By Leon Bailey-Green on Tuesday, March 9th 2010, 07:00

How did Boohoo.com become one of Britain’s Top 10 online fashion retailers within three years? The company’s online marketing manager Steve Webster speaks exclusively to The Online Fashion Agency.

Steve, tell us what you do at Boohoo.
As Online Marketing Manager I’m responsible for all online marketing activity for Boohoo. I work across the usual online channels of search, email, affiliates and social media, as well as overseeing ecommerce developments.

My role is to act as a digital champion within Boohoo, ensuring that our customer’s experience is as engaging as possible.

You seem to invest a lot in offline advertising. Most online fashion retailers tend to invest in online advertising/marketing as it is easier to track. Why has offline been important to Boohoo?
Online retailers neglect offline advertising at their peril. Offline is as important to us as online because we need to be where our customers are; today’s customers don’t live in an online bubble, they consume media across all channels.

Boohoo’s success is testament to the fact that integrated marketing needs to be exactly that.

Graham Charlton from Econsultancy recently told us he thinks ‘there is strong growth in the m-commerce market‘. Is mobile an area Boohoo is looking at?
We already provide SMS updates of promotions and offers to our customers, but are exploring the various opportunities that mobile affords us to interact with our customers in new and more engaging ways.

What’s key for us is that any mobile development we launch adds value to the customer experience, not simply replicate our site optimized for a mobile phone.

Rare Fashion recently revealed Rare Opulence, a higher end range. Is this something Boohoo would do?
Never say never, but our focus remains very much on providing the very best stylist inspired fashion collections at affordable prices. We listen closely to what our customers tell us and right now that’s “more, more, more”.

What’s next for Boohoo?
We have some very exciting developments in the pipeline for the coming year. There are new product ranges in design that are sure to be a big hit. You can also expect to see the launch of some great new online developments that will create a very personal and individual experience for all of our customers.

www.boohoo.com