Today was the Drapers online fashion conference at the Radisson Edwardian hotel in Mayfair.

The conference theatre was taken over by independent fashion stores interested in getting online, established online retailers and the big players.

As an online marketer having worked on fashion websites, one of the most surprising comments I heard was from Nick Robertson of ASOS who said “nobody searches for ‘black frilly dress’ [in Google]”.

According to Nick people search for stores (such as his own) and brand names (such as UGGs), but not for the actual item they want (such as black frilly dress). I couldn’t disagree more.

I believe that whilst many want inspiration (which is why they search for stores) and some are driven by brand (they search UGGs), an increasing amount knows exactly what they want and they do search Google for things like black frilly dress.

It’s been my experience that the latter is more likely to convert. And I know that view is also shared with others in online retail – (I wasn’t the only one in disbelief at the comment!).

Perhaps because of ASOS’s scale, the rules that apply to most online fashion stores don’t apply to them. Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps.