Does e-commerce site answer the needs of fashion and beauty brands?

Does ‘Amazon’ or ‘Alibaba’ immediately pop up in your head when someone said ‘fashion e-commerce’?

Although the power of both giant e-commerce platforms is undisputable, the fashion industry doesn’t embrace both platforms with a warm welcome. Amazon’s ambitious plan to expand into fashion has so far met with criticism. LVMH vows to never sell on Amazon, opts instead to create its own e-commerce for brands under the conglomerate. Birkenstock stopped selling on Amazon in 2016 due to counterfeits. The matter is worse for Alibaba Group. Kering Group filed a lawsuit against the Chinese e-commerce in mid 2015.

The situation is slightly different in Indonesia. Tokopedia’s initiative to work with fashion and beauty brands has proven to be a hit. The collaboration requires brands to sell their items exclusively in Tokopedia. Free shipping certainly helps with sales.

Our survey found that both millennials and centennials (Generation Z - born between 1995 and 2008) will not buy fashion products from e-commerce platform. ‘Trust’ is their main concern when shopping for fashion products at e-commerce platform. All of them said ‘No’ when it comes to buying luxury.

“If I say that I bought my Adidas shoes from Tokopedia, my friends will question the authenticity,” said a 17-year-old student. “It’s not the first place you think of when it comes fashion,” another chimed in.

For high street brand, around 20% of respondents doesn’t mind making purchase from e-commerce platform. However, 75% would not specifically go to the platform without brand’s referral. Free delivery, promotional deals and special collection increase their interest.

A 28-year-old respondent said that she would buy a big ticket item from e-commerce marketplaces under certain circumstances. “I was looking for Northskull bracelet in Indonesia and the only place that has it is Tokopedia.”

Aside from counterfeits plaguing these e-commerce giants, there are many reasons why fashion brands stop displaying their collections there. Where customers purchase goods and where goods are sold determine a brand’s prestige and value.

To put it frankly, telling people ‘I buy this pair of Fendi shoes from Net-a-Porter’ holds a different meaning to ‘I buy this pair of Fendi shoes from Amazon.’

E-commerce marketplace is designed to provide convenient experience to customers. Fashion, on the other hand, is all about visual. That is because visual grabs customer’s attention. It is extremely difficult to present editorial shot and lookbooks in a crowded e-commerce site.

“There are items that don’t need convenience. For fashion, especially high end, you want the service, the prestige, the beautiful packaging. You don’t mind driving kilometres away to the store or sometimes flying to another country. That’s where e-commerce lacks. It only sells convenience,” the 28-year-old said. “It’s the same thing with high-street and contemporary brands. Why should I buy from e-commerce site when I can buy straight from the brand?”

E-commerce platforms have to consider website design and product display. The homepage of e-commerce site is usually splashed with a wide variety of products. Mixing fashion items with household appliances and electronics doesn’t create a good impression on the fashion brands.

Although e-commerce doesn’t really belong in the same sentence with high-end, contemporary labels, or high street, low priced clothing and basics might work out for e-commerce platform as they serve a functional purpose rather than aesthetics. Therefore, they don’t require extra service or prestige. Purchasing those items from any platform is not an issue.

Creating a specific platform for fashion and beauty is an option for e-commerce foraying into fashion. Take, for example, Amazon’s subsidiary Shopbop. Indonesians’ habit of pushing discount codes on a regular basis has made them an expert in finding the lowest price on e-commerce sites. In contrast, regardless of how superficial it may sound, fashion lives and breathes on exclusivity and aesthetics. ‘Cheap’ and ‘exclusive’ are contradictory to each other.