By Garry Barker
THE days of the high street fashion store may not yet be numbered, but technology is rapidly changing the rules of retailing, and nowhere are they changing faster than in fashion.
But, says Sportsgirl chief executive Elle Roseby, just setting up a website is not enough. Properly developed, an online presence can make a retailer's relationship with its customers much closer, even personal, through social networking forums and blogs.
Setting up a website is not enough, says Sportsgirl chief executive Elle Roseby.Credit: Paul Jones
With these, customers can make known not only what they want to wear but their lifestyles, their opinions, and maybe even their relationships.
Sportsgirl has built an online forum that Ms Roseby says has brought the company much closer to its customers, and the customers closer to Sportsgirl.
''The site has made things easier for her; it takes the guesswork out and she can follow the trends through the opinions of others posting in the forum,'' she says.
But this is only the start. Technology will take things much further. Clearly on the fashion horizon, and already under trial in the US, is the use of avatars, made in a customer's own image, that she can dress with images of apparel in the online store.
The avatar can then be sent to the customer's space on a social network such as Facebook for her friends to offer opinions on whether it is what she should wear to the weekend's party.
''That's where it is going,'' says Peter Noble, chief executive of Citrus, the Melbourne digital marketing services agency that built the Sportsgirl online presence. Some US sites have tested the technology but uptake has been slow, partly because the user interface is still too complex, Mr Noble says.
Is privacy an issue? For some yes but, says Mr Noble: ''This audience understands there is no privacy. You only have to look at the personal stuff they put out on their Facebook profiles. For them it is what life looks like.''
Success in online retailing is not just about building a website, Mr Noble says. It is also about marketing services and attracting shoppers to a site through search, email marketing and online media. ''It must make the shopping experience central to the online offering,'' he said.
''Sportsgirl's site has been very successful. Revenue is now about equivalent to one of their larger medium-sized stores. But they have also learnt a great deal about their customers; how they engage online, what they want, what they are thinking and how fashion fits into their lifestyle. That's been really exciting.
''Sportsgirl's brand is about being first to market, so the technology we have used and the applications we develop have to be on the edge of things because their market is a youth audience that demands that things happen quickly. If they don't like it they will ditch it quickly. It is a huge challenge for a retailer.''
Citrus did extensive interviews with typical shoppers before starting to build the site. ''We found that for many younger women shopping was a social experience,'' Mr Noble said. ''They shop in packs; one girl in the change room, six of her mates sitting on the couch outside and she comes out to a chorus of 'It's great; it's not you; buy it, don't buy it.' So how do you replicate that experience online?''
They did it with what Mr Noble says was at the time a world-first Facebook application, called ''Hot or Not''. It allowed a customer browsing the website to add it to her Facebook profile and have her friends vote on it in real time. It played a big role in the revenue pathway through the website.''
Facebook changed its rules and that application lapsed. ''We learnt a lot about the fleeting nature of the technology and what we need to do to stay on the edge,'' Mr Noble says.
Online also gives the retailer much wider reach. ''We discovered, for example, that 30 kilometres out of Mackay there is a really devout bunch of Sportsgirl shoppers. They don't have a store to go to, they buy online.
''This is about more than just shopping. It is about conversation; what's on their minds. Sportsgirl now has an opportunity to listen to its audience and understand what some of its issues are and even participate in some of the conversations and help them.
''In a physical store the only conversation with a customer might be a few words, easily forgotten, at the sales counter. Now there is a forum in which the company can be part of the conversation.
''That has been really exciting because we have started to understand what the customer is thinking about and how important fashion is in her lifestyle.