Retention will never be the ‘new acquisition’

Wonderful things can happen when we mix with people from different backgrounds. New ideas are formed, ways of working evolve and we all level up collectively.

Unfortunately, B2B marketers injecting their principles into fashion brands isn’t one of those occasions. And there’s no bigger example than ‘retention is the new acquisition’.

It might work for software and agency retainers, but it never does for fashion.

For a fashion brand to grow you need to continuously find new customers.

Why?

Because most people are only going to be buying from you once.

Even if they do come back, it’s going to take them a while (maybe 6 months, but probably closer to 12).

The amount of customers who do come to you multiple times per year will be small, and they won’t be buying enough to sustain you on their own.

Churn is ever present in fashion. It needs to be defeated.

And you do that by focusing on acquisition.

Retention tactics are there to make you more profitable and efficient. And that efficiency allows to you to scale acquisition some more.

Grow.

Prune.

Repeat.

It’s that simple.

Grow without pruning, and you’ll be left with a messy plant.

Prune without growing, and eventually you won’t have a plant at all.