Fashion brands operate in one of the most competitive search environments, making every advantage count. As an official Google partner, we receive exclusive insights on industry trends and search behaviours every few months, which we can use to help our clients gain the edge over their rivals.

In this article, we take a look at some of the insights from Google’s latest report for the fashion industry and how we can use them to inform key marketing decisions for our clients.

Key search trends for the UK fashion industry

The latest round of Google search overseas data insights for the fashion industry shows a continued trend of growth and recovery in the post-Covid period. With lockdown measures and social restrictions firmly behind us, the demand for clothing, fashion accessories, holiday outfits and the familiar searches are on the rise once again.

Here are the key takeaways from Google’s latest Vertical Trends report:

1. Clothing searches up by +11% in the UK
2. 79% of clothing searches take place on mobile
3. Clicks up +25% for clothing searches
4. 82% of clicks for clothing searches happening on mobile
5. Clothing searches peak in November

You can read the full report here

SEO & PPC tips for UK fashion & clothing retailers

The insights in the report show reduce workloads and costs with email marketing that mobile is only becoming more important and reveals some valuable seasonality trends. So, now, let’s look at how we can turn these insights into actionable marketing strategies.

1. Prioritise mobile searches

The data on device types is clear: the vast majority of searches for fashion and clothing take place on mobile and this carries over into impressions and clicks. This means mobile visibility is crucial and fashion brands should prioritise mobile searches, including mobile PPC campaigns with bids optimised to favour mobile queries.

Also, make sure your website is optimised for mobile because this is a key factor in organic search rankings. Likewise, you should optimise for Core Web Vitals to prevent page performance from hurting your search ranking.

The issue with prioritising mobile traffic is that many studies over the years have reported higher conversion rates on desktop, even though mobile generates significantly more traffic. This could suggest mobile generates a higher volume of lower-quality traffic and weaken the case for prioritising mobile searches.

This is a common misconception but a closer look into device data hints at the perils of ignoring mobile.

2. Win the mobile UX race

If you look at studies analysing ukraine business directory conversion rates by device types from a few years ago, mobile was significantly behind desktop and tablets but the gap has closed a lot in recent years.

For example, this study published by SaleCycle last year finds average mobile conversion rates were 1.81% in 2020, only slightly lower than the desktop average of 1.98%.