Mature women are also discovering social media for themselves – and what that means for the fashion industry

The use of social media, such as Instagram and Facebook, has increased rapidly in recent years among the over 35-year-olds. Not least during the pandemic, women in older age groups increasingly turned to the digital world and this opens up new avenues for content creators and fashion companies.

“Good morning dear ones… from the far north. The sun is shining here, super cool, but it’s also freezing cold,” Ula Hoffmann greets her followers on Instagram on Monday with a cup of coffee in hand. She says she couldn’t sleep well over the weekend because of the breaking news about the Ukraine war, but tries to keep living and working.

“Maybe you would like to distract yourself with something nice?” asks Hoffmann before she advertises a discount code for the online shop of the Husum fashion house CJ Schmidt in her story.

Approachable trendsetters

Her conversational tone and the topics addressed, which concern everyone, make the 54-year-old from Flensburg approachable. Equally approachable is her style: a mix of sweaters and coats from cheaper clothing brands like H&M and Zara, and accessories from luxury houses like Chanel or Celine – always neat but not impossible. She translates fashion trends into wearable and affordable outfits for women her age.

And that might explain her proud number of followers of 577,000 on Instagram. Since the pandemic, the 45+ age group in particular has increased significantly among their followers. In the past, the difference in the number of their followers between the age groups 35 and over and over 45 was only 2 to 3 percent. Now the proportion of 35 to 44 year olds is about 24 percent, and 45 to 54 year olds 37 percent.

She notices that women who have become more active on social media are also starting to shop through them. And she sees brands increasingly working with influencers to reach these age groups.

“Older women used to go to the store, but then with the pandemic they had no choice but to shop online,” says Hoffmann, who worked in fashion boutiques and for online shops before becoming a freelance content creator. “The brands have expanded their online shops, they used to be almost like websites, just to show that you have an internet presence. Now they have become big online shops.”

How will fashion trends form?

Among the generation of grandparents who chat with their grandchildren, Facebook usage has doubled since the pandemic, notes Ulla Ertelt, managing director of Frankfurt-based market research company HML Modemarketing.

According to her studies, before the pandemic, hardly any woman over the age of 30 was active on Instagram, and over 70 percent of the market was not even involved with the platform. Because people under 30 don’t spend as much on fashion as is commonly thought; it is the over-50s who make up more than 50 percent of the German fashion market.

Interesting developments in the use of social media, survey by HML Modemarketing January 2021:

  • There is now a 46 percent use of Facebook among 50 to 69-year-old women. It is therefore just as high as for 14 to 19 year olds. That grew a lot during the pandemic.
  • Video channels such as YouTube are used by around 25 percent of women aged 50 to 69.
  • The use of Instagram photo networks has also grown. It is 29 percent for 30 to 49 year olds and 24 percent for 50 to 69 year olds. In the over 70-year-olds even more than 10 percent.

But social media such as Facebook, Instagram or Tiktok not only have potential as an advertising or sales channel for older target groups. It is also about something fundamental: the formation of fashion trends – where will the age groups that traditionally spend a lot on clothing now get information about fashion?

“The old unity of communicating fashion trends has been broken by Corona. Now it’s getting really exciting how this fragmented, island-shaped information triggers trends,” says Ertelt. “One has to wait and see which influencers will develop for the essential parts of the markets that actually generate revenue.”

Increasing willingness to buy via social media

The US e-commerce company LTK has observed that more influencers aged 40 and over have been active since the pandemic and some have already generated rapid increases in sales. LTK is known for its Liketoknowit app, which allows people to directly buy garments linked in influencers’ looks. When a linked garment is purchased, content creators are paid a commission.

From the end of 2019 to September 2021, influencers aged 40 and over were able to achieve sales increases of between 70 and 960 percent, observes LTK. One example is fashion blogger Natasha Gibson. About half of their audience is between the ages of 45 and 64, a fifth between the ages of 35 and 44, and 15 percent over the age of 64.

“I’ve seen an increased need for online shopping inspiration from my viewers since the pandemic, and the conversion rate is above average,” says Gibson. Apart from on LTK, she is best known for her styling videos on YouTube, where she has 141,000 subscribers.

But her Swiss colleague Audrey Bible also noticed that older women in particular are still hesitant. “I only link via LTK. There are certainly many older people who just look. Older people in particular still hesitate when it comes to downloading an app,” says the Bible. The number of her followers on Instagram has more than quadrupled since the pandemic began, from 3,000 to 13,400.

“I turned 40 this year. My buying behavior is changing and I tend to follow older people and move away from the 25 year olds. There is also an increase in 35 to 40-year-olds who are more active on social media,” Bible explains the strong increase in her followers.

Image: Screenshot courtesy of LTK

LTK has seen a spike in applications for its platform since the pandemic, including more from content creators over the age of 40. This has also increased the amount of content by 60 percent over before. Business was also correspondingly good in the German-speaking region. Sales in the DACH region increased by 20 percent between 2020 and 2021.

Not just since the pandemic

The trend towards higher social media use among mature women was already apparent before the pandemic. Video blogger Natasha Gibson started gaining older followers as early as 2019 when she started posting more fun styling tips, type and color advice.

The fashion company Gerry Weber does not just attribute the increase in its followers to the pandemic. “I think a few things come together here,” says Verena Kleinohl, Director Marketing & Brand Communication. These include the megatrend of digitization, the general growth in target groups on social media, coupled with the challenges faced by bricks-and-mortar retail during the pandemic.” Gerry Weber also notices that styling tips and possible combinations are well received and help women to find their way around the online shop.

“We would like to expand these topics even further and make our content even more customer-oriented and inspiring,” says Kleinohl. The live shopping moderated by employees was also well received.

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