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Total UK online fashion orders up 115% in May, but AOV remains down

Tom Bottomley
01 June 2020

The total number of UK online fashion checkouts increased significantly in May, up 115% year-on-year, according to True Fit, the leading personalisation platform for apparel and footwear retailers.

However, average order value (AOV) remained down compared to last year, -9% for the first three weeks in May.

The data was taken from True Fit’s "Fashion Genome", the world's largest connected data set for fashion which analyses transactions from 17,000 retail brands and processes data from 170 million shoppers who are registered users.

The latest figures suggest 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. But the value of total sales is still recovering from the impact of COVID-19, and global fashion sales are predicted to fall by 30% in 2020, with luxury clothing being even harder hit, estimated to drop by 40%.

With many retailers, including Quiz, NET-A-PORTER and Next, quick to re-open their ecommerce 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.

Even with UK clothing stores set to reopen from 15 June, consumers will remain increasingly reliant on digital channels for their fashion buys, with recent research showing that less than half (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" on 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 ecommerce 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.

“Key to sustaining recovery in the long-term, retailers need to demonstrate a deep-rooted understanding of customers, driven for the most part through personalisation. By helping shoppers find clothes and shoes they love and keep, retailers close the ‘loyalty loop’ and in turn, retain customers to improve customer lifetime value.”

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