preview

The Future Is Online for Apparel Retailers

Decent Essays

The Future is Online for Apparel Retailers
Euromonitor International 26 October 2011

Coming up with innovative ways to harness the huge potential of the internet is the biggest retail challenge facing the apparel industry over the next five years. And at the core of the challenge is the need for a fast, efficient and hassle-free returns service.

A tipping point for online apparel retailing
The practice of waiting in line for an available changing room to try on new clothes might one day become a novelty rather than an unavoidable nuisance as apparel internet retailing enters a dynamic new era of growth. Over the 2005-2010 period, global online sales of clothing and footwear generated US$32 billion of incremental value, with …show more content…

For example, H&M and Zara posted CAGRs (by US dollar value) of 12.5% and 11.8%, respectively, over the 2005-2010 period. In contrast, independent apparel specialists have been losing share as their smaller economies of scale are less able to absorb the negative pressures of rapidly rising commodity costs and higher inflation. Even big-name fast fashion retailers have seen their sales growth run out of steam in a number of developed markets. As a result, store-based investment in the post-Lehman Brothers operating environment has focused heavily on building stronger positions in China and other first-tier emerging markets.

Department stores face fierce competition from grocers
Not all chained apparel specialists have performed well over the recent period. For example, apparel companies that run wholesale operations, as well as their own stores, have been vulnerable to the sluggishness of department stores in developed markets. Esprit and Benetton, notably, have lost market share ground. And Esprit in particular has been weakened by its overdependence on developed markets.

Although department stores returned to growth globally in 2010, according to Euromonitor International, the format remains vulnerable not only to the growth of fast fashion chains but also to the growing apparel penetration of leading grocery retailers. For staple apparel items and increasingly for on trend fashion styles too, the grocery

Get Access