Zalando is the most convincing fashion retailer

Zalando knows how to use the best persuasion and personalisation techniques to entice consumers to purchase. We know this because the German fashion giant has finished number one in the Persuasion Index 2019. The Persuasion Index is a top 100 of online fashion retailers. A team of digital behavioural psychologists, data scientists and digital marketers compiled the index. In the index, Zalando was well ahead of other renowned names such as Foot Lockers, C&A and Net-A-Porter.

The Persuasion Index team examined numerous fashion retailers for five months to see who managed to use persuasion and personalisation techniques in their web shops in the best way. Zalando eventually won 83 out of 100 possible points and managed to leave Reebok (82), Under Armour (82), WE Fashion (81) and New Look (79) behind.

Two Dutch web shops made it to top 10

Finishing in fourth place, WE Fashion is the highest Dutch ranking in the list with 81 out of 100 points. WE Fashion is followed by C&A which, according to the researchers, is in a surprising tenth place, with a score of 75/100. Behavioural psychologists assess each web shop in the study on fourteen criteria, which ultimately resulted in 23 trends in e-commerce. According to Crobox, the company commissioning the study, these are the three most striking trends:

#1 Instagram

Instagram is becoming the most popular social network for companies to come into contact with customers. The latest trend is the integration with a so-called live social feed where fans or influencers who wear the brand or prizes get the space. According to Crobox, this is especially good for building social credibility and brand authority.

#2 Product recommendations

Product recommendations are nothing new under the sun, but thanks to new technology such as AI and self-learning algorithms, the recommendation systems are better than ever. The best working recommendations on a shopping cart page turn out to be products that are complementary to those already in the shopping cart instead of corresponding products. This has proven to work even better when the retailer has an instant-add button on this page.

#3 Convincing search function

Almost every web shop has a search function these days. However, web shops use a smart search function can score even better conversion figures. Implementing a convincing search bar is the next new innovation in this field; the smart search function shows categories such as popular products and new collections based on the customers' search history.

Personalisation is increasingly dominant in e-commerce

According to the CEO of Crobox, the domain of personalisation and online behavioural psychology is becoming increasingly dominant in e-commerce. "Choice stress on the overview page or frustration during the payment process are known barriers to conversion." With the index, the company critically highlights the standards of the industry and the awareness of behavioural design.