According to a new publication by Germany-based market research firm yStats.com, clothing is a leading Internet retail category in Asia-Pacific. The report “Asia-Pacific Clothing B2C E-Commerce Market 2016” unveils the market size of apparel online retail in China, Japan, South Korea, India, Indonesia and other markets across the region, and finds that B2C E-Commerce sales of clothing there are predicted to grow further.
Close to half of online shoppers in Asia-Pacific have purchased fashion-related items online in 2015, according to the new report by yStats.com. This category ranked among the top products both for online and mobile purchases. In the region’s largest markets, China, South Korea and Japan, clothing ranked respectively first, second and third by B2C E-Commerce sales among all product categories last year. In South Korea, online channels accounted for more than 10% of total retail sales of clothing and Japan was close to this number.
Emerging online markets, including China, India, Indonesia and others record double-digit growth rates in B2C E-Commerce sales of apparel. India especially stood out with more than a 50% growth in 2015. According to a forecast cited in the yStats.com report, due to its rapid sales growth, India is predicted to overtake Japan as the second largest online retail market for apparel in Asia-Pacific by 2020.
Among the major market trends, cross-border shopping is influencing the online clothing category across Asia-Pacific. In Australia, men’s clothing is purchased from foreign online shops more than from domestic ones, according to yStats.com’s research findings. As a result, rivalry in the B2C E-Commerce market for fashion products in Asia-Pacific intensifies, with companies such as Fast Retailing, VIP.com, Jabong, Myntra and many others competing for a larger share of the robust market.
