COVID-19 abruptly ended travel worldwide—so how does a travel-friendly apparel brand pivot its marketing message?

“We focused more on the fact that we were machine washable and really comfortable,” says ADAY senior vice president Brenna Davis. “It was a change in our communications, but it didn’t mean that we had to really change the strategy of the brand because comfort was always a goal of ours.”

During the pandemic, ADAY’s marketing message emphasized its elastic waist bands and fabrics that “made it feel as great while lounging on a couch as it would in a board meeting,” Davis says.

ADAY continues to mix up its message to highlight comfort as well as versatility for exploring the outdoors safely as COVID-19 continues to disrupt travel plans.

ADAY’s average order value decreased in 2020 because shoppers weren’t spending as much on their wardrobes during the pandemic shutdown. This year, ADAY hopes to increase its AOV as it expects people to invest more in deepening their minimalist capsule wardrobes, which consist of a few high-quality pieces of clothing that will not go out of style, as they venture outdoors more and embark on hybrid working situations. “We also know that helps people buy into the experience of having a minimalist capsule wardrobe. If they own more ADAY items, they realize they actually don’t need as much clothing overall,” she says.

Average order value decreased for the 2020 holiday season compared to the 2019 holiday season, but has since rebounded in 2021 as ADAY’s average ticket increased 30% year over year on average for the first nine months through September 2021, Davis says. She did not reveal ADAY’s AOV, but Digital Commerce 360 estimates ADAY’s AOV was $150 in 2020, according to data in the 2021 Next 1000 Database.

Despite the rise in AOV, Davis says she does not believe COVID-19 played a significant role in the brand’s online sales growth. She declined to share ADAY’s online sales growth but says the “brand is on a natural trajectory of growth since it launched in 2015 in Soho in New York.”

Managing the pandemic and promotions

The pandemic forced ADAY to rethink its promotion strategy last year. In February 2020, ADAY launched a new product line of suits. “It did great when we first launched—then of course COVID-19 hit in March and we were left with too much of a good thing,” Davis says.

“We absolutely went a little bit deeper into the discounts and offered buy one item get one half price promotions,” she says. The half-priced item did not need to be the same item as the full-price purchase.

This year, the brand’s focus has moved away from BOGO promotions and is instead offering up to 30% off select styles and a tier-priced promotion, in which the more a customer buys, the bigger the discount is. As of November 2021, customers could save 15% on orders of $250 or more, save 20% on orders of $500 or more, and save 30% on orders of $800 or more.

As a smaller retailer, Davis says the brand can quickly adjust its marketing messages to keep customers informed about product launches and holiday-related promotions.

“We’re nimble in terms of managing expectations and are careful to never message about a new product launch until we’re absolutely sure that we can ship the product to customers within four weeks,” she says.

ADAY waits until items are in the warehouse before announcing a product launch. A pre-launch window is four weeks. “At that point, we know the items have already passed quality control and we know based on historical timelines that it’s going to reach our warehouse within a really short period.”

ADAY recognizes that COVID-related travel restrictions are still affecting many of its customers’ travel plans this season so the brand has recast its holiday message to emphasize family this year, Davis says.

“It’s not talking so much about the holidays, but more about how family is important, whether near or far—while not focusing on ‘travel’ specifically,” she says.

While the brand expects consumers to holiday shop in November, it’s holding back on publishing shipping deadlines for the holidays until December.

“We are planning to start publishing that information in December,” Davis says. “Any sooner and it’s information overload because between Singles Day (Nov. 11) and then Black Friday and Cyber Monday—it can just be a lot.”

Eco-conscious without greenwashing

ADAY appeals to customers that care about how their purchases affect the environment. Today’s consumers are savvy and understand there is a greenwashing problem in the apparel industry—and being able to trust the brand is part of ADAY’s appeal to customers, says Davis. Greenwashing is the process of providing misleading information about how a company’s products are environmentally friendly—while the truth is often the exact opposite.

Instead of announcing to shoppers it’s a sustainable brand, ADAY likes to clearly communicate the viewpoint of its clothing brand, what its products are made of and why.

“We’re careful about calling ourselves a sustainable brand because there is a lot of greenwashing in the industry, and we want to be incredibly factual about what we do,” Davis says.

ADAY is not marketing toward the fast-fashion trend-seeking shopper. Fast fashion refers to inexpensive clothing manufactured by mass-market retailers in response to the latest style trends. Typically, these clothing manufacturers churn out high volumes of clothing that are considered short-term wearable items that quickly go out of style.

ADAY achieves its lightweight and wrinkle-free clothing by using a polyester blend, which is derived in part from recycled plastic bottles. That means with each washing, there is the potential for micro-shedding.

Micro-shedding is where tiny fibers of micro-plastic are released from plastic-derived clothing during the wash cycle and it is a growing concern, Davis says. “For example, it is common to use plastic bottles if you want to create fabric made from recycled polyester,” Davis says. “But then that also leads to a lot of questions around micro-shedding—are you releasing microplastics with every wash that you do?”

In ADAY’s case, Davis says the apparel manufacturer uses longer fibers of its plastic-sourced textiles, which the brand says leads to less micro-shedding. ADAY also recommends customers use products like Guppyfriend washing bags—mesh bags made from plastic to trap shed plastic—to wash its clothing to prevent textile fibers from being released during the wash cycle into waterways like rivers and oceans. Consumers manually remove fibers from the mesh bags by hand after washing the clothing in them and throw away the fibers in the trash.

The retailer also claims that 82% of its textile mills have water recycling and a purification process to clean and reuse water before disposing of it safely.

Davis admits the brand has a “strange” end game where it promotes that people consume less while promoting buying from ADAY, she says. “It’s an understanding that the ADAY experience does actually help you own less,” she adds.