As online fashion retail grows, kids wear sees sharp rise in order volume: Study

As the apparel retail sector struggled to meet sales targets due to the ongoing pandemic a study reveals kids wear segment emerged on top last year with over 200 per cent order volume growth, and a market share increase of 17 per cent in FY21 from 3 per cent in previous year. The study ‘Fashion E-commerce Report’ done by e-commerce supply chain focused software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform Unicommerce analysed fashion trends for FY21 and FY20 with a sample size of over 70 million orders. The study also highlighted online fashion grew from strength to strength in Tier-II, III cities.

Online fashion retail gains strength

The Unicommerce study shows online fashion continued to grow with order volume growing 51 per cent and gross merchant value growing 45 per cent in FY21 compared to previous financial year. The faster volume growth as compared to GMV led to a marginal decline of 4 per cent in the average order value, the report found.

What’s more, almost 118 per cent order volume growth was rooted from Tier-II cities while 102 per cent volume growth came from Tier III and IV cities. Moreover, adoption of omnichannel sales across majority of brand stores also rose due to the pandemic. While a majority almost 55-60 per cent omnichannel orders are still being generated from brand websites, the marketplaces have grown omnipresence significantly in the last 15-18 months from being a negligible contributor last year to 40-45 per cent of overall omnichannel orders at present.

As per Kapil Makhija, CEO, Unicommercem "Fashion segment is one of the biggest contributors to e-commerce industry of India with the highest order volume. This report dives deep into the fashion industry to analyse the trends in online fashion space. It’s a unique report that sheds light on changing consumer buying patterns and preferences, rising adoption of D2C and omnichannel and new segments in the online fashion space.”

The study highlights companies are now fulfilling 20-25 per cent of their omnichannel orders from brand store, indicating increased adoption of omnichannel sales across majority of stores.

Women’s wear tops e-com sales

Another interesting trend that emerged from the study is that women's wear continued to dominate e-commerce fashion market with a 50 per cent market share in FY21 and 30 per cent order volume growth in FY21 as compared to previous financial year. The order volume of western wear grew 57 per cent in FY21 compared to a year ago, accounting for 65 per cent market share in FY21.

However, it’s the men's apparel segment which is the highest contributor to the overall western wear segment accounting for 55 per cent market share of overall western wear in FY21 and 40 per cent order volume growth. Kids western wear segment reported a sharp order volume growth of over 300 per cent as market share increased from 3 per cent in FY-20 to 28 per cent in FY21.

Meanwhile the study also shows ethnic wear segment reported an order volume growth of 41 per cent in FY21, mostly led by women’s apparel segment and constitutes a 95 per cent market share of overall ethnic wear in FY21. It reported 43 per cent order volume growth. Casual wear continued to be a preferred choice but formal wear also gained momentum with over double order volume growth.