When Offline meets Online: Insights & Data from the Milan Fashion Week

This event provides a unique opportunity for top international labels. It brings significant media attention and offers brands an extraordinary chance to strengthen their brand awareness and identity. Moreover, it serves as an exclusive platform to showcase the upcoming season’s standout pieces.

Milan Fashion Week also presents a valuable opportunity for the Maisons to bridge the gap between offline and online. They can leverage the event’s offline interest and translate it into enhanced engagement within their digital communities. With dedicated landing pages and curated editorial content on brand websites, the aim is to provide users with valuable content.

Examining the data from the previous fashion week

The Fall/Winter edition for women’s collections took place from February 21st to 27th, 2023. By analyzing data from an aggregated cluster of clients who participated in runway shows during this edition, we aimed to answer the following question: what were the overall engagement and sales performances impacted?

LANDING PAGE AND SALES  KPIs  

Analyzing the average conversion rate of users who landed on ecommerce platforms through Fashion Week-related content, compared to the overall user data, it becomes clear that the runway show landing pages did not contribute so much to improving sales performance indicators.

Two crucial factors played a fundamental role in this regard:

• The showcased products are not immediately available for purchase.
• The core audience attending Milan Fashion Week differs from  ecommerce buyers.

ENGAGEMENT

Initiatives undertaken during the Milan Fashion Week have a particularly positive impact on the upper funnel, aiming to enhance awareness, as well as on the consideration stage, where the focus lies on improving the quality and quantity of interactions with the target audience.

By considering the daily and weekly data from the Milan Fashion Week about the average values of the first quarter, we aimed to answer the following questions: 

• Did daily traffic increase during Milan Fashion Week?
• Did website performance improve regarding user engagement indicators (Bounce Rate, Pages/Session, Avg Session Duration)?
• How did the composition of the audience change (New/Returning Users)?

When looking at the days when brands held their runway shows, it becomes evident that overall traffic increased for all brands. However, the indicators reflecting audience engagement did not show equally significant improvements. 

An analysis of the audience composition during the event week reveals that there was less growth in new users compared to returning users, confirming the event’s effectiveness in engaging existing users. 

LANDING PAGE AND PERFORMANCE

We then examined the browsing behavior of the following groups during Fashion Week and the following week: 

• Group A – sessions where the landing page was viewed at least once.
• Group B – sessions where the landing page was not viewed.

Users in Group A (6% of the overall users) demonstrated higher levels of engagement compared to users in Group B.

Conclusions

During Fashion Weeks, brands that participated in runway shows aim at stimulating and engaging their online audiences.

Based on the data considered, the following conclusions emerged:

• These initiatives did not significantly impact sales indicators: none of the landing pages recorded a higher conversion rate compared to the entire ecommerce platform during the specified period. 
• The online audience displayed increased interest in the brands. On the day of the runway show, daily traffic saw a 20% boost, and the session duration experienced a 10% increase compared to the average data from the first quarter. 
• Landing pages proved to be practical tools for engagement, capable of sustaining audience interest. During the Fashion Week and the subsequent week, 6% of users viewed the dedicated landing pages, resulting in a 60% increase in pages viewed per session. Additionally, the average session duration increased by 88% compared to users who did not visit the landing pages.
• These initiatives are effective in engaging the existing audiences. During the Fashion Week, compared to the average of the quarter, there was a smaller growth in new users compared to overall users (+7% vs. +17%).

In brief, such initiatives, while they may not generate immediate sales, are valuable for brands to nurture their relationships with their target communities and consolidate their positioning. These elements are essential for a brand seeking to effectively establish a strong presence at the top of the funnel.