Although it’s still a mixed bag, many industry leaders and consumers alike are shifting their ideas on fast fashion. As more and more people look for ethical and sustainable ways to express themselves through clothing and accessories, the market has spoken: we need more than what fast fashion has to offer.
On one side of the spectrum, in addition to eco-friendly practices in production, industry leaders also want brands to advocate for ways consumers can be more responsible; for example by buying less and encouraging secondhand shopping.
Way on the opposite side of the spectrum is the ultrafast fashion brand: Fashion Nova.
Offering new products daily at a very affordable price, Fashion Nova allows consumers to wear designs similar to what celebrities wear for as low as $50.
Not only were Fashion Nova’s shops born in Los Angles, but most of Fashion Nova’s products are also manufactured in Los Angeles. Recently, the ethics of their working conditions have come under scrutiny, however.
How did Fashion Nova grow to be so impactful in the fashion world? To answer this, a peek into Fashion Nova’s history is essential. Luckily for you, we’ve scoured the internet to find everything we could on this ultra-fast and ultra-successful brand.
Keep reading to understand how this brand came to be, and the marketing strategies that work for them, despite the recent push against fast fashion.
Fashion Nova History: A Peek Inside
Based in Los Angeles since 2006, this mega brand has only five brick-and-mortar stores scattered around Southern California. Due to its unique marketing strategy and social media presence, the company’s popularity is largely due to top influencers promoting the trendy pieces they can put out in record time. Especially in recent years, the brand has been a social media phenomenon.
The company is owned by Richard Saghian, who started in his father’s clothing boutique in Los Angeles. However, it wasn’t till 2006 before Saghian decided to branch out and open the first Fashion Nova store in Panorama City. The brand first started out selling affordable club-wear clothing and then built up its product line from there.
In 2013, he launched the e-commerce website, which soon became their main presence and provided a significant source of shoppers.
Despite Fashion Nova’s history and small beginnings, the brand currently has over 20 million followers on Instagram. What’s more, the brand’s online presence continues to grow at a rate of 600% each year.
Although tides are changing, the fashion industry at large rarely makes accessories and clothing that cater to women whose bodies fall outside “standard” sizing. However, Fashion Nova makes its clothing accessible to women of all shapes and sizes. Their target demographic is women who aspire to be like Cardi B, Belcalis, Blac Chyna, and others.
The clothing lines at Fashion Nova tend to be showy – producing mainly form-fitting and revealing streetwear and club attire. However, the brand’s leadership doesn’t appreciate attention as much.
The founder, Richard Saghian, avoids the spotlight and rarely grants interviews. On the off chance he agrees to an interview, he’ll refuse to pose for a photograph to go with it. However, one piece of news he’s popular for is stating Fashion Nova is the fastest-growing women’s clothing company globally.
Fashion Nova Marketing Strategy
Understanding Fashion Nova’s history and the brand’s growth requires looking into its marketing structure. Read on to understand the different strategies the brand has put into place in order to become the fastest-growing women’s apparel company globally.
The One-Thing Strategy
Fashion Nova’s history has consistently shown the one-thing strategy as an integral part of the business.
The strategy is as simple to understand as its name: focusing on one thing rather than diversifying your resources can help your brand skyrocket.
From Fashion Nova’s history, it’s clear that the brand believes that you can achieve everything when you focus on a single thing at a time. So, although Fashion Nova has many goals, the brand only focuses on one at a time. This strategy is successful, as proven by Fashion Nova’s founder.
Keep reading to discover the two main ways Fashion Nova implements the one-thing strategy in the company.
One Distribution Channel
Physical locations selling Fashion Nova products are rare, and the company has no plans to open new stores any time soon.
Although Saghian initially shared his goal was to open 100 stores, he soon realized it took far more effort to launch a store than increase sales online. So he decided that rather than open more stores, he would use online platforms to open to more countries.
The resources and energy the brand saves by avoiding new store openings goes directly into building its social media accounts. Saghian recognized the power of Instagram quite early and used it to the brand’s full advantage. Fashion Nova continually updates its IG feed – as often as every half hour in order to keep followers engaged and interested.
One Goal
The second major component of the one-thing strategy is focusing on one goal at a time. While most people make profit the focus of their business, Saghian’s focus is bringing more people onto their platform.
He’s always wanted a company that provides excellent products and affordable prices. Therefore, that’s the company’s focus, and that’s where they target all the resources. Their one goal is to increase their followers thereby increasing their built-in target market.
Influencer Marketing Strategy
In 2018, Fashion Nova was named Instagram’s top-performing brand in influencer marketing. It comes as no surprise that this is one of their top successful marketing strategies.
Celebrity and influencer endorsements are key to the brand’s booming success. They’re known for collaborating with celebrities like Amber Rose, Kylie Jenner, and even Cardi B.
That’s not all; this brand doesn’t stop at mega influencers and also utilizes micro-influencers. This is where the so-called NovaBabes, the brand’s superfans, come into play.
To understand this strategy better, let’s explore it in bits.
Mega Influencer Partnerships
This brand’s empire stands on a network of influencers. Very few fashion brands can achieve the same level of success online as Fashion Nova did. This is because the brand successfully coordinates its social influencer network to promote the company.
With over 3000 social media influencers, it’s clear why this company has such a vast following on Instagram. The idea behind the influencer strategy is to make the influencers create content on social media that’s quite regular. What’s different in their post is that they would be wearing a Fashion Nova outfit and might mention it in their caption.
The best part is that influencers do not take professional photos but mostly mirror selfies or unprofessional photos. The genius idea behind this strategy is to create a sense of style. It makes the advertisement look natural, even if the celebrity received huge amounts for that post.
A single report of a celebrity’s post on their page usually gets up to 80,000 likes on the Fashion Nova page.
Nova Babes and Micro-Influencers
While the brand’s mega influencers play a big part in the brand’s success, the company has also intelligently recruited their customers to become something similar to brand ambassadors. In this way, micro influencing can work at a grassroots level, inspring everyday shoppers to share their styles with friends and family.
They’ve centered an entire collection around the idea of Nova Ambassadors, or Nova Babes, who feel compelled and incentivized to post, share, and tag photos of themselves wearing Fashion Nova’s latest styles. In doing this, the brand has essentially modernized the concept of word-of-mouth which can be one of the most affordable and efficient marketing strategies out there.
Ultra-Fast Fashion Strategy
Fashion Nova’s history revolves around ultra-fast fashion. In 2018, Fashion Nova beat out top luxury fashion brands like Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Dior, and many more to become the most googled fashion brand globally.
Due to the slow death of retail, and the every-increasing demand from customers to get new styles quickly, people are now turning to ultra-fast fashion brands like Fashion Nova.
Below we’ll explore the major component of their success: the platform model.
The Platform Model
Today, the business world uses two fashion models: pipeline and platform.
Most modern fashion brands use pipelines for running their business. They produce designs and push them out there for customers to buy. The product creates its core value, and it represents the company.
TV and radio stations, and even fashion blogs are all pipelines throwing content at us. However, platforms operate a little differently than this.
The platform model focuses on allowing users to create the value they would consume themselves. Competition no longer determines the better product, but sales are now dependent on who provides consumers with a better platform.
Just like other top brands – including Facebook, Alibaba, and others – Fashion Nova aims to create communities. In fact, Fashion Nova has always prioritized platforms in which their customers can interact.
The way the brand works, if you’re the only one among your peers wearing Fashion Nova, it has little value. However, as family and friends continue to join the brand, the brand’s value increases. Upping engagement and platform participation is key to maintaining this network effect.
This is why Fashion Nova’s one-goal strategy involves getting as many people as possible on the platform. To facilitate this, Fashion Nova makes it easy for everyone to get their clothes.
Fashion Nova History: How the Brand Gets People On Their Platform
There are several strategies that Fashion Nova employs to achieve its one goal of getting as many people on the Nova platform as possible.
Below are the two main ones:
Affordable Outfits
There is no doubt about it. Fashion Nova has such an impressive following and broad consumer base because of its affordability.
Their outfits are pretty cheap, especially when compared to designer clothes. For example, on the Fashion Nova platform, you can find a pair of jeans for as low as $40. Shoe prices are also relatively low, and you can find some at $30 – $60. Dresses rarely cost above $50.
The best part of it all is that there’s always a discount code or sales you can explore. Due to the rock-bottom prices the brand offers consumers, it has grown to compete with top fashion giants like H&M, Forever 21, and many more.
Ultra-Fast Delivery of Trends
Saghian often confirms that with Fashion Nova, he was able to turn fast fashion into ultra-fast fashion.
On the Fashion Nova website, designers release over 600 new pieces weekly. The CEO explained that many styles were necessary because their customers loved to post online frequently. Therefore, they needed new clothes at all times.
In addition, he stated that they didn’t want girls showing up at a club all sporting the same outfit. Therefore, instead of one pair of jeans, Fashion Nova created 50.
The brand can meet the speedy supply chain due to 1000 manufacturers scattered around Los Angeles. In just 48 hours, the company designs and manufactures a new product ready to wear. After 48 hours, the new items are ready for models to wear.
The constant availability of new outfits is a top reason why most people keep coming back to Fashion Nova. Most of the NovaBabes don’t want to miss a single trend. Therefore, they are on the platform, scouring through new designs every day.
Final Thoughts
Fashion Nova continues to set new trends in the fashion world. It defies most standards in the fashion industry and is known for pioneering ultra-fast fashion.
Fashion Nova releases over 600 new looks each week, promoted by over 3000 Instagram influencers globally. Fashion Nova’s history is one of success and effective brand strategies.
Additionally, the brand provides instant gratification for young men and women who fit their customer persona. Fashion Nova understands how people consume Instagram content and love to follow fashion trends. Therefore, the company uses this to its full advantage through top celebrities’ endorsements.
With its size, inclusivity, and low price point, it’s easy to understand the inside story and its success.
