A digital effectiveness leader board for the lingerie industry has been released today, alongside insights in to the industry’s best and worst performing marketing strategies. A new report, conducted by digital marketing agency Hitsearch, has reviewed the digital effectiveness of the top 40 UK lingerie brands in 2021, measuring the impact that Covid-19 had on marketing and evaluating the differing levels of success experienced.
Topping the list at number one is Something Wicked, which scored the highest mark (101.25) out of the top 40 brands for digital effectiveness, closely followed by household name Ann Summers (96.1). Ranking lowest was Phaein, the brand received the lowest score (44.5) when its site was measured for digital effectiveness, suggesting it’s marketing strategy left a lot to be desired. In addition to measuring how lingerie brands are tackling the opportunities of digital marketing, the report has compared the approaches and identified changes to the lingerie industry’s marketing strategies in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Key findings
Surprisingly, the leader board revealed that the notoriety of a brand didn’t necessarily dictate the effectiveness of their digital marketing strategies. In fact, not all of the top five household names ranked in the leader board top 10. All of the lingerie brands have optimised their homepage for mobile, with only Spanx and Intimissimi failing to do the same with their service pages – a really easy fix that could improve the bounce rate immensely.
Accessibility was a prominent issue for a large number of the lingerie brands, with both Nubian Skin and Spanx both having 71 errors on the homepage, potentially stopping a huge portion of society from buying underwear from these retailers. Many of the top UK lingerie brands are underperforming in terms of website speed, with only 10% scoring over five or more points in this test.
Shockingly, 40% of the brands actually scored three points or less in this test, implying that too much of a focus on design and branding might be affecting the user experience. 15 out of the 40 brands were not investing in paid marketing at the time of analysis, meaning they’re not only missing out on a top spot on Google but they’re also missing out on the opportunity to be really strategic with their targeting.
Andy Donaldson, Director at Hitsearch, commented on the results and findings: “With the world becoming more and more reliant on online services, it’s highly important that retailers adapt to the digital technology at our fingertips in order to secure new customers and the loyalty of returning shoppers. It’s clear from the report findings that the lingerie industry is aware of the benefits of digital marketing strategies, though the technical aspects do appear to be missed in a number of areas. From the conversations we’re already having with leading brands in the sector, there is a clear understanding of the benefits of strong content marketing, organic search and email marketing strategies. What is perhaps missing is the guidance and strategy to ensure these efforts are aligned with technical processes such as website speed and user experience.”
Digital effectiveness is the term used to describe how innovative and effective an organisation is, based on their use of digital marketing and technology. The complete lingerie industry digital effectiveness report and leader board can be downloaded here. Individual brand scores are not included in the report, but individual brands are invited to contact Hitsearch to understand their individual scores and rational behind their leader board ranking.
