Creative Education
2012. Vol.3, Supplement, 33-38
Published Online December 2012 in SciRes (http://www.SciRP.org/journal/ce) DOI:10.4236/ce.2012.37B008
33
Characteristics and Promotion Research on Fashion Clothing
E-marketing
Pingping Meng
TSL School of Business and Information Technology, Quanzhou Normal University, Quanzhou ,China
Received 2012
The fashion clothing E-marketing is an important part of the fashion sales. E-marketing brings wider
world for the clothing sales. This paper analyses the characteristics, the promotion method, and develop-
ment suggestions of fashion clothing E-marketing. To sum up, the mature development of E-marketing
promotes the development of the fashion clothing marketing.
Keywords: Fashion Clothing; E-marketing; Marketing Mode
The Conception of and Relationship between
Fashion Clothing and E-Marketing
The Conception and Characteristics of Fashion
Clothing
Generally, the clothes with novel styles and contemporaries
are called fashion clothing. Fashion clothing must be composed
of several fashion elements such as fashion style, fashion color,
fashion pattern, etc. The fashion of clothing is a kind of social
phenomenon and a kind of cultural, economic activity which
transcends borders. It expresses people’s favor of some styles,
colors, fabrics, ways of dressing, etc. These elements are be-
coming a kind of expansive, epidemic phenomenon in whole
society by people imitating of each other. The more notable the
features of fashion clothing are, the more it shows a diverse era
of pursuing personality and fashion.
The novelty, short-lived, popularity, and periodicity are the
features of fashion clothing. Novelty is the most notable cha-
racteristic of fashion. Fashion is based on the psychology of
consumers’ pursuing of change and new expression. People
hope to break through tradition and longer to approve of fresh.
This, to clothing, mainly showed in the changing of style, fabric
and color. So it’s important to know people’s psychology of
caprice and requirement of seeking difference. Fashion clothing
can’t fashion for a long time. If a kind of clothing is accepted
by most people, it denies the novelty of fashion clothing. Then
people tend to seek for new kinds of clothing and the fashion
clothing will be abandoned which means the recession of the
fashion clothing. Only if the clothing is accepted by most target
consumers can they be really fashion. Generally speaking, a
dressing style which experienced the process of rise and decline
will turn up in a new look after several years. As this is the
periodicity of fashion clothing.
The Conception and Effect of E-mar ket ing
E-marketing is a new way of marketing management which
is based on internet, using digital information and interaction of
network media to achieve marketing purpose. Simply put,
E-marketing is a kind of marketing activity which uses internet
as its main means to achieve certain marketing purpose.
E-marketing appeared after the present intermediary media
such as newspaper, magazine, email, phone, television, etc. is a
high technology media with powerful characteristics and adapts
to the development of information age. It substantially takes
advantage of internet to follow the tracks of the process of pro-
duction marketing as pre-sale, sale and after-sale which in-
cludes market research, consumer analysis, product develop-
ment, implementation of sales strategy, information collection
and feedback etc. E-marketing is the product of the develop-
ment of information technology. It is a business process which
is based on modern marketing theory, using network technolo-
gy and function in maximum to satisfy customer demand as to
expand market and increase profit.
The Relationship between E-marketin g and Fashi on
Clothing
Clothing E-marketing is a kind of clothing marketing activity
which, clothing marketer, puts potential exchange into reality
via modern communication technology and internet.
E-marketing is closely related to fashion clothing. It is a mar-
keting method which introduces the theories and practices of
E-marketing to the field of clothing and applies network tech-
nology to the design of clothing.
Clothing E-marketing mainly conveys the image and fashion
elements of the products. This is especially effective to the
fashion clothing which has particular functions or forms. Popu-
lar clothing is special in E-marketing because of their features
of novelty, transience and so on. E-marketing caters to fashion
clothing, as a result, the fashion clothing have a better, faster
development, dissemination and sales.
The Situation and Features Analysis of Fashion
Clothing E-Marketing
The Current Situatio n of the Domestic Clothing
E-marketing
The development of the fashion industry in our country is
relatively, to other industries, in the medium level. According

P. P. MENG
34
to statistics, nearly 55% clothing enterprises in coastal devel-
oped areas have established their enterprise websites. However,
the rest in these areas has not realized the importance of the
construction of enterprise website. And in the Midwest, the
number of enterprises with websites is less than 15% on aver-
age. Zhejiang, Guangdong, Shanghai, Jiangsu and Beijing are
respectively in the top five, followed by Hunan in the absolute
number of enterprise websites. The utilization rate of fashion
industry is not high, but with the rise of Taobao, Paipai and
Moonbasa, more and more individual operators begin to in-
volve in the E-commerce marketing. Since 2002, there are tens
of thousands of online shops opened including about 20% fa-
shion clothing.
Fashion Clothi ng E-marketing Features
The Speed of Fashion Clothing E-marketing. The efficiency
of fashion clothing is short-lived. It ’s about 3 months to a year.
The changes of fashion elements and fashion cycles are be-
coming faster and faster. However, E-marketing has catered to
the features of fashion clothing. The sales channels of
E-marketing promote the speed and convenience of clothing
trades. And this greatly shortens the cycle of new products
facing the market. It’s more and more convenient for the prop-
aganda of products, buying patterns, payment patterns, feed-
back after sales etc.
The Space of Fashion Clothing E-marketing. The final goal
of marketing is to possess market shares. E-marketing can ex-
change information beyond space restrictions with which mar-
keting without space restrictions becomes possible and enter-
prises have more time and space on marketing. And to some
extent, it avoids regional restrictions.
The Popularity of fashion Clothing E-marketing. The tradi-
tional way to disseminate information has great limitations in
the face of the public. Generally, it’s difficult to spread in ex-
tensiveness because of the effects of geographical location,
cultural differences, social background, language environment
etc. Whi le E-marketing can find audiences, t he specific form of
audiences, all over the world by the advanced technologies.
Thus, E-marketing can take enterprises to the field of electronic
business and expand market at home and abroad.
The Rich-media of Fashion Clothing E-marketing. The in-
ternet can transmit a variety of media information such as texts,
voices, images, etc. So the information of the trade can exist
and exchange in many forms. And it can motivate the creativity
and initiative of the marketer. It is convenient for propaganda
since it has strong visual and auditory impact on consumers
which can win deep impressions.
The Personality of Fashion Clothing E-marketing. Fashion
clothing differs from man to man. Customers have their own
preferences and they also have to consider of dressing and
wearing effect. Fashion clothing market is more targeted and
has more personality. E-marking avoids the disturb of marke-
ter’s strong sales which can be one-to-one, rational, consum-
er-leading, unforced, progressive as well as low cost and huma-
nized. It builds long-term good relationships between marketers
and consumers while by communicating through information.
The Interaction of Fashion Clothing E-marketing. By show-
ing the pictures and information of fashion clothing products on
internet, it offers relevant references to realize the interactive
communication between designers and consumers. In addition,
it may also take the test of dressing effects and consumers sa-
tisfaction survey and so on. Network offers the best tool for the
joint-design of popular clothing, the products launch as well as
all kinds of technology services. This is convenient for design-
ers to grasp market trend and satisfy customers maximally.
The Growth of Fashion Clothing E-marketing. With the ma-
turity of the E-commerce environment in our country, the de-
velopment of on-line shopping is entering into its golden time
and the E-marketing sales of fashion clothing increases every
year. Clothing enterprises and marketing teams are all updating
marketing networks and building information systems. ‘The
petty bourgeoisies” have gradually got their scales to lead a
new era of network consumption. In addition, the category
differentiation in clothing field has not stopped especially the
creativity of fashion clothing which is more in accord with the
consumers’ psychology of shopping. And the E-marketing of
fashion clothing also has a huge development space.
The Advancement of Fashion Clothing E-marketing. The
network is the most powerful marketing tool which includes
various functions like channel, marketing, E-trade, interactive
consumer service as well as marketing information analysis and
supplication. It’s this feature of the network that makes fashion
clothing spread efficiently in an effective time.
The High Efficiency of Fashion Clothing E-marketing. The
Internet has stored a lot of information to help consumers to
search, inquire, analyze, compare and so on. It’s easy to comply
with the market and the demands of customers can be known
effectively by updating products, classifying marketing or ad-
justing prices in time.
The Economy of Fashion Clothing E-marketing. E-marketing
takes the exchange of information via internet instead of bar-
tering in the past. The network can be used to launch informa-
tion of the fashion products, transmit graphs, display products,
put advertisements and communicate with consumers.
E-marketing can reduce the cost of labor, printing, transport
and delivery; can sale products without any real stores or rents;
can save the cost of electricity and labor; and promote the effi-
ciency of the deal by reducing the losses of circuitous exchange.
Thus, the cost of E-marketing is one tenth in the comparison
with relevant traditional business channels and practice in the
same scale. And the strength of economy of operating cost in
trade stands out.
The Promotion Model of Fashion Clothing
E-Marketing
The Marketing Website Model
The Web site is a kind of marketing tool based on the Inter-
net and almost all large and medium-sized enterprises and
global institutions have set up their own Web sites to o attract
as many page views as possible which meet the demand of
users as well as make their own profits. To fashion clothing
E-marketing, first, most of the brand clothing enterprises have
1.Scientific research project of Quanzhou Normal University: "
Fashion
network communication and marketing research" (item: 2009KJ08)
.
2.Construction Funds of Master Degree Awarded Unit of Quanzhou Normal
University.3.Fujian university key project construc
tion service routines
"The port logistics information platform construction, Haqixi prefecture",
Project Number: A103.

P. P. MENG
35
their own official marketing web sites for launching the latest
goods in time and realizing on-line shopping directly; Second,
there are many professional marketing web sites which sale
clothing mainly or at the range of clothing sales as Fashionmall,
Amazon, Vancl, Moonbasa, etc. which also spread and sale the
most fashion clothing. Third, some large professional clothing
sites offer the information about the newest rag trade, such as
the Global Textile, France Textile Information, Canada Leather,
China fashion Brand, Chinese Export Trade, Chinese Clothing
Brand etc. which provide chances of convenient trade to enter-
prises with enterprise s, enterprises with consumers.
The Online Store Model
Except the function of sale products via network, online store
is an efficient E-marketing t ool as well. There are E-commerce
models like BtoC (Business-to-Customer) and CtoC (Consumer
to Consumer). And there are online store platforms like Taobao,
Tmall, Paipai, leho, etc. which are specially constructed for
individuals or enterprises. Online store offers advantages for
enterprises to expand online sales channel. In addition, the on-
line shop which set up on the famous E-commerce platform
increases customer's trust. It’s a kind of complement for the
enterprise web which lacks of the function of E-commerce and
it not only has good effects to promote the image of the enter-
prise but also combine the enterprise web with online store.
The Search Engine Model
The search engine is a system used for collecting various in-
formation resources on the Internet and then feed back the re-
sults to system according to users’ search requests. The search
engine marketing is a new kind of E-marketing model, which
has been comprehensively and efficiently used for E-marketing
and promotion via search engine. Search engine marketing
pursues for the highest cost performance, which is to get the
most page views from search engine and produce commercial
value with the smallest input. Clothing enterprise improves the
popularity of its enterprise clothing brand through the famous
Google, Baidu and a series of search which makes it break into
the fashion market quickly to take the initiative.
The E-advertisement Model
Clothing advertisement is a kind of persuasive information
spreading activity on the related clothing products or the cloth-
ing brand images by clothing manufacturers or dealers or other
advertisements subject to payment via the network information
with features of payoffs, dependence and commerciality. Al-
most all the E-marketing activities are related to the brand im-
ages and the effect of E-advertisement is the most direct one
among all relevant marketing methods about brand promotion.
The Mailing List Model
The mailing list is the earliest community form on the inter-
net and an important tool in the internet which is used for the
exchange and publishing of information among groups. The
mailing list is a kind of E-mail marketing form based on the
principle of users’ permission which means users are free to
join and exit. E-mail marketing sends the sales promotion to
users directly while mailing list achieves marketing goals by
providing users with valuable information.
The BBS Communication Model
People used BBS for all kinds of enterprise marketing activi-
ties at an early age. BBS communication is a kind of E-mar-
keting activity which is used for enterprise to post its products
and service information on the network communication plat-
form---BBS by text, pictures, video, etc., so that the target cus-
tomers can know more about the products and service of the
enterprise, and finally, to achieve the goal of propagandizing
the enterprise brand and deepening the market cognition. BBS
activity has strong capability to gather folks and almost all of
the marketing appeals can be realized effectively through the
BBS spreading since the topics of BBS are very open.
There are well-known BBS at home and abroad such as
Chuan Zhen Yin Xian clothing BBS, Chinese Clothing BBS,
Chinese Apparel People BBS, Spider Fashion Conception and
so on. The setting-up of different columns or layouts and uses
of the high popularity of BBS can offer enterprises or individu-
als with efficient marketing spreading services. The profession-
al BBS posts to offer the spreading of fashion clothing, the
communication of designers, the appreciation of fashion collec-
tion, the discussion of competition, and the realization of mar-
keting activity, etc. in the BBS space. It breaks through the
traditional E-commerce model, uses the high popularity of
community web sites and seeks for the new marketing model.
The Online Chat Model
The software such as QQ, MSN, TALK, CHAT, etc. with
strong timeliness are the kinds of "one to one" private commu-
nication, which may be interconnected via locations of the In-
ternets at random and at the same time. The biggest characteris-
tic of them is their function of real time communication on line
with "peer-to-peer", "face-to-face". The core of spreading is
verbal and non-verbal. Verbal communication is through text
mainly and non-verbal communication is by E-face, video,
pictures and voice, etc. It’s a kind of multimedia spread.
QQ group and chat room are "one-to-many" which are con-
venient for announcing news, spreading information and so on.
The group or chat room can be established for the social groups
which have common hobby such as fashion designers, fellow-
ship of relevant enterprises, trade flows, fashion predictions,
professional communication, etc. These innovative Internet
services and shifting value-added services have profound ef-
fects on people’s economic life and bring huge economic prof-
its to the enterprises as well.
The Viral Marketing Model
The viral marketing is a common E-marketing method. It
doesn’t transmit virus in real but use the principle of public
praises which spread rapidly like virus and use the way of fast
copy to convey information to thousands of, millions of au-
diences. Thus, viral marketing becomes a high efficient way of
information spread.
Viral marketing is almost free since it spreads among users
spontaneously. This spread way of fast copy caters to the fea-

P. P. MENG
36
tures of fashion clothing, so it has effects which can’t be ig-
nored in fashion clothing E-marketing.
The Link Exchange Model
The link exchange is a simple cooperation between two web
sites which has certain complementary strengths. It puts the
web site logo or key words of each others and sets the hyperlink
on their own home page or inner sheet so that users can see
their own web sites on the cooperating web site so as to ac hi e ve
the goal of mutual promotion. The link exchange is helpful to
attract customers who are surfing the net, to get page view, to
increase the impression in users’ browses, to add advantages in
the rank of search engineer, to increase the trust of visitors via
the recommendation of cooperating web site.
Link exchange lies in the cognition and approval in the in-
dustry. The portal nets of clothing enterprises increase visitor
volume so as to speed up the spread of new fashion clothing
products.
The E-marketing Alliance Model
The present E-marketing alliance is at developing stage in
our country which has obtained good effects. The alliance in-
cludes advertisement owners, website owners and advertising
alliance platform. The advertisement owners offer reasonable
expenses to website owners according to the real effects of
online advertisement. The fashion clothing enterprises and
marketing departments can develop the sale by applying this
kind of propaganda. This kind of marketing model can save the
costs of marketing, boost popularity, expand the influence of
apparel products and improve the quality of E-marketing.
The Group purchase Model
The group purchase is a very fashion shopping way in r ecent
years which has experienced the stages of rise, climax, decline
and steady. The group purchase is a kind of marketing model
which gathers the manufacturers, retailers, customers to the
group purchase websites or group purchase navigation websites
letting them communicate without distance about the products
design and creativities transform to realize the sale and service
of the products.
Lashou web, Wowotuan, Meituan, etc. are the relatively
famous webs which include some information about fashion
clothing. Customers get favorable prices by shopping in group
which are lower than buying separately. It’s similar to form a
small wholesaler by different people to get the wholesale price.
The discount price attracts a large number of consumers to rush
into the ranks of the group.
The Microblog Marketing Model
The microblog marketing uses the platform of microblog to
do a series of marketing activities which include brand promo-
tion, event planning, personal image packaging, product prop-
aganda, etc. By registering a microblog in the name of individ-
ual, group or enterprise in the famous web site, they may up-
date their own microblogs to communicate with the public or
join the topic which is the interest of the public so as to achieve
the goal of marketing.
Generally, the microblog of clothing enterprise has the fea-
tures of rich pictures, video materials and huge impact of dem-
onstrations. It can arouse the public attention through attention
and forwarding; catch consumer’s eyes through product expe-
rience and street shooting theme; publish some fashion infor-
mation to increase attention or use the popular events for mar-
keting. Similarly, clothing enterprises, individuals and groups
can establish their own microblog, by updating their dynamics
to accumulate consumption group, to make the communication
between consumers and retailers more smoothly, offer more
convenient channels of fast clothing commodity information to
the enterprise.
The Suggestions of Fashion Clothing
E-Marketing
Grasping the Featur es of Fashi o n Cl o thing and
Responding to the Market Demand Quickly
The popularity of apparel commodity cycle is relatively short,
through E-marketing with faster spreading speed in a wide
range of region can urge the exchange to realize the value of
enterprises and meet the demands of consumers. From this
perspective, E-marketing has relatively unique advantages
when compares with the traditional marketing.
The success of an enterprise does not just rely on innovation
but more on quick response. As for the fashion industry which
is famous for its timeliness, ‘timeliness’ and ‘seasonality’ con-
sist of the notable features of clothing commodities and enter-
prises have to do information feedback efficiently, respond to
market sensitively in the promotion of fashion clothing com-
modities so as to stand steadily in the more and more fierce
market competition.
Protecting Consumers Interests and Ensuring the
Security of Network
Network security includes personal login identity, individual
account, and capital condition, email address, network activities
trace and users’ privacy information; the more important is
consumers’ account safety in the transaction. The relevant de-
partments and enterprises should strengthen the development
and application of electronic money payment system, improve
its safety and reliability, and gradually make it mature and
standardized. To promote the networked development of banks,
to establish the full equipped electronic payment system in
electr onic trading payment and se ttlement means, it’ s necessary
for the government to work out corresponding policies, laws
and regulations for online shopping and protect online consum-
ers.
It’s an obligatory responsibility and obligation of clothing
enterprises to ensure the security of network and protect the
legal interests of consumers on the E-marketing. Only if
clothing enterprises indeed, cogently protect the security of
network can they reduce the risk of network and ensure the
healthy and rapid development of E-marketing.

P. P. MENG
37
Strict Self-discipline, Enha nc i ng Super vision, and
Improving the Quali ty of Clothi n g Pro ducts
The biggest hardship consumers meet in the online fashion
clothing shopping is the quality of the product. The information
and pictures on the web sites can’t reflect the quality of the
product objectively. Therefore, the enterprises and sellers
should be in good faith, self-disciplined, and ensure the qua lity
of fashion commodities, transact with each other with good
faith and mutual benefits. In addition, the relevant departments
should improve supervision and speed up the construction of
legal system of E-marketing to protect the interests of online
shopping consumers so as to make consumers feel relieved to
buy pleasing commodities.
Improving Sales Service System and Protecting Con-
sumers’ Rights and Interests
The key point of E-marketing is to improve the quality of
customer services on the net in order to achieve customers’
satisfaction and loyalty, improve the efficiency of the market-
ing. The process of E-marketing service can be divided into
pre-sale, sale and after-sale services. The pre-sale service
mainly provides all sorts of relevant information services such
as product propaganda and introduction and offer information
through virtual E-market. Consumers compare prices and re-
quirements and get products information in detail, promotion
methods, logistics selection, etc. by exchanging information.
The sale service includes trade negotiation, contracts execution
or orders submission, and dealing with the relevant formalities
before the trade, etc. The after-sale service includes perfor-
mance of the transaction agreement, quality assurance, service
and cla im, etc.
It’s one of the biggest worry of consumers online shopping
because most of the retails are not perfect in the aspect of af-
ter-sale service in the fashion clothing E-marketing. It is im-
portant to deal with the return or replacement of goods, com-
pensation and quality warranties, etc. perfectly when consumers
have encountered any practical problems. The competition of
after-sale service directly decides the success or failure of en-
terprises’ marketing. Except good products, good after-sale
service has become a kind of core competitiveness of enter-
prises and the enterprises shall take into account their quality of
after-sale service seriously..
Setting up Network Interactive System and
Improving Network Business Environment
The exchange of apparel commodity E-marketing results
from good interaction. The interaction appears continually
throughout the whole process of clothing E-marketing which is
based on the demands of consumers. By using text, audio and
video, the network interactive system displays the style, color,
material, structure, contour, decorative detail, technology level
and matching of clothing, offers online searching, communi-
cates with consumers actively on the net in time, and take as-
sessment and investigation of consumer satisfaction survey
after service.
Lack of real environment and atmosphere of market, authen-
ticity of the pictures and blurry of the effects are some prob-
lems in fashion clothing E-marke ti ng. The clothing enterprises
shall establish "virtual gallery" or entity shop to show the im-
ages of the products, use vivid images in the net to make con-
sumers feel personally on the scene, choose models to demon-
strate the commodities by multi-aspect which can stimulate
consumers’ desire to buy, offer facilitating conditions to im-
prove the quality and quantity of consumers’ shopping.
Enhancing Technology of the E-marketing and
Improving the E-commerce Trade Platform
The current clothing E-marketing stays in a low level like
poor technology, low network utilization rate, negative effi-
ciency and so on. Enterprises and vendors should strengthen the
construction of the web site, make novel layout, make it sub-
stantial in content, make it convenient to use, and reflect the
spirit connotation of the commodities. And they shall also in-
crease the investment in E-fitting technology, set up online
fitting room or introduce fitting software to solve the problems
of consumers’ experience and feeling and reduce the risk of
changing or refunding. Consumers can see their images of get-
ting the clothes by the fitting software so as to determine pur-
chase intention. Besides, enterprises and vendors should en-
hance background database technology, integrate interactive
database marketing mechanism, develop and improve interact
E-marketing system, provide complete automatic application
mechanism, and use the features, interaction and real-time re-
sponse of network.
The enterprises and vendors should select, design, develop
and lead-in the E-commerce platform of E-marketing, combine
the sales data of E-commerce platform and the enterprise’s
ERP(enterprise resource planning),SCM(supply chain man-
agement) via efficient exchange of information data to increase
efficiency, save costs and integrate as well as apply enterprise’s
resources.
Conclusions
There are many benefits of E-marketing and there are various
marketing models. The potential of our domestic clothing
E-marketing is so great when compared with European and
American countries where most of clothing retails are by
E-marketing. While clothing E-marketing has been accepted by
part of people as a new way of marketing, when it comes to the
network popularization, the growth of its internet users and the
consumption ability of the users, it still remains a huge market
space to be expanded.
As a kind of special commodity, the E-marketing of the fa-
shion clothing has both general and special features. The speed,
convenience and 24-hours service of clothing E-market is
beyond comparison with other real market. It breaks through
traditional business obstacles. And it has big attractions and
influences on consumers, enterprises and markets.
Definitely, the current fashion clothing E-marketing also has
some problems on technology, hardware, consumer’s psychol-
ogy, delivery, etc. Thus, it’s important to combine with the
traditional fashion clothing marketing and E-marketing so as to
display their respective merits and reach an ideal "win-win"

P. P. MENG
38
model in the new economy era.
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