Facebook, Instagram and the changing world of fashion shopping

In a survey of over 6,000 people across six countries, we found more than half of people who use Instagram, and four in ten Facebook users, say they've discovered fashion inspiration on the platform in the last three months.¹ And with three out of five people surveyed admitting to having been tempted to buy a fashion item they didn't intend to buy, the opportunity to influence and advise potential fashion buyers on Instagram and Facebook is huge.²

As part of a series of Facebook IQ articles exploring the impact Facebook and Instagram is having on fashion, we wanted to understand how the path-to-purchase journey has changed. Facebook IQ commissioned a study of 6,090 people aged 18-64 in the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the US.

We've discovered that Instagram is a big source of fashion inspiration, that young people are particularly influenced by social, celebrities and influencers and that their thoughts on mobile shopping and new technology, may reveal the future of fashion retail.

In the first of our articles looking at fashion on Facebook and Instagram, we explored the millions of fashion-related conversations and connections, so we know it is a popular topic. With this second piece of research, we wanted to look specifically at how much of an influence our platforms are having on fashion shopping.

According to a study conducted by Mintel in the US, social media ranks as the number one influencer of fashion shopping purchases among women 18-24 and fifth among those 25-34. Nearly a fifth of all respondents are open to buying clothing directly from a social media site, with this figure rising to 32% among women 18-34.³

Our survey found that Instagram is the number one platform for fashion product discovery.¹

When we asked who provides fashion inspiration, friends and fashion brands are the most popular sources (44% each). The number one source of inspiration for men surveyed is their friends, whereas for women surveyed it is fashion brands. We know from previous research that men are talking about fashion on Facebook, they're responsible for over a third (37%) of mentions of shopping, clothes and accessories on Facebook.⁴

Of those surveyed, women are 1.64x more likely to say they turn to influencers and celebrities for fashion inspiration compared to men. And people aged 18-34 years old are 2.96x more likely to cite influencers and celebrities as a source of fashion inspiration compared to older age groups. For more on influencers and celebs, check out our article from Fashion Month Spring/Summer 2018, where we look in more detail at the designers and models who turned Instagram into a virtual runway.

While brands, influencers and celebrities might prove a valuable source of inspiration for some, when it comes to fashion advice, we're much more likely to turn to our friends and family. 54% of people surveyed say they get fashion advice in person from friends and family and 49% in person in-store.¹ Social media is used by a quarter of people to get fashion advice, and messaging apps by one in ten.¹

According to Kantar Worldpanel figures, a quarter of all UK spending on clothing, footwear and accessories now takes place online.⁵ And we know from own data that online now often means mobile. 2016 was the first year that Facebook saw more mobile conversions than desktop conversions for the entire Holiday Season.⁶

In our survey, 41% of people said they have bought a fashion item on mobile (smartphone and tablet) in the past three months. And if we look specifically at young people, aged 18-34 years old, we see they are 2.16x more likely to say they make fashion purchases on a smartphone, compared to older age groups.¹

We also know from previous research that 38% of US retail shoppers say they wish they could do even more shopping on their smartphone than they already do.⁷ This may be because of the convenience offered by mobile shopping, in our article on Mobilizing Holiday’s Spare Moments, we saw people shopping more on mobile when they're on-the-go and off-the-clock.

We’ve seen shopping is evolving as part of Facebook IQ's Shifts for 2020 work looking at the mobile service economy and wanted to know just how open fashion shoppers are to using new technology.

Our survey revealed that Millennials (aged 18-34 years old) are significantly more interested in all of these innovations, when compared to older age groups (35-64 years old). In particular, they're 2.06x more likely to say they'd like a personal shopper chatbot and 1.55x more likely to be interested in an ethical app.¹