Fashion e-commerce in the United Kingdom (UK) - statistics & facts

Fashion shopping goes hybrid

E-commerce has become an attractive shopping alternative in the UK for those looking to renew their wardrobes. However, this practice is still not everyone's cup of tea. According to a 2021 survey, almost half of fashion shoppers in the United Kingdom completed their purchases in physical stores, either after first browsing online or heading straight to the establishment. For most British consumers, online shopping is an add-on option rather than a replacement for face-to-face shopping. The latter is especially true for younger consumers, namely Gen Z and millennials, as about 60 percent of respondents within these generations reportedly used a hybrid model to shop for fashion, buying both online and in-store. While sometimes the purchase process starts online and ends at a store, the opposite is also true. In a 2021 survey, more than 30 percent of online shoppers said they had bought a fashion item online after seeing it in a store.

The stores sewing online fashion

Crowned alongside Milan, New York, and Paris as one of the world's fashion capitals, London is home to the best-known British designers and brands. This influence seems to have carried over into the digital world, with London-based ASOS.com and Mark & Spencer ranking as the most visited fashion and apparel websites in the UK in 2021. Even so, online retailers have sprung up across the country. The Boohoo group, headquartered in Manchester, operates under seven brands. Despite scandals over environmental and worker violations by the company emerging since mid-2020, their popularity among consumers has not yet suffered much backlash. About a year after the revelations, Boohoo/BoohooMan was the third-largest online-only retailer for shopping in the European country, followed in fifth place by another of the group's brands, Pretty Little Thing. Meanwhile, when looking at online visibility, Next took the top spot. In 2021, the Leicestershire-based retailer was the UK fashion website with the largest share of voice, ahead of ASOS and e-commerce mammoth Amazon.

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