Made-to-measure brands with a website share a common goal – to maximize website sales.
This includes sales from their online catalogs (ecommerce) as well as offline (by using “Book Appointment” buttons to drive in-person or virtual sales).
However studies show that only about 2% of website visitors are ready to buy.
We analyzed strategies used by 100 MTM brands to maximize sales to the 2% ready to buy now, and strategies used to get the other 98% to buy in the future.
The results are summarized below and examples and a deeper dive provided in the accompanying article here.
Most MTM brands in the study focus on selling to the 2% of website visitors ready to buy now and largely ignore the other 98%.
Brands featured in this chapter
Retailers:
Suppliers:
Gladson, Holland & Sherry, Kutesmart (Red Collar), Scabal, Stylbiella, and Yong Zheng
Trend Highlights
Website Grade for factors that drive sales:
On average MTM brands score high on SEO (90%) but poorly on performance (43%). Optimal performance is crucial to increase traffic, improve conversion rates, generate more leads, and increase revenue.
UK brands have the best performing websites in the study. 8 of the top 10 performing websites are from the UK.
Types of sales elements used on websites:
The sales elements used are focused on converting the 2% of visitors ready to buy now. The other 98%Â are not nurtured.
Less than 5% of MTM brands have a nurture sequence for the 98%
16% of MTM brands do not have a subscription button so no way to follow up
59% don’t send emails even after visitors subscribe
91% of emails are impersonal promotional emails
* you can find more details in the email marketing strategy chapter here.
All MTM brands include a “Book Appointment” button (100%) but only around 2% of website visitors will actually book an appointment.
Average organic monthly traffic:
90% of monthly website traffic goes to just 10 of the 100 brands. For example Black Lapel gets more monthly traffic than 86 other brands combined.
Brands in the top 10, on average, rank for 49X more organic keywords and have 18X more backlinks than the other 90 brands.
This is how average monthly traffic to the 100 MTM brands breakdown:
Top 10 websites: 311K
Other 90 websites: 3.4K
Types of content management systems used by MTM brands:
WordPress (37%) is the most popular, followed by Shopify (10%) and Square (9%).
Website Highlights
J.Hilburn
J.hilburn is the only website that got a perfect 100/100 grade across all categories of performance, SEO, mobile, and security. Maximizing website sales starts with optimizing these categories.
J.Hilburn also merchandises the website interactively to maximize sales: from dynamic look books, to product pages that are full looks to maximizes cart size and reduce sales friction.
Articles of Style
Articles of Style’s website is very well optimized for sales. It has a combination of simple navigation, multiple conversion paths, and transparency. They remove many sales friction and make visitors feel comfortable to make a purchase. They also use multiple techniques to gather visitor’s information – static subscription plus dynamic popup subscription forms.
CKC NY
CKC NY’s website includes key features to drive sale and scale. It is very transparent with pricing, quality of garments a customer will receive, shipping times, and customer support. The subscribe button allows visitors to subscribe if they are not ready to buy, and finally it is linked to Instagram shops to further drive sales.
The Bespoke Club
The Bespoke Club shows how to launch an online store cost-effectively using digital assets such as look books and fabric swatches provided by suppliers. This is a great alternative to spending the money and time to produce your own look books and other digital assets.
Thanks for reading!
I believe that running a made-to-measure business should be easier, more profitable and more scalable.
I hope you got better market insight from this chapter.
Remember to visit the accompanying article here for lots of examples and a deeper dive.
Thank you,
Tyrone Whittle
