The total number of UK online fashion checkouts increased significantly in May, up 115% year-on-year, according to leading personalisation platform, True Fit. However, Average Order Value (AOV) remained down compared to last year, -9% for the first three weeks in May. Data from its Fashion Genome, which analyses transactions from 17,000 retail brands and processes data from 170million shoppers who are registered users, suggests that fashion is now showing gradual signs of recovery after many businesses were forced to shut stores and e-commerce operations following the lockdown in March.
As the total number of orders has improved, web traffic has also increased – up 39% year-on-year for the first three weeks of May. However, the value of total sales is still recovering from the impact of covid-19, with global fashion sales predicted to fall by 30% in 2020 and luxury clothing estimated to drop by 40%.
With many retailers such as Quiz, Net-a-Porter and Next quick to re-open their e-commerce sites with new social distancing and safety measures for staff, others, such as H&M, are also accelerating their focus on digital channels in a bid to speed up recovery. Newly appointed CEO of H&M, Helena Helmersson said the Swedish fashion brand would take ‘forceful measures’ that would ‘lead to a fast shift towards digital’ after it shut 75% of its stores worldwide.
And even with UK clothing stores set to reopen from 15 June, consumers will remain reliant on digital channels for their fashion buys, with a recent Retail Week research showing that only 41% of shoppers will be comfortable revisiting stores after lockdown. This has led to physical retail outlets looking at changing in-store operations and digitalising experiences in fashion stores to reassure returning shoppers. GAP, for example, will temporarily close its fitting rooms and impose a 24 hour ‘quarantine’ of returned goods or stock handled by customers, while other retailers like John Lewis are exploring virtual shopping assistants and implementing rigorous cleaning plans.
William Adler, CEO at True Fit, said: “We’re starting to see the re-emergence of retail – a charge that is being led by e-commerce as fashion brands start to adapt their strategies to accommodate emerging shopper buying behaviours brought about by the covid-19 lockdown. Retailers who once may have flirted with the notion of digital-first are seeing the era of digital-first unfolding in front of them. This means they will need to intensify their digital execution – not just to replace revenues that once came from shops, but also to address friction in-store, such fitting room closures or increased demand for click-and-collect capabilities – as retail recovers.”
