Though they’ve been around a while, online designer sample sales continue to dominate as a hot trend with consumers. Online Sample Sales have expanded into men’s wear, travel and home decor. It leaves a fashion marketer to wonder just who has the most clout among online consumers. Utilizing Attensity360 (formerly Biz360 Community Insights), I took a look at the top five online sample sales aimed at women,  and here’s what I discovered:

Sample Sale Website Social Market Share

On microblogs (Twitter and Google Buzz), social networks (Facebook), online forums and discussion boards and mainstream media sites and blogs, Gilt Groupe is the #1 most talked about sample sale site, accounting for 50.7% of the conversations. Gilt is followed by Hautelook (36%), RueLaLa (8.3%), Ideeli (2.8%) and Daily Candy’s Swirl (2.2%). Editor’s Closet didn’t make the list.

Fashionably Statistics Challenge

Using community monitoring and social media monitoring software is a must for most marketing and PR professionals if we don’t already know the impact we’re having on our client campaigns. Even if we are already studying the impact of what we are doing, we must continually monitor social media for mentions of your brand, your competitors’ brands, and industry keywords. You should focus on possible red flags, as well as brand championship, and develop an engagement strategy with influencers, peers, customers and prospects. Instead of doing my usual analysis, I want to open this up to my fellow marketing and PR professionals. Let’s analyze Sample Sites!

• Based on the the top line information shown in the graphs and charts (above and below), where do you think each brand’s traction, or lack thereof, is coming from?
• In the now crowded sample sale site space – what would you recommend for your favorite sample sale site to gain more market share through their social media marketing?
• Would you recommend beefing up affiliate marketing programs or would you integrate an influencer incentive program into the mix?

The sky’s the limit on this one. Let’s strategize! You don’t have to be a seasoned professional to participate, you can offer any suggestion you like; I encourage students to sound off as well!

I’ll start:

• Why isn’t anyone using VIDEO to communicate and connect with online consumers? I can think of at least 10 creative videos you could use for a sample sale site.
• Whose mobile experience is most lacking? Could you take gain online sales and traction through your mobile marketing?
  

Publisher’s Note: None of these brands or their agencies have asked me to write this post. I’m writing it out of my own curiosity and to start developing dialogue amongst fashion industry professionals.

I’ve broken down a bit more information on the brands below with the exception of Editor’s Closet. CLICK on each image to make it larger.

Gilt Groupe – Gilt.com

Hautelook – Hautelook.com

RueLaLa – RueLaLa.com (Recently acquired by GSI Commerce)

Ideeli – Ideeli.com

(note: Ideeli is current hiring developers, so there are conversations around Ruby on Rails trending into their conversations)

Swirl By Daily Candy – Swirl.com