EBay aims to double fashion business

EBay aims to double the size of its Fashion Outlet business by expanding the number of brands that sell direct via its ecommerce platform.

ebay

The move will be backed by an ad campaign in a bid to encourage shoppers to regard it as a credible fashion destination.

Melanie Smallwood, UK head of fashion brands, told Marketing Week that the ‘MyMix’ campaign has been developed to show that eBay offers a place for UK fashion fans to buy a mix of vintage, new and second-hand from other consumers and small businesses and directly from high street brands.

It aims to have twice the number of brands selling directly to consumers on the site in the coming months. It currently has 30 brands including French Connection, L.K. Bennett, Dune and House of Fraser.

Smallwood adds that eBay’s fashion site is outpacing fashion ecommerce, growing at about 20% year-on-year.

The aim of the campaign is to raise awareness beyond eBay’s loyal fashion shoppers to a broader audience and encourage consumers to cross between buying vintage, second-hand and new items from other eBay users and directly from brands.

Smallwood says: “My background is fashion at Harrods and Harvey Nichols so I have a strong feeling about how people have regarded eBay for fashion but in the last few years there has been a significant change in perceptions in what we’re doing in fashion.

“The campaign is a stake in the ground for us – we did it delicately in our first autumn campaign but now it’s a bold statement about where we are with our brand collaborations.”

The ad campaign, which features bloggers and stylists from Italy and New York as well as TV presenter Amal Fashanu, daughter of footballer John, launches on 23 April.

It includes outdoor, print, mobile and digital advertising as we’ll as editorial content via the eBay fashion site and blog. An augmented reality app for iPhone and Android will also give access to a digital magazine by interacting with the outdoor ads.

Recommended

Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola to gauge social value of its marketing

Seb Joseph

Coca-Cola is to measure the social impact its London 2012 Olympic Games Sponsorship activity is having on communities around the world, a move that comes days after the company was criticised by a medical body for sponsoring the Olympics.

Non-Olympics

Marketing Week

Many brands not sponsoring the London 2012 seem to have put their promotional marketing on hold. But with millions of people not interested in the Olympics, isn’t this a chance to be successful by being noticeably different? Olympic tickets are enviable, but there are many who currently can’t seem to find any alternative. Philip PenlingtonDirector, […]