what is ‘the clickability of color’?

It’s actually becoming a very important concept in the way we think about shopping in the digital age. Everyone who has something to sell should probably be aware of what it means.

Think about it…we are making many, if not most, decisions about what products to buy through a lens the size of your palm or maybe the size of a (small) piece of paper if you have a tablet. Best case scenario we are on our laptops, scrolling through brand after brand to see who carries what we want.

Scroll. Scroll. Scroll. Suddenly, a bright color. What was that?! STOP. Go back. CLICK.

Having an engaging, colorful visual when presenting your product online can be the difference between being looked at and being passed by.

World Global Style Network (WGSN), a leading trend service, has stated that “The clickability of color gives it a key role in the digital world…” I would extend that statement to include a color we don’t often think of as a color: black.

I was just reading an interesting article in the Spring 2019 issue of GQ Style about the rise of designer, Virgil Abloh. He started the brand Off-White and has gone on to become the design director for Louis Vuitton. He said that when Off-White did a co-lab with luggage company Rimowa, he designed a clear suitcase with a very visible, large, graphic “X” covering one entire side. He did this, in part, because he understood that the “X” would show up well on Instagram, make a big impact and get his product noticed, which it did.

The WGSN team went on to say, “If an influencer with more than 100,000 followers shows a color in their feed, then people take notice. In short, social media helps spread the global acceptance of wearing color.” 

How do I do that?

Even if what you have to sell are largely items that are core colors such as white, black, grey or even khaki, think about how you can arrange them on a page. Can you lay them out to make a graphic impact, or can you put a bright, engaging color behind the items?

Here are a variety of new and existing styles from SanMar that I want to show to customers who are looking for a comfortable, minimalistic wardrobe they can use for both work and play. I have used the color Hazard Orange in the background because I know it is a popular color with GenZ and Millennials, who I am seeking to engage with this collection.

Let’s look at another example of some clickable color. Here is a white tee shirt shown in a very graphic way on a solid background with both a neon graphic and font in Hyper Pink. The high contrast of the white and black and the neon pink are my clickable colors.

Would you stop for this image if you saw it scroll by? Do you see what I’m doing? Try it out with your own products and see what you can do!

Definitions

WGSN: World Global Style Network is a subscription-based trend company owned by Ascential. Started in 1998, it is one of the oldest online trend services in the world. They cover industries such as interiors, beauty, apparel, footwear and accessories, as well as providing visionary direction on a variety of topics.

Influencer: This term is now an official definition in major dictionaries. According to the Cambridge Dictionary, an influencer is “someone who affects or changes the way that other people behave, for example through their use of social media.”