Social networking drives traffic to British fashion retailers

Five percent of the TopShop.co.uk" fashion store's online traffic was driven from its MySpace profile, five times more than a year ago. Growth has been steady over the previous year. MySpace traffic accounted for more than twice as much traffic than was received from MSN and Yahoo Search combined.

TopShop.co.uk’s profile page describes the store as a 24-year old, single female looking for networking and friends and who doesn’t want children. It currently has just over 3,100 friends. User interactivity is encouraged via a photo contest and the profile page showcases new and special fashion collections, provides links to the TopShop homepage and promotes discounts.

Other British fashion stores have MySpace profiles but have not experienced the same levels of referred traffic as TopShop indicating that TopShop may have hit the content nail on the head.

"It is not solely a result of demographics," writes Hitwise's Heather Hopkins in her Hitwise blog. "Miss Selfridge and New Look attract a similar demographic profile of young women, but do not enjoy the same volume of traffic from MySpace. The success seems a result of participation in the community and targeted offers. Topshop has a profile on MySpace with a blog that includes special offers and discounts."

Tags: Hitwise, MySpace, social media, social networking, TopShop.co.uk