Last week online fashion retailer Boohoo announced that its pre-tax profits had almost doubled to £31m – up from just under £16m the previous year.
With a focus on targeting specific demographics with its affordable offering, sales jumped by 51%, helped in no small part by its expansion into new overseas markets.
YouGov brand tracking data underlines why Boohoo has had success in the past year.
When looking specifically at its target group – those aged 18-24 – Boohoo performs well. Looking at the Value metric (whether a brand provides value for money), Boohoo rates higher than Zara, River Island and Topshop, to name just a few.
Another clue to its success lies in Boohoo’s Word of Mouth score (whether you have discussed the brand with someone in the past fortnight) among this age group. Again, in this category Boohoo finds itself ahead of River Island, Dorothy Perkins and Miss Selfridge and close behind Topshop.
One more key to this success is Boohoo’s digital reach. It has a very effective social media strategy, meaning it can cut marketing spend in other areas. YouGov Profiles data underlines the importance of this approach. Our figures indicate that 90% of customers are on Facebook, 58% are on Twitter while six in ten (60%) are on Instagram.
What’s more, 60% of Boohoo customers say they often notice advertisements while on the internet. This is supplemented by the fact that among 18-24s, Boohoo currently ranks highest in the fashion sector in terms of Ad Awareness score (whether you have seen an advert for a brand in the past two weeks).
Boohoo has also been able to adapt to its target group’s lifestyle. Of current customers, over nine in ten (92%) say that online shopping makes their life easier, while 85% say they will happily switch shops for greater speed any convenience.
This success story is yet another example of an online retailer being able to outmanoeuvre its bricks and mortar rivals, and it acts as a further warning about the challenges facing high street retail outlets.
Image PA
This article originally appeared in City A.M.
