The brand-new RetailX UK Fashion 2023 report highlights that from a consumer point of view home delivery, more competitive pricing and convenience are primary reasons for heading online to buy fashion.
Home delivery remains the most used delivery option among online fashion shoppers in the UK, with 83% using it, two thirds (66%) doing so frequently. The reason lies in the need for speed.
Further research shows that a large proportion of these shoppers see speed of delivery as the paramount consideration when looking at buying online, with 52% seeing it as important on all or most of their purchases.
To this end, three out of four online fashion shoppers in the UK paid extra for faster delivery at some point in 2022. This indicates that the convenience of delivery is one of the main considerations when choosing to shop online for fashion, trumping price. These shoppers are, however, less inclined to want to pay for returns, with 24% never having paid extra to do so.
More tellingly, only 5% prepared to do it all the time. This is a problem for online fashion retailers as shoppers increasingly buy several iterations of the same item in different sizes and colours, to keep one and return the rest – a cost that the retailer typically has to bear. Plans by retailers to charge for returns are, based on this data, likely to be met with resistance.
While, the report recognised the importance of fast home delivery to online fashion retailers and consumers, it also found that convenience, price and reliability are also critical. These factors also seem to trump any downsides associated with not being able to try on garments before purchase, nor to understand the look and feel, quality and sturdiness of goods.
To some degree, product reviews and video of the clothes ‘in action’ have helped here, but in reality online fashion shopping comes down to price and convenience.
The issue of delivery and returns, however, does impact where shoppers choose to buy online fashion.
According to data, 80% of shoppers see easy returns as important, or very important, when selecting where to buy, up there with speed of delivery and choice of payments. These issues, however, lag behind product availability, reliability of the retailer and price, all of which are important to some degree to more than 90% of users of fashion ecommerce brands.
This feature was authored by Paul Skeldon and originally featured in the RetailX UK Fashion 2023
