A new report by Germany-based E-Commerce and Online Payments intelligence firm yStats.com reveals that clothing maintains its leadership among the product categories most purchased online around the world. The publication “Global Clothing B2C E-Commerce Market 2016” unveils the major market developments and trends related to the purchases of this category in Asia-Pacific, Europe, the Americas, Middle East and Africa.
Fashion products were purchased by over one half of online shoppers worldwide in 2015, according to a survey cited in the yStats.com report. It is the number one product category in terms of online shoppers’ share in countries such as China, the USA, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, the UK, Russia and many others. In terms of online retail sales, however, it is often surpassed by categories with a higher value per item, such as electronics.
Mobile commerce is an important contributor to the rise of fashion online retail. Worldwide, a combined share of more than 10% of online shoppers preferred mobile channels (phones and tablets) for buying apparel and footwear. Furthermore, the yStats.com research shows that clothing is popular with cross-border online shoppers around the world. Another important trend highlighted in the report is omnichannel commerce, as customers combine online, mobile and in-store channels on their way to a purchase of clothing.
Online clothing stores such as HM.com, Asos.com and Zara.com were most popular with global Internet users, as of July 2016. Furthermore, online mass merchants and marketplaces are also active in this product segment, with Amazon projected to become the largest apparel seller in the USA by 2017, according to a forecast cited in the new report by yStats.com.
