Fashion retailers globally are driving nearly 40% more orders online as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, but consumers are cutting back on the amount they are spending, new data shows.
According to a report from AI commerce experience platform Nosto, the impact of the pandemic has meant fashion retailers are experiencing 38% more online orders, with sales 34% higher than at the same time last year.
After some early dramatic shifts when the crisis first hit in March, sales, orders traffic and online conversion rates appear to be plateauing at a higher level, year-over-year.
The data, however, suggests that consumers are cutting back on the amount they are willing to spend per order with the average order value (AOV) down 4% globally year-over-year. The analysis covers the US and specific countries in Europe, as well as Australia and New Zealand.
Nosto’s analysis shows that with most brick and mortar fashion stores closed and only gradually beginning to re-open with social distancing, traffic to online fashion stores is up 13% year-over-year. Online shoppers are also more committed to making a purchase when they visit a fashion e-commerce store, with conversion rates 16% higher than last year.
For this latest report, Nosto tracked the performance of online retailers within fashion, apparel and accessories sectors between 1 March and 26 May. The sample comprised 271 merchants that use the Nosto platform in the US, UK, Germany, France, Sweden, Australia and New Zealand and represent a good cross-section of the fashion, apparel and accessory industry as a whole. This 2020 data was then compared with the same time period in 2019.
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By GlobalData“Looking back at the overall performance of fashion e-commerce since early March, we have seen dramatic drops with sales down 32% and traffic down 24% at their lowest on 20 March,” says Matthew Levin, global head of marketing at Nosto. “Since then, the numbers rebounded up in April and are appearing to be levelling off to a new normal after some fluctuation.”
According to the report, average order value continues to be down year-over-year and seems like it will remain there, while conversion rate has continued to stay up year-on-year and has reached a plateau for now.
