By Krishna Rao

According to Greenlight’s report ‘Fashion – Issue 13’, which profiles UK consumer online search behaviour, there were 3.4 million searches made online for womenswear, menswear and fashion accessories in April.

The accessories subsector accounted for 18 per cent (600,088) of fashion retail-related searches, second only to womenswear which accounted for the largest share with 56 per cent.

‘Lingerie’ was the most popular accessories-related search term. It was queried 90,500 times and accounted for a 15 per share of online searches. ‘Jewellery’ followed with 74,000. However, search volumes for the term were down 16,500 on January. ‘Earrings’ and ‘Bracelets’ also took a hit with April search volumes totalling 12,100 a piece compared to 14,800 each in January.

And Jewellery wasn’t the only accessories casualty. Search volumes for ‘Bags’ and ‘Handbags’ which in April totalled 40,500 a piece, were down 19 per cent on their January volume.

‘Hats’ were pretty much the only fashion accessory item to enjoy a significant rise, pulling in 27,100 searches in April - a 22 per cent jump on January levels, compliments perhaps of the April showers.

Table 1: Top 10 Fashion Accessories Search Terms (January 2012 and April 2012)

Source: Greenlight

Greenlight’s report also revealed the twenty most visible fashion retail-related sites. Overall, ASOS was the most visible website in the natural search* listings, achieving a 55% share of voice. Debenhams followed in second place with 45% then House of Fraser with 26%.

In the accessories subsector, Amazon was the most visible retailer, achieving a 50% share of visibility in natural search. Debenhams came in second with a 43% share of voice.

Table 2: Most visible websites for accessories (April 2012)

Source: Greenlight

Notes

Greenlight’s report ‘Fashion – Issue 13’, profiles search behaviour in this sector. It assesses which brands, websites and review sites are the most visible in natural search, paid media**, and social media and hence have the greatest share of consideration when UK-based searchers go to Google UK to look for Womenswear, Menswear and Accessories.

*Natural /organic Search - Listings in search engine results pages that appear because of their relevance to the search terms

**Paid Media – an Internet advertising model used on websites, in which advertisers pay their host only when their ad is clicked. With search engines, advertisers typically bid on keyword phrases relevant to their target market.

About the author

Krishna Rao is PR for Greenlight, an independent digital marketing agency, providing Search and Social Media services, with more than 100 blue-chip clients including Santander, New Look, Sky and ghd, Greenlight. Greenlight is considered the premier thought leader in the sector, publishing widely read industry reports, original research, speaking at trade events, and delivering a highly respected digital marketing training programme via the Greenlight Academy. Founded in 2001, Greenlight is headquartered in London, with offices in New York.

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