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Main Points

Digitalization has become an increasing trend among fashion brands. With its Mini Program store ITeSHOP, I.T has launched various events, including "thank-you" offers, limited edition ballot, and lucky bags, to increase unique visitors and drive sales. It also integrated its offline stores with online channels such as its Weixin official account, Weixin channels, Mini Program, WeCom, and Weixin communities, establishing an omni-channel approach to sales growth.

Company Introduction

I.T is a famous fashion retailer founded in 1988. Boasting a multi-brand and tiered sales strategy, I.T currently cooperates with more than 300 fashion brands and operates over 20 of its own brands, including b+ab, izzue, FIVE CM, and :CHOCOOLATE.

Meanwhile, I.T is continuously expanding its business scope and is dedicated to creating more comfortable shopping spaces for customers. Its four flagship multi-brand shops, namely I.T, i.t, ete!, and FGXX, are known for their distinct sense of style, catering to the tastes and needs of different age groups and helping build I.T into a brand whose name is synonymous with young fashion at the cutting edge.

In 2017, I.T launched its Mini Program store ITeSHOP. The store operates the company's full product line and is capable of tracking the inventory of both online and offline channels. What's more, as a fashion buyer brand, I.T selects fashion items from a full range of categories and brands to meet customers' diverse needs.

Challenges

As more and more people pay attention to fashion trends and Generation Z rises to become a major consumer group, the fashion industry is quickly embracing the online marketplace. For I.T, there was also the challenge of how to keep up with fast-evolving fashion trends and respond quickly to customers' ever-changing shopping habits and preferences.

To address these challenges, I.T decided to focus more on engaging customers with high stickiness. The brand set a goal to establish a diverse and all-inclusive system of private channels to further increase its brand influence and grow its business.

Best Practices

• Diverse Product Line Plus Promotional Offers

The Mini Program store, ITeSHOP, plays an important role in I.T's efforts to grow its private traffic pool. The store not only offers I.T's full product line to shoppers but is also capable of tracking both online and offline inventory. The store also enables I.T to take advantage of its background as a fashion buyer brand to gather fashion items from multiple categories and brands. This keeps the store's traffic at a high level throughout the year. What's more, by offering top-tier, hard-to-buy items through private channels, I.T is able to further expand its private traffic pool.

Taking into account the uniqueness of its customer base, products, and sales channels, I.T developed a sales strategy that combines hot items, new products, and promotional offers. In addition to the "thank you" offers every March and September and attractive discounts during major e-commerce shopping seasons, the limited-edition ballot and lucky bag events have continuously increased the number of unique visitors and sales of its Mini Program store.

1. "Thank You" Offers and "Share for Coupons"

Regular customers are considered a main GMV driver for ITeSHOP. The semi-annual "thank you" offers are ITeSHOP's most important event for regular customers, who are offered early access to new products. I.T promotes the event using Weixin official accounts' message templates as well as via Weixin communities. Among the customers who are brought to its store, up to 50% place multiple orders, with the average customer spending over 1,300 CNY, far higher than I.T's other promotional events. At the same time, during the live shopping sessions held by I.T, viewers are encouraged to share the live stream to earn coupons. This strategy allows I.T to continue to reach out to even more new customers.

2. Hot Items Plus Ballot Events

Hot items have also become an important way to boost ITeSHOP's daily sales. I.T has a ballot event in which customers can participate to win the chance to buy hot new items. In 2021, in order to boost the sales of other products in ITeSHOP, I.T made several changes to strengthen the links between the ballot event and its Mini Program.

To begin with, the ballot system, which was originally an independent Mini Program, was integrated into ITeSHOP. Entry points to the ballot event were added to the homepage and "My Account" page of ITeSHOP. Customers who participate in the event can check the result in the Mini Program and, if they win, can either place orders online or at nearby offline stores. Customers are also encouraged to share the event to increase their chances of winning. Through two-way referrals like these, I.T has been able to continuously acquire new customers while keeping existing customers highly engaged.

I.T also added an entry point in Weixin's Search section to drive public traffic to the event. This increased the average daily click-through rate of its official channels by 36% and that of promotional cards by 340%. Altogether, the Search section has brought a 100% increase in ITeSHOP's daily page views.

All these efforts turned the ballot event into an effective way for I.T to attract new users.

• Connecting Online and Offline Channels

The lockdown that continued for several months in Shanghai last year dealt a blow to many fast-paced fashion brands as physical stores struggled to stay afloat. However, thanks to its online presence, I.T only saw a 10-20% fall in revenue during the lockdown.

For I.T, online and offline channels are not a trade-off. Instead, by driving traffic to each other, online and offline channels can achieve greater synergy together. Currently, as a result of two-way referrals, up to 80% of I.T's online and offline customers overlap.

From online to offline, I.T launched online events such as hot item ballots that require customers to pick up products at offline stores to help offline stores acquire new customers and boost sales. From offline to online, at the end of 2018, I.T developed a plan that encouraged its salespeople and staff to promote the products in ITeSHOP via their own and customers' Weixin Moments to earn commissions after successful conversion.

In particular, WeCom became a hub for connecting I.T's offline stores, Weixin communities, and Weixin channels. Since it started using WeCom in 2021, I.T has delivered multiple rounds of training to over 1,000 salespeople covering close to 80% of its physical stores across China, helping them bring in hundreds of thousands of customers to the WeCom system.

At the same time, official accounts and Weixin channels have helped I.T reach out to new customers, while Weixin communities have led to increased customer engagement and improved conversions.

I.T doesn’t just use its private channels to drive sales. Instead, it hopes to create synergy among official accounts, Weixin channels, Mini Program, WeCom, and Weixin communities, with the goal of building itself into the go-to destination for fashion items within the Weixin ecosystem.

Results

As part of its collaboration with Tencent Smart Retail, I.T promoted WeCom among its offline stores and, with its Mini Program store, used the combination of hot, new products and promotional events to expand both its online and offline reach. These strategies helped I.T attract a large number of new customers while increasing the retention of its existing customers. In 2021, the sales revenue contributed by I.T's private channels grew by over 200% from the previous year.

• The two "thank you" events launched by I.T in 2021 also generated great results. During the March event, the Mini Program recorded a GMV of over 50 million CNY in just seven days, with unique visitors reaching 900,000. These numbers grew to nearly 60 million GMV and close to 1 million CNY in September.
• By offering top-tier, hard-to-buy fashion items, I.T's Mini Program achieved a GMV growth of more than 123% in 2021. The number of people participating in the Mini Program's product release events is more than three times that of those attracted by events on other platforms.