The State Of The Ecommerce Fashion Industry: Statistics, Trends & Strategy
1 – Industry-wide Data
Within the e-commerce fashion industry, there has been a global decline. Reports indicate a significant decline in the year 2019 to 2020 with figures that started at $531.25 billion to $485.62 billion. As such the industry was faced with a negative value in its compound annual growth rate as a result of the pandemic. This led to a CAGR of -8.59%.
With that said, the industry is still set to see a comeback by 2023. Hence, analysts, have projected that the industry will be at an all-time high of $672.71. Within the United States alone, the total amount in sales for the year 2020 hit a whopping 29.5%. Due to this, the market value significantly increased.
The US market alone is set to reach up to $100 billion in 2021. The following are the five notable opportunities for growth within the market:
- Pioneers in the market should seek to expand outside of the West
- Smartphone penetration and online access should be increased
- More disposable income should be attained by the middle class
- Experiential e-commerce can be created by new and innovative technologies
- Influencer and celebrity power should be better harnessed
The following include some of the biggest threats that prevent brands from being established:
- Consistent market fragmentation has resulted in the death of brand loyalty
- Online return rates are up to 50%
- Fast fashion has now posed the threat of creating a ton of styles on demand
- More and more consumers are pushing for green and ethically sourced materials
2 – The Impacts Of The Covid-19 Pandemic
The pandemic alone has left the industry suffering a terrible loss with the global lockdowns. The lockdowns of March 2020 left consumers outwardly showing that they’re spending up to 27% less than they regularly would. This meant that both fashion and luxury item sales would decline a great deal. See here if you have ever asked yourself what is shapewear?
However, regardless of these implications, the online retail world has taken off with a bang. Exciting brands such as Zalando have experienced significant growth in their GMV. This comes within the second quarter at rates of 32% to 34%. Another retailer, Boohoo has also seen a 45% increase within this same period.
In the retail world, athleisure has taken off quite a bit leading to this particular market increasing in value. The athleisure market is now worth a whopping $257.1 billion dollars and has significantly grown from its 2018 figure or $155.2. This drastic increase meant that the industry has seen a 6.7% increase in its CAGR.
Since traditional brick-and-mortar stores shut down, Americans decided to spend their hard-earned cash on athleisure. Hence, brands like Lululemon and Nike have experienced a ton of growth during the pandemic.
3 – Clothing And Apparel
Since there was now a lower entry barrier for merchants, tons of merchants now had the opportunity to entire the market. This made it easier for them to fulfil orders, sell and compete automatically. As a result, the revenue generated per customer is expected to grow drastically.
Within Europe alone, consumers are projected to spend up to $921 alone on retail items. This figure and more should be expected within the upcoming year. Even though these numbers are increasing the global annual compound rate is still facing a decline. The compound rate has declined from 15.3% to 7.6% in 2022 and the e-commerce figure stands at just 3.3% from the period 2017 to 2024.
However, the saturation in the western market is the source for this particular trend. Since the rate of growth can be compared between China, Europe and the United States, our reality has become starker. Hence, the settling CAGRs between 2017 and 2022 are as follows:
- 14.1% – China
- 8.7% – Europe
- 8.8% – US