Journal of Global Fashion Marketing

Bridging Fashion and Marketing

ISSN: 2093-2685 (Print) 2325-4483 (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rgfm20

New marketing in fashion e-commerce

Simone Guercini, Pedro Mir Bernal & Catherine Prentice

To cite this article: Simone Guercini, Pedro Mir Bernal & Catherine Prentice (2018) New
marketing in fashion e-commerce, Journal of Global Fashion Marketing, 9:1, 1-8, DOI:
10.1080/20932685.2018.1407018

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/20932685.2018.1407018

Published online: 12 Jan 2018.

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Journal of Global Fashion Marketing, 2018
VOL. 9, NO. 1, 1–8
https://doi.org/10.1080/20932685.2018.1407018

New marketing in fashion e-commerce

Simone Guercinia  , Pedro Mir Bernalb  and Catherine Prenticec 
a
Department of Economics and Management, University of Florence, Florence, Italy; bISEM Fashion Business
School, University of Navarre, Madrid, Spain; cDepartment of Marketing, Griffith University, Brisbane. Australia

ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY

This paper introduces a special issue devoted to the emergence Received 16 October 2017
of new marketing models and tools within a fashion e-commerce Revised 25 October 2017
context. Despite the importance of physical stores, in recent years, Accepted 26 October 2017
we have witnessed substantial development regarding the electronic KEYWORDS
trade in fashion products. In effect, fashion products represent a major E-commerce; fashion
category within e-commerce and have witnessed the development of blogger; online fashion
a “new” form of online marketing. Special attention should be paid to retailing; fashion marketing;
the internationalization of e-commerce within the fashion industry. digital consumer
New models and tools have emerged in relation to: the technology/
关键词
consumption interface and the strategies of the different players
电子商务; 时尚博主; 线上
within the business sector; the integration of online and offline fashion 时尚零售; 时装营销; 数字
marketing; the impact of new IT technologies and new marketing 消费者
on preexisting fashion marketing policies, such as customization;
and the role of new emerging players such as fashion bloggers and
influencers. In this period of change, new and traditional marketing
tools co-exist. The five articles in this special issue seek to contribute
to research whose aim is to systemize new models and tools that
may be useful for practitioners and marketing researchers working
in this field.

时尚电子商务的新营销
互联网被视为国际业务增长的关键工具。在时尚行业，电子零售
被认为是拓展全球业务的有效手段。特别是依靠在店内营造环境
去创造消费体验，并且发展品牌的时装公司。然而，尽管实体商
店很重要，但是近年来我们在时装产品的电子贸易方面取得了实
质性的发展。近年来，电子商务的发展与美国百货的危机有关，
这场危机的一个可能的解释（“百货的启示”）就是这场危机是由
传统渠道和零售数字渠道之间的竞争组成的。时尚产品代表了电
子商务中的一个主要类别，见证了网络营销的一种新形式的发
展。在时装业内，应特别重视电子商务的国际化。互联网和在线
渠道的使用被认为是这一国际化进程的有力工具，有效地减少了
实体债务、信息差距和业务威胁。这样的工具可以将假冒产品的
风险降至最低，尤其是在奢侈品时尚领域。
通过新的平台和技术进行国际开发，使得多品牌零售商得以
发展，并为他们拓展业务提供了独特的机会。但是，在一个充满
挑战的环境中，企业如何解决消费者对技术设施的态度呢？新的
在线营销策略和电子商务如何在国家和国际层面上连接起来？这
个特刊的目的是要更好地了解在线时尚营销和零售。它包括了IT

CORRESPONDENCE TO  Simone Guercini  simone.guercini@unifi.it

© 2018 Korean Scholars of Marketing Science
2   S. GUERCINI ET AL.

的作用以及国内供应链渠道与国际化进程之间的交叉效应。采用
新技术改变了购物者的行为和业务能力。这一变化归功于智能手
机所有权和移动互联网渗透率的增长，以及通过3D和消费者互
动提供的新设施。这种新的营销方式在时尚电子商务中的主题包
括但不限于以下内容：工业营销中的设计与营销和在时尚中IT与
网络使用之间的关系；在新市场中，科技的作用，电子商务与战
略和营销的增长；专业从事服装电子商务的公司的营销；资讯科
技，电子商贸及市场推广对时装业内公司商业模式的贡献；营销
方向和市场定位；构成零售业的公司中电子商务战略的存在；时
装公司与国际市场的关系；与时尚电子商务相关的策略。
移动技术的普及推动了在线时尚零售业的快速发展和壮大。
因此，一系列的新的尺寸上合适的时尚技术可以被消费者们在各
个领域所利用。在线虚拟试衣室通常要创建一个化身，通过输入
消费者的数据包括诸如胸罩尺寸，重量和高度的测量数据，从而
创建参数化身。 Miell，Gill和Casquesz认识到虚拟试衣间可以增
加参与度并降低感知风险,于是采用了内容分析以及扩展文献综
述的方法为工业B2B和面向消费者的B2C提供了20个不同大小，
尺寸和风格的网站接口。他们的研究已经确定和分类了适合消费
者的尺寸和尺寸技术领域，并为工业和实际应用提供了明确的方
向。作者还比较了所提供的解决方案是否与新兴的界面开发文献
有关，并测试了消费者的偏好。本研究结果有助于提升消费者在
网路时尚零售中的适合度和购买满意度。Morra等人审视了社交
媒体对购买原创或假冒奢侈品牌的影响。作者调查了社交媒体营
销传播，用户创造的内容和公司创造的内容对整体品牌资产的
净影响，以及购买原创和假冒奢侈时尚品牌的意图。他们的研究
发现，用户创造的内容对公司创造的内容，以及与假冒产品有关
的购买意图这两者有显着的影响；整体品牌资产和企业创造的内
容对于原创高级时装品牌的购买意向有显着的影响。 这项研究
表明，用户生成的内容可以成为管理和监测时装业务的有用工
具。San Miguel和Sadaba采取了不同的方法来考察时尚博主的影
响。他们的研究发现，并不是很多的时尚博主对消费者的购买都
有很大影响。作者的结论认为，为了制定成功的营销活动，并改
变消费者而不是为了产生品牌意识，精心挑选博客的品牌是必要
的。研究结果可能有助于时装品牌、传播机构、时尚领域的研究
人员和专业人士分析一个有影响力的博客作者的特征，并知道如
何在博客圈中发现这些博客。
由于时尚产业缺乏实体店与相应网店的互动，Mir，Guercini
和Sadaba考察了电子商务增长对奢侈品多品牌时装零售商国际化
的影响。他们的研究表明：1）零售商在创建网上商店后是否确
实经历了国际销售的增长；2）应采取的最合适的沟通策略； 3）
他们是否创建网上商店来满足国内需求或达到国际客户的需求。
这项研究显示了西班牙奢侈品牌多品牌商店如何适应新的商业模
式。作者的结论表明，时尚行业内的电子商务和多品牌店正在增
加和发展。零售商应该留出足够的投资来适应业务增长。Perna
及其同事研究了时装公司如何协调基于使用特定信息和技术工具
（如“在线销售配置器”）的定制流程。这项研究解决了时装公司
是如何通过互联网实施定制解决方案的，以及具体的贸易是如何
影响定制管理的。本研究还分析了线上定制应该在何时与线下产
品产生联系。这项研究提供了一个有趣的见解。关于在业务关系
中管理的一个代表性问题，特别是参与到供应商网络中的不同的
业务运营者。

1. Introduction
The development of digitalization within the fashion business has been accompanied with
the emergence of a “new” form of marketing with characteristics that are partially different
 JOURNAL OF GLOBAL FASHION MARKETING   3

to those traditionally present in an offline environment. The growth in online sales of

fashion companies depends on changes in technology and society. The role of the online
environment is particularly important for e-commerce businesses, both in the industrial
goods market and, above all, in the consumer goods market. For online fashion marketers,
the development of the online market has some very important implications for marketing
activities. This special issue of The Journal of Global Fashion Marketing focuses on the evolu-
tion of e-commerce in the fashion goods market, which is driven by changing technologies,
consumer behaviors, and the responses of fashion companies, especially with regard to
their marketing activities.
The Internet has been regarded as a key tool for business growth internationally (Pezderka
& Sinkovics, 2011). In the fashion industry, e-retailing is considered an effective means of
expanding a business globally (Reynolds, 2002). Fashion companies in particular rely on
a store environment in order to create a shopping experience and develop their brands
(Blázquez, 2014). However, despite the importance of physical stores, in recent years, we
have witnessed substantial development regarding the electronic trade in fashion products.
Recently, e-commerce growth has been associated with the US department store crisis, with
one possible explanation for this crisis (“department store apocalypse”) consisting of the
competition between traditional channels and digital channels in retailing (Barrabi, 2017).
Fashion products represent a major category within e-commerce and have witnessed the
development of a new form of online marketing. Special attention should be paid to the
internationalization of e-commerce within the fashion industry. Use of the Internet and
online channels is perceived as a powerful tool in this internationalization process, effec-
tively reducing physical liabilities, information gaps, and operational threats. Such tools
may minimize the perceived risk of fake or counterfeit products, especially in the luxury
fashion segment.
International development through new platforms and technologies allows multi-brand
retailers to grow and constitutes a unique opportunity for them to expand their business.
But how can companies address consumer attitudes toward technological facilities within
a challenging environment? How do new online marketing strategies and e-commerce
connect at both national and international levels? The aim of this special issue is to gain a
better understanding of online fashion marketing and retailing. We focus on the role of IT
and the crossover effects between domestic supply chain channels and the internationaliza-
tion process (Guercini & Runfola, 2015). Adoption of new technologies changes shoppers’
behavior and business capabilities. This change is attributed to the growth of smartphone
ownership and mobile Internet penetration, as well as the new facilities provided through
3D and consumer interaction (Kim & Ko, 2012).
The topics for this new marketing approach in fashion e-commerce include, but are not
limited to, the following: the relationship between design and marketing in industrial mar-
keting and IT or web use in fashion; the role of technology, e-commerce, and growth strate-
gies and marketing in new markets; marketing of firms specializing in fashion e-commerce;
the contribution of IT, e-commerce, and marketing to the business models of companies
within the fashion industry; marketing orientation and market orientation in the fashion
business; the presence of e-commerce strategies in companies that make up the retail sector;
the relationship between fashion firms and their international markets; and the strategies
associated with fashion e-business.
4   S. GUERCINI ET AL.

2.  The need for new models and tools in online fashion marketing
Research on fashion e-commerce must address a series of problems and requires an under-
standing of the issues experienced by consumers and business players. This involves a need
for new models in order to approach different interpretations and responses to problems.
This need for new models is linked to the different players that make up the new digital
environment, first of all within fashion e-commerce and, more generally, within the fashion
market and fashion business. Such models, often associated with exploratory research, can
be useful tools when it comes to addressing the challenges of new digital fashion marketing.
Emerging models cover various thematic areas, including the following:
(1) the impact of new technologies on consumer behavior (technology/consumption
interface) and on the strategies of business players (e.g. for internationalization or
for product customization);
(2) the integration of online fashion marketing and offline fashion marketing (for
example, through omni-channel strategies) on the part of brand producers and
distribution companies, and, more generally, the integration of online business
and offline business (e.g. in inventory management and logistics, or in customer
service);
(3) the impact of new IT technologies and new marketing tools (such as search engine
marketing and social media marketing) on preexisting fashion marketing issues
(such as customizing products and services or the relationship between buying
intention and counterfeiting);
(4) the role of new emerging players in the digital environment (for example, fashion
bloggers), with particular reference to online opinion leaders, their influence and
managerial implications for fashion marketers.
The offline environment remains important for many marketers, and a need emerges
for online and offline activities to be integrated, giving rise to new omni-channel strategies
(Brynjolfsson, Hu, & Rahman, 2013; Verhoef, Kannan, & Inman, 2015). E-commerce devel-
opment in the fashion business places traditional marketing activities under strain, with
new tools often creating difficulties in relation to those employed in traditional marketing
strategies. A need arises for integrated standards regarding online and offline marketing
activities. For example, managing the inventory may be different for e-commerce and phys-
ical stores, while logistics and service requirements are different in terms of operations.
Businesses struggle to use a single inventory for e-commerce and physical stores because the
two service systems require different logistics and duplicate costs. Integration into a single
inventory may require the integration of online and offline marketing tools. In e-commerce
fashion, marketers adopt a new marketing approach driven by new models and committed
to integrating resources and policies with new tools and models. For example, for fitting
and sizing processes, the online system can set a standard that also affects the offline sys-
tem. If the physical store offers a standard for the online store, in many cases, it may be
the physical store that has to be digitalized, proposing the same solutions in the physical
environment as for the online environment (i.e. electronic displays for purchases, home
delivery of products, avatar-based fitting and sizing systems, physical cameras that adopt
the standard of the virtual camera).
 JOURNAL OF GLOBAL FASHION MARKETING   5

Technology and consumer behavior effectively drive this new marketing approach, which
is different from traditional methods and poses a problem of integration with regard to
preexisting tools. The problem concerns both “virtual clothing technology” (body scan-
ning, virtual dressing room, digital product development tools, etc.) and “digital consumer
behavior” (visualization technologies, virtual reality, use of avatars, etc.).
The online environment has led to the emergence of new marketing activities, such as the
development of social media, leading to the emergence of social media marketing, which is
very important for fashion companies. Thus, this new marketing environment is not only
important because it is growing, but also because its growth has an impact on preexisting
phenomena, such as counterfeiting, which is particularly important in luxury fashion, and
customization, a theme that has long been debated but which can be analyzed from new
perspectives in the new digital context.
The emergence of social media and user-generated content is increasingly relevant for
research on fashion brands due to the possibility of listening to the Internet for marketing
purposes, where new tools for quantitative research (text-mining, metrics automatically
provided by software, etc.) or qualitative research (listening to clients and direct interaction
with clients through forums, etc.) are available and can be used in such a way as to enhance
their complementary nature (Crawford Camiciottoli, Ranfagni, & Guercini, 2014).

3.  Findings arising from the articles in this special issue

This special issue of The Journal of Global Fashion Marketing examines the theme of new
marketing concepts and practices in fashion e-commerce through a selection of articles on
different characteristics in terms of both the topics that are tackled and the research meth-
odologies adopted. Consistent with the features of the digital environment, these articles
adopt various research methods, including use of the digital context as a source of data
relevant to the study of the issues faced by businesses in their interface with technology and
the consumption of fashion, using both qualitative methodology and quantitative methods,
not to mention hybrid methodological approaches (Guercini, 2014).
The prevalence of mobile technology has driven the fashion e-commerce industry to
evolve and expand rapidly. As a result, a stream of new enabling fit and sizing fashion
technologies has become available to consumers, across all sectors. Online virtual fitting
rooms often include avatars that involve a consumer entering measurements such as bra
size, weight, and height, thus creating a parametric avatar. Recognizing that virtual fitting
rooms can increase engagement and reduce perceived risk, in the first article of this special
issue, Miell, Gill, and Vazquez (2017) adopt a content analysis and extended literature review
method for 20 fit, size, and style websites that exist across industrial business-to-business
and consumer-facing business-to-consumer interfaces. Their study has identified and cat-
egorized the field of fit and sizing technologies available to consumers and provides clear
directions for industry and practical applications. The authors also compare whether the
solutions offered are related to emerging literature on interface development and tested con-
sumer preferences. The findings of this research have implications for enhancing customers’
fit and sizing purchase satisfaction in online fashion retailing. The main finding proposed
by this paper consists of an “omni-fit model”, one that provides an opportunity to manage
the problem of delivering digital consumer fashion through fitting and sizing systems.
6   S. GUERCINI ET AL.

The impact of social media on the intention to purchase counterfeit products is the sub-
ject addressed by Morra et al (2017) in the second article published in this special issue. The
paper proposes an empirical study of the effects of user-generated content on brand equity
and the intention to purchase original and counterfeit luxury fashion brands. A model of
relationships between firm-created and user-generated content, brand equity, and intention
to buy original and counterfeit products is tested. As a result of this research, it emerges
that a low level of user-generated content may be associated with greater intention to pur-
chase originals if a higher level of firm-created content is generated. However, a high level
of user-generated content can make the growth of firm-created content ineffective when it
comes to increasing the intention to buy original brands. Morra and his colleagues examine
the effect of social media on the purchase of original or counterfeit luxury fashion brands.
The authors investigate the net impact of social media marketing communication, user-gen-
erated content, and firm-created content on overall brand equity and on the intention to
buy original and counterfeit luxury fashion brands. Their study finds that user-generated
content has a significant effect on firm-created content and the purchase intention relating
to counterfeit products, overall brand equity, and firm-created content has a significant
effect on the purchase intention relating to original luxury fashion brands. Thus, this study
reveals that user-generated contents can be a useful tool when it comes to managing and
monitoring the fashion business.
New marketing players have emerged in the online environment. Among them, fashion
bloggers have aroused particular interest. Their role has attracted considerable attention
due to their ability to influence consumer behavior. Sadaba and SanMiguel (2017) research
highlights the fact that a large number of fashion bloggers exists, but only a few of them
manage to play a role as influencers. The two authors take a different approach to examining
the influence of fashion bloggers. Their study finds that not that many fashion bloggers exert
much influence on consumer purchases. The authors conclude that a careful selection of
bloggers by brands is necessary in order to develop successful marketing campaigns and
bring changes to the consumer, instead of generating brand awareness. Fashion-influencing
bloggers are not only active on the web, but also in their tighter and offline social circles.
The study findings may help fashion brands, communication agencies, researchers, and
professionals in the field of fashion to analyze the characteristics of an influential blogger
and know how to detect these blogs within the blogosphere.
Recognizing the fashion industry’s lack of interaction between physical stores and cor-
responding online shops, Mir Bernal, Guercini, and Sadaba (2017) examine the impact of
e-commerce growth on the internationalization of luxury multi-brand fashion retailers.
Their study addresses: (1) whether retailers really experienced growth in their international
sales after creating the online shop; (2) the most appropriate communication strategies that
should be adopted; (3) whether they created online stores to cover national demand or to
reach international customers. The study focuses on luxury fashion multi-brand stores in
Spain and how they adapt their marketing activities to the new online context. The mul-
ti-brand retailers considered by the research have developed their own e-commerce oper-
ations to reach consumers from other countries. Sales in international markets are often
favored when multi-brands are linked to partners with the skills required to reach such
markets, such as internationally renowned large marketplaces. This is especially true for
smaller retailers, but larger companies can also benefit from such platforms to reach inter-
national markets. This is a major finding of this research study. The authors conclude that
 JOURNAL OF GLOBAL FASHION MARKETING   7

e-commerce and multi-brand stores within the fashion industry are increasing and devel-
oping. Retailers should set aside sufficient investment to accommodate business growth.
Finally, Perna, Runfola, Temperini, and Gregori (2017) investigate how fashion com-
panies might orchestrate customization processes, which are based on the use of specific
information and technology tools such as “on-line sales configurators”. This study addresses
how a fashion company implements a customized solution via the Internet, and what are
the specific trade-offs that affect the management of customization. It also analyzes when
online customization should be linked to offline production. In particular, the trade-off
between innovation in IT solutions and offline procurement processes, as well as the trade-
off between enterprise development paths and relationship network development, are taken
into account. This study provides some interesting insights regarding the extent to which
customization represents an issue to be managed within business relationships, particularly
among different business players involved in the supplier network.

4. Conclusions
Research on new marketing strategies in fashion e-commerce is part of a more general path
of renewal regarding marketing research and marketing models that have been adopted to
address the growing role of new technologies in marketing processes and, in general, the
interface between business and consumer players in contemporary society. Particularly
during this period of change, traditional marketing models and tools can be seen to co-exist
with new models and tools. In companies, as well as in managerial training processes, there
is a need for a systematic framework to be developed that can address problems and help
train tomorrow’s marketers. This special issue seeks to make a contribution in this respect.

Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID
Simone Guercini   http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7542-6984
Pedro Mir Bernal   http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1832-7602
Catherine Prentice   http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7700-3889

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