In this edition of our exclusive fashion and retail tracker, The Index in partnership with Klarna, we can witness evidence of British fashion consumers' reluctance to return to physical retail.
We surveyed 2,000 nationally representative shoppers at the end of July/start of August and some 44% of them said they had ONLY shopped for fashion on line in the prior three months. By this point physical retail had been open for six weeks post-lockdown.
While that may not be surprising in the months prior to the COVID crisis hitting, the figure for shoppers buying clothes online only was around 18%. We have a long way to go before we see physical retail recovering to pre-COVID levels (and we have to be honest, it's not likely to happen at all), so for the foreseeable future retailers need to focus their investments and efforts in exploiting the digital channel.
This is just one of the fascinating insights thrown up by this study and don't forget to check out Part 2 where we track the fortunes of 100 top brands and discover how the shopper rates them.
The Index is produced in proud partnership with
