LFW - House of Holland

London Fashion Week is here again and our client House of Holland showed SS18 last Saturday. Here are a few of the highlights.

AP are back..

It;s great to see Agent Provocateur coming back all sexy with a new video which goes returns to their sexy old days. Directed by Anton Corbijn



I am also enjoying wandering round Soho and East London and seeing their pop-up gorilla advertising campaign. Lots of happy memories working as their Head of eCommerce and helping their Moscow partner aizel.ru when I first launched 5xThinking.

Friday Music

It is all about Taylor Swift this week! Whatever you might think of her, lots of haters this time around :), this video is stunning.

US Clients, Adam Lippes launching Fall17

Our favourite US clients are launching their new Fall17 with a massive billboard in LA.

Check out the new collection at Adamlippes.com

eCommerce Platforms

Welcome to an occasional new series where I look at different areas of eCommerce. I am starting with eCommerce platforms, the one question I am asked about regularly is always "Which platform is best?".

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So are you starting an eCommerce business or want something more durable and ready for growth?

Three things to concentrate on before you begin:

1. What is your long term plan, multilingual, growth, sales, brand? Know what you want to achieve and then choose the platform which works for you. You might even want to test the water for 18 months and see if it works, build a higher spec website on a more robust platform.
2. Prepare for it to be difficult, every development project (ever) has had issues and takes longer than you initially expect (If it is a a platform change, rather than new launch, it  also will likely have a negative effect on your sales when you switch,  plan for 4-8 weeks, then look for the growth).
3. Plan Plan Plan. A detailed specification of what you want from your platform in terms of all elements and make sure the platform you choose fits all of them (or at least most).

There are a lot of different options (& sometimes the devil you know is better than ripping it all up and starting again); here is a quick rundown of the main players.

The Platforms:

Shopify+

Shopify has made huge strides in recent years, it was once the preserve of small boutiques but now has enterprise level companies like the Economist, Mahabis who are brands which are turning over 10’s of millions every year. It can scale for growth and the front end can be fully customisable to make the experience unique to your brand.

The shopping pages are templated (some flexibility) which has it’s constraints and it some issues with internationalisation. It also struggles with integrations to multiple warehouses and  multiple currencies are difficult to implement.

Hosting, payment systems etc are all included and so means the go-live process because a lot less painful (not to mention handling security and hosting etc).

It is also cheap having a commission only version all the way up to enterprise level £2K+ per month.

Magento:

Probably the biggest and most well known, a major player in eCommerce. 2 versions: community (free) and Enterprise (paid & supported). We have built many websites on Magento and it is one of the best platforms available. When Magento released version 2 in 2016 it was a whole new framework of code compared to version 1. Version 2 future proofed the Magento Platform.and brought it into direct competition with platforms like Demandware. Although it initially had integration problems with plugins it is now the obvious choice for a Magento build as development improves and more integrations become available.

Benefits: super flexible, you can build anything while handling multiple storefronts, languages and currencies, running from a single platform. You develop and improve it as much or as little as you like, it can even come straight out the box (but maybe not the ideal version). Negatives: you need to maintain it and keep developing, meaning any changes, updates need to be implemented by your team, although a relatively robust CMS for everyday updates. The reporting modules can also be quite tricky to implement and run effectively.

Demandware:

A highly powerful, adaptive and impressive eCommerce platform. Probably the most flexible and reliable of platforms which focuses on enterprise level eCommerce websites needing to be able to handle high volumes of traffic and sales simultaneously.  

It is for enterprise level platform for businesses turning over millions, it also  has a price tag to match. It can be fully customisable and has a very impressive reporting platform which can be integrated across multiple websites. Integrations with stock management and warehouse systems are available and impressive.

For a high volume, traffic and multi-location eCommerce platform it is a very strong contender.

Wordpress/WooCommerce

A open source web platform that is easy to use and customisable, often underestimated (this blog is hosted on it). The CMS is super easy to use and great for a content heavy/brand website, it is simple to use and low cost to maintain, for content it is hard to find a better system.

You can plug in Woocommece and run a simple, clean and easy to manage website. Security has sometimes been an issue in the past but a number of recent patches have helped fix this. However it does not scale if your business suddenly take off.

Get in touch with us for more information get in touch with us at 5xThinking: info@5xthinking.com

Eyeko - #LashAlert Launch

One of our Favourite clients have been out and about in London today launching their new Mascara #LashAlert (Currently with a saving of 50%  www.eyeko.com). We joined them for some free Coffee and Mascara!