Overview of digital channel analysis and its importance to Topshop’s marketing plan

1.Digital Channel Analysis Criteria

As put forward by Easlon and Bloom (2014) digital consumption has now been a rapidly increasing force in today’s playing field of communication as well as marketing. It is certain that people around the globe are using online content on a regular basis and this increasing consumption of online content makes it mandatory for the business to adopt digital marketing approaches into their existing strategies.  On the other side, the rate of online shopping is rapidly increasing, as the current online shopping rate particularly in Australia is around 59% (Abs.gov.au 2018).  Such growing figure create urge for adopting digital media channels for the organization like Topshop. With unique strategies of customer satisfaction associated with digital channel adoptions, Topshop can easily provide the customers exactly need. By adopting the digital media channels, the organization can identify the type of clothes or items that customers are looking for.

Most importantly, digital channels analysis is a significant market plan, which will help Topshop to have a complete control over its current situations with, respect to digital marketing. The plan also helps to identify any weaknesses that can be overcome with the plan. Thereby, this particular section will develop and describe particular analysis criteria, which will be used in the report. So, the digital channels are an important part of marketing plan because through digital channels, the organizations or the marketers can identify current market and customer needs and their competitors’ digital marketing approaches. So, the digital channels analysis helps top shape the marketing plan in accordance to the requirement.

However, for presenting an analysis criterion for the report, it is essential to identify and consider the needs of customers when analyzing the effectiveness and efficiencies of digital media channels, as this need identification will help to include a customer-minded approach to the analysis. The competitors of Topshop such as H&M are the direct competitors of Topshop and digital channel’s functions are similar to some great extent. However, H&M’ s site adopt channels to  create leads for their conventional outlet service and as the way of delivering their products to the customers but their entire functions are not based on digital media channels like Topshop. For example, in the case of H&M, the consumer’s through the digital media channels tend to look for new arrivals and costs charged for clothing items to make the comparison of products with other brands. Similarly, the consumers of Topshop may use the digital channels to find a more cost effective service, where specifically, they could find a free delivery on selected items. In addition, the customers can use the digital media channels to find the latest clothing items or upcoming items for any occasion and event.

Identifying market and customer needs through digital channels

There are different factors often considered during the analysis of digital media channels. The author Chaffey and Ellis-Chadwick mentioned that when the firm want to provide customers an unique digital experience, the approaches should be based on rational values, emotional values as well as the promised experience, which are emerged from rational and emotional values (Chaffey & Ellis-Chadwick, 2016). The below provided diagram provide multiple dimensions of each area of the pyramid which can be used for setting the criteria to analyze digital media channels. Therefore, applying these elements with the help of other framework such as E-SERVQUAL model, a more detailed consideration of the digital media channels can be derived in identifying customer value and experience.

a) Australian Consumer behavior

The advancement of technology made shopping easy for Australia clothes shoppers. As put forward by Malik et al. (2013), the online consumers in Australia are becoming more active in their online shopping habits, especially for buying, comparing price, looking up product information as well as engaging with other shoppers thorough social media. Forbes (2013) performed a research on online shopping behavior and found that more than one in four online customers in Australia, (42%) tend to conduct an online research to collect information such as checking price, reading other’s review about the products, looking for new deals. In this context, Karbasivar and Yarahmadi (2011) commented that consumer behavior appeals to a set of areas such as culture, knowledge and psychology.

Psychology here remains as an appealing area because psychology mainly deals with emotions, beliefs and attitude. So when people see their friends or family members are buying a particular brand, they grow a state of trust on the brand and then the buying decision is made. The studies on emotions within marketing have developed three different approaches such as categories approach, the dimension approach as well as cognitive approach. Hence, according to Khaniwale (2015) categories approach usually group emotions around exemplars and consider their multiple effects on consumption based behavior.

                                                                                (Source: Karbasivar & Yarahmadi 2011)

Exploration of competitors’ digital marketing approaches

 Likewise, observing others around, Australia shoppers who are involved in e-commerce activities, almost 21% of the overall online shoppers prefer to buy clothes online (Abs.gov.au 2018). This rate is increasing, as in the previous year, the parentage of buying cloths online was around 16%. Furthermore, Chen et al., (2011) mentioned such digital shopping often coincide with the changing shopping habits among the Australian.

 Nielsen Global survey found that in a market of ongoing economic uncertainty, there is an increasing concern over energy price; the consumers have become more cost conscious. As there is an easy access to escalation choice of digital shopping options, the consumer are more empowered in their purchase decision making influenced by the discussion in the social media as well as the price on other brands. On the other side, Yannopoulos (2011) mentioned that a detail product specification often remains as the factor influencing consumer buying behavior. This means some clothe retailers provide a detailed specification of the product in their e-commerce site. The customers find a detailed information about the product which is more enriching than buying a product offline,  as in offline product purchasing, customers do not get all information unless they ask outlet staff.

On the other side, consumer-buying behavior is influenced by some online selling service. Confos and Davis (2016) mentioned that now the e-commence vendors in the clothing industry are providing unique buying features such as free trial option, free delivery after a certain price range, exchange guarantee and exclusive deals such as offers, coupon code, cash back options. These variables largely influence the buying behavior of clothes shopper in Australia.

b) Social media 

Australian clothing businesses in Australia are using Internet as their potential strategy in their engagement with the existing and potential customers, with 59% of small and medium size clothing firms in Australian are likely to tale orders online. When analyzing Australia market’s digital media channels, it is essential to understand how the organizations can effective connect to the audience online. According to the National Statistics, Australia is presently holding the 5^th position with respect to increasing rate of internet consumption.

Particularly, Colwing (2017) mentioned that young people are the most frequent user; almost 90% of the users are falling under the age between 18 years to 29 years old remain active in social networking site. Among the digital shopping channels identified such as business website, emerging medium such as social media and some other specialized sites are providing aggregation and auction service. Dessart, Veloutsou and Morgan-Thomas (2015) commented that social media is in the list of those mediums that are yet to establish a mainstream business tool. However, in spite of the stated fact, almost 8.6 million Australians visited social networking site such as Facebook in during the period 2014-2016, to collect information before making purchase decision (Ashley & Tuten,  2015).

Factors influencing Australian consumer behavior in online shopping

Generally, social media channels used by clothing vendors are social media site such as Facebook and Twitter, (89% and 33% respectively). In this context, Godey et al., (2016) commented that social media sites do no usually provide direct transactions services. Rather clothing vendors tend to advertise service directly through the technique of “word of mouth” in the social media community. The impact of social media channels shaping consumer-buying decision is presently small as nearly 169,000 Australian aged between 14 years-29 years (Abs.gov.au 2018). The National Bureau of Statistic indicates that almost 70% of the overall population use Facebook in which almost 54% of the users are active daily while almost 36% of the young adults are checking updates in every hour (Abs.gov.au 2018). The following table clearly shows the number of user in social media channels helping clothing vendors to track.

                                                                                          Table 1: Social media users

                                                                                          (Source: Abs.gov.au 2018)

The above-mentioned figure helps to observe that digital convergence and the emergence of social networking sites providing marketers with significant market opportunity to develop business by penetrating deeper and build personal relationship with user with the help of a two-way communication through digital marketing. Moreover, these interpersonal relationships with the users through digital channels help marketers to learn about the needs, demands, preference, and market trends.

c) Website

The below provided figure provides an overview of the top online retail sites in Australia and the percentage of users accessing these sites to buy clothes.  It is estimated that these selected sites reached nearly 7.6 million Australian users. On the other side, the online auction site eBay reported 4.3 million users during the period of 2013-2016, followed by 1.6 million people visiting at Amazon (Xiang,  Magnini & Fesenmaier, 2015).

Thereby, it can be ascertained that an effective and unique digital experience is relevant as well as satisfying for the shoppers and it increases value of the brand. Thus, to create such experience, the elements or the aspects of the website must include accessibility, landing page, SEO, responsiveness, design and usability. Colwing (2017), mentioned that when an organization is launching an official website for giving customers a unique experience, the website should include adequate amount of information for the customers to be enriching and satisfying. The organizations should be committed to satisfying customer experience for all sorts of customers. Particularly, clothing organizations does not have to think of any age restriction when designing the accesses to the website or to the content.

Analysis of rational and emotional values and promised experience

d) Criteria 

From the discussion above, some of the relevant aspects of effective digital marketing have been selected for the analysis and some influential aspects have purposefully been added to the criteria. In addition, some potential points and the weak areas also included to create strength.  

2.Competitor Analysis –

In this particular section, H&M’s digital channels are analyzed by accessing the official websites of the two brands and some social media channels such as Facebook, YouTube and other relevant social media platforms.

a) Website Analysis Criteria 

 Content

H&M’s homepage shows a variety of content. The web page is designed to attract user’s attention, as the page contains video, wider graphical images, flashing of new offers and deals. Different categories of items are displayed on the page such as newly arrived clothes items, men, women and kids section (H&M group 2018). When clicking on a particular category- such as clicking on men section, the user will find all categories of recent trendy clothes items. However, the content of the web page of H&M are very clumsy because in order to find the elements, first, the user have to select the regions and based on the regions, relevant elements appear on the page. Nonetheless, the homepage of H&M contains five different major elements such as

1. Sustainability Highlights
2. Climate Positive Value
3. Sustainable Fashion
4. New Publication of H&M

With respect to key audience values discussed above, H&M shows quality on the first element by promoting and highlighting the sustainable clothes fashion and live customer experience on sustainable fashion. Nonetheless, it can be mentioned about, the appeal and feel of clothes items are presentable and prominent but the knowledge about items is not adequately provided. Moreover, the diversity of fashion is missing on the homepage. In addition, the elements of sustainable work on the page require involving more information about the background of each fashion.  On the other side, transformation of elements from one stage to another stage takes a lot of time, which can affect users’ patience. Additionally, the e-commerce section of H&M requires improvement as the homepage does not signify the cart options to store the items.

 Performance

The website score, according to website grader.com is 79, which is effective but the site requires more improvement. The below provided image indicate that performance score of the H&M’s web page is 24/30 which is above average, mobile accessibility rate is 30/30 which is rare, but SEO score 15/30 which is weak.

Creating a unique digital experience for Topshop customers

Accessibility

The website of H&M does not highlight or mention the accessibility and it cannot be run without the keyboard. Thereby, the users using touchpad device cannot use the site because clicking on the visible link takes a lot of time.

b) Social media Analysis

3.Company Analysis –

a) Website Analysis 

When accessing the website of Topshop, it is observed that Topshop’s logo is located at the top in the left corner of the page and there are some sub-elements are located aligning the logo of Topshop. The website of Topshop is promoting the brand heritage and the value of target market. The four slides on the homepage include the key values of the target market: such as quality, fashion, feel and fashion diversity. Scrolling down the page provides more items such as:

1. Fashion Target Breast Cancer
2. Key to Freedom
3. Lady Garden
4. Future Voice (Young Fashion Talent)

                                                                                                      Figure 7: Topshop Web homepage

                                                                                                           (Source: Topshop.com 2018)

Performance

The total website score is 87 according to website grader.com and the performance grade is 17/30.  The following image reveals the score and performance of other elements.

Adapting E-SERVQUAL model for digital channel analysis

The figure indicates that the page size is around 7.4 MB, which is a weaker part because the transition of pages will take a lot of time. The high quality images and videos slows down the page in transition.

Accessibility

The website of Topshop has the feature of accessibility as the organization identifies the importance of developing a website that can be accessed by all users and groups, including the disabled and visually impaired people. The user can access the website without the need for mouse.

 Landing page

Topshop tends to show its internal strength and community’s responsibilities. The brand shows its corporate responsibility to serve the communities or regions where it is performing its operation. However, the site does not have an option for signing up to the newsletter by putting emails but the users do not have to put external input to access the page. Nonetheless, users may be interested to learn more about the brand; thereby an access to the newsletter was required.

Usability

Task 1: Can I purchase a clothe item easily?

In order to purchase a clothe item from Topshop’s website, the user first has to click on the item first and the user see the item and can add to cart. Before clicking on “buy”, the user has to put the delivery details. However, the country or the city will be automatically tracked. However, the “buy” option may not appear for some items unless the users put the checkout details.

b) Social media 

                                                                                                   Figure 10: Topshop Instagram 

Identifying customer value and experience

4.Comparison Table

The below provided table provides a detailed comparison of digital channels analysis between Topshop and its competitor’s H&M. The comparison has been done by considering the variables such as strength and weaknesses of digital channels used by these two organizations.

The following report provides a detailed analysis of the effectiveness and efficiencies of digital channels for the organization Topshop.com in Australia and its competitors. Due to technological advancement, businesses find a new path of innovation, as with the help of digital media channels, the organizations today speed up the operation and gain desired profits. In fact, the small and medium size firms are also on the queue of adopting digital channels to promote, reach wide market and spread across the globe. Even though digital channels are suitable ways of developing or giving business a new pathway but the implementation and procurement of digital channels are not always an easy job. Many businesses are not able to adopt and procure digital media channels and derive desired outcome. Thereby, the purpose of the present report is to analyze the effectiveness and efficiencies of digital channels used by Topshop. The analysis has been done by making a comparison with the adoption of digital channels of competitors.

Firstly, the analysis criteria is developed for the website and social media channels comparing with recent academic theories and consideration of Australian market and consumer’s behavior for the organizations. Likewise, in section 3, a competitor analysis has been conducted considering how the competitors are using website and social media channels; hence, the analysis follows analysis criteria developed in the previous section for Topshop.’

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