E-commerce has become a success in so many industries, but even bigger in the fashion industry. As much as retail stores of brick and mortar are still viable and present. The online stores such as Stylecaret are gaining more outreach and ground compared to them. Fashion has a higher percentage to other industries online, has had a great breakthrough and innovations that have been possible through e-commerce. The continuous growth of e-commerce will ensure the increase of fashion trends and more statistics will be able to be accounted for to see the trend of growth.
The year 2018 statistics of fashion e-commerce
Total retail sales of 2018, were at 12% that were accounted through e-commerce. This figure should however not be assumed as a small figure. Actually, in recent years the online market has grown rapidly. This is due to consumers and retailers have embraced the e-commerce market as it continuously grows. Therefore, through this, the valuations of online retail players are much higher in comparison to the brick and motor retail companies.
UK, USA, and India are the three main fashion giants in the e-commerce world. The UK, for instance, has had a successful year by year growth in the apparel industry in general and its sales are at 17%. Interestingly, more than a quarter of the 1000 retailers on the internet are of clothing, textile, and footwear. Reports by Forrester’s, actually show how the market share is at 27.5% in the fashion industry. It also shows that 26% of consumers who are purchasing online in the fashion segment has grown in the past year. Adding up to make 58% of the total percentage of consumers who bought anything in general online including fashion.
The use of smartphones has been the main contributor to increasing online fashion traffic by 66%. Its sales were also great since it made a total of 57% of the sales online. The stats of 2018 have shown tremendous potential for e-commerce for the years ahead.
The year 2019 test for online fashion retailers
Product data
Product positioning and discovery will increasingly become more sensitive as the competition increases. That’s why systems like the product information management system will be of assistance to online retailers. This will ensure that all retailers will bring the product data in one platform and then later it be output in various channels. Through this, the positioning and discovery of data will assist in knowing how the product moves. Therefore, SEO is very vital to this challenge, since it ensures that there is good product positioning and also it will assist in categorizing the products.
Boosting conversion rates
This is the main challenge to the fashion retailers in e-commerce that they are facing in 2019. The index findings on Fire click show that conversion rates are at 5.85% on apparel and fashion. Increasing this rate to go higher will require a lot of strategies to be used. For instance, personalization, SEO use, design, and AI. Plus, through this abandonment will be reduced from its previous rate of 69% in 2018.
Trust and loyalty
Consumer trust and loyalty to your brand are very important to be constant in sales. However, there is a lot of competition in the e-commerce world when it comes to fashion. Hence there is no surety of a customer returning to your site. The loyalty programs that are there ensure that the brand trust is increased and there is consumer retention. They also ensure that you are constant with managing the user experience. Plus, your brand is transparent and sustainable in projecting the image of your brand.
Increased return rates
This has been a great challenge since the inception of online stores. Even with stores using return policies to protect themselves. It led to more damage than good. The return rate stats are at 50% and are currently growing higher. 85% is actually considered to return from first-time customers. This experience causes a loss in loyalty from the consumer and lack of future business with them. The challenge is experienced by almost all retailers and having a physical store for a fitting, and assisting any customer who is dissatisfied by the product. Having images that are of high quality depicting the real product can also help.
Predictions of beyond 2019 in fashion e-commerce
The prediction this year is great since the e-commerce market share of the fashion retail total is growing. It is expected by the year 2024 that the total retail sales will be at 37%. Hence the fashion retailers will have continuous success if they are able to adapt to the challenges and trends that emerge.
E-commerce technology trends for 2019
Increased automation levels
Machines are already taking over to do work humans are doing. Especially the repetitive and tedious work. The fashion retail industry is already on par with this new trend. Some tasks have already started to be automated.
Sustainability
Eco-friendly fashion clothes have increased especially due to the need to save the environment by consumers. The current ratio is 1:3 of every shopper who is conscious of how their purchase of the product will affect the environment. This trend has pushed the retailers to follow through the eco-friendly measures in their operations to maintain sustainability.
Personalization
Since the products are being displayed online for the consumer. Having a unique personalized way to display them will mean a lot to the increase of consumer purchase of the product. A good example is when the user is able to get assistance by being guided to what others have bought or offered a similar product display to what they were viewing to purchase.
Correct information
Accuracy is needed more in the information offered online by the consumers. This trend allows retailers to increase and improve their content online to convince the customer to purchase the product.
Improved search experiences
E-commerce is evolving for the better by the day. Hence with new search experiences for the consumers to use in product purchasing. It will greatly transform the experience for both the customer and online retailers.
