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6 E-commerce Fashion Industry Trends to Keep an Eye On

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Written By Lilly Miller

The e-commerce fashion industry experienced quite a surge over the last couple of years coming off as a result of a perfect storm of factors ranging from huge developments in the digital tech industry to the outbreak of COVID-19.

Be that as it may, the e-commerce sector is a behemoth and now accounts for 19.5 per cent of all retail sales in the world. What’s also important to point out is that these numbers don’t come solely from traditional e-commerce niches. Instead, the trend of online shopping is spreading like a wildfire and conquering new grounds. 

The fashion industry, whose online component is expected to grow to $1 billion by 2025, makes the best example. Let us take a look at what the future holds for these bedfellows and what e-commerce fashion industry trends you should keep an eye on in the near future.

Greater focus on brand building

1. Greater focus on brand building

Although this fashion industry trend leans more heavily in the direction of marketing, it is worth mentioning that in the case of younger buyers (most notably Gen Z), the clicks that eventually translate to online purchases, no longer come from paid-focused ads. At least not to the extent they used to only a couple of years ago.

On the contrary – the Zoomers feel are much more attracted by tireless brand-building and companies like Lonely Ghost that have a sort of texture and personality behind the retail front. If you want to tap into this growing corner of the market, you should enrich your online front with branding elements like a blog.

2. Social media shaping the public opinion

New social media players constantly pop on the radar while none of the established names seems to fade away.

Facebook was written off too many times to count. With its pool of 2.93 billion users, the platform still makes it the most popular social network in existence. And keeping in mind that all these websites are developing their in-house trading platforms it is easy to see why they will have huge sway over the fashion industry.

Social media will become the place where opinions are made and products are sold all at the same time. Future fashion e-commerce strategies need to be built around this developing fashion industry trend.

3. Casual and fitness wear growing in popularity

In both cases, the benefits are obvious – casualwear and fitness wear are incredibly cosy and are steadily breaking into the mainstream so the sales of pieces like tights are constantly on the rise. But, this is one of the instances where the online and e-commerce trends are dictating the fashion industry and not vice versa.

Since they are so casual and style-neutral the fitness pieces are much easier to buy online so people simply buy them more. These higher sales, in turn, are pushing them further into the mainstream and setting new fashion trends. This fashion industry trend will keep picking up the pace as time goes by.

An extension of the retail sector

4. An extension of the retail sector

Even though it recently took quite a few heavy hits, the retail sector never truly lost any of its mainstream relevance. In the case of the fashion industry, the retail component still remains the most important part of the shopping experience.

Still, fashion stores are finding a way to marry these two components into one streamlined and uninterrupted shopping experience.

By combining retail and online commerce the stores can allow the consumers to start shopping while they are still on the way to the shop, skip the taxing checkout, or put aside the items they want to try. Such moves can inspire tremendous customer loyalty.

5. Expanding the payment options and channels

The people interested in fashion are usually tech-savvy people. They also appreciate the convenience. With that in mind, it is easy to see why the companies that want to remain competitive in the coming years should offer their clients more versatile and up-to-date payment options.

According to a recent survey, as much as 72.9 per cent of all online purchases are mobile so we can say that mobile apps should be, by this point, considered an absolute industry requirement. The brands that want to push this idea further should consider leveraging other popular digital commerce assets like cryptocurrencies and even NFTs.

6. The steps in the sustainable direction

Last but not least, we would like to point out that, over the last couple of years, the fashion industry got some serious flack due to the heavy use of unsustainable materials and manufacturing practices.

All these issues are even more evident in the online environment where users are capable of publically expressing their opinions and influencing brand perception. Therefore, companies that want to compete on the global online stage can earn easy points by moving in a more sustainable direction.

This green shift could open an entirely new revenue stream comprised of eco-friendly accessories, bags, and similar items.

E-commerce Fashion Industry Trends to Keep an Eye On

E-commerce Fashion Industry Trends to Keep an Eye On

Here are some of the eCommerce fashion industry trends to keep an eye on today and in the future:

  • Greater focus on brand building.
  • Social media is shaping public opinion.
  • Casual and fitness wear growing in popularity.
  • An extension of the retail sector.
  • Expanding the payment options and channels.
  • The steps in the sustainable direction

We hope these examples gave you a general idea about the direction the fashion e-commerce sector will be heading in the following period and hopefully outlined some strategies you can use to benefit your fashion store.

The most important thing to take out of this discussion, however, is that the e-commerce sector will only keep expanding as time goes by. The companies that fail to take notice of this goldmine will be very easily outpaced by the more observant competitors.

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