion and reduce cost of consumer acquisition by 5% with mobile in the media mix.

For accessories, 7 in 10 purchases in 2022 will be mobile influenced. Additionally, by 2022 mobile influence on apparel journeys will be 25% shorter than traditional offline journeys. Furthermore mobile will influence USD 190 billion of fashion purchases and in the apparels category, 2 out of 3 purchases in 2022 will be influenced by mobile.

It is imperative for marketers to optimize mobile in their media mix and use it to drive full funnel narrative to reduce media friction.

To find the right path towards a nonlinear journey for a frictionless future download the entire report here.