Poike via Getty Images
By Tatiana Walk-Morris
Source: www.retaildive.com, August 2022

Dive Brief:

  • With e-commerce sales expected to rise, more consumers are becoming comfortable with shopping online for their clothes and shoes. PowerReviews’ State of Apparel & Footwear Shopping in 2022 survey of 11,862 shoppers found that 89% spend more than $101 on online clothing and footwear purchases annually, and 74% of all footwear spend occurs online.
  • More than two-thirds (69%) of online footwear shoppers seek user-generated photos and videos regularly or every time they shop. The survey also found that 63% say they consistently or frequently review the Q&A section of product pages.
  • Among the criteria online shoppers consider when buying clothes or footwear are price (84%), ratings and reviews (78%), images from customers who purchased the product (56%) and the retailer’s exchange policy (51%). However, only 48% of respondents said they consider the brand of the product, and even less (38%) said they consider the retailer they’re purchasing from or recommendations from friends and family (34%).

Dive Insight:

PowerReviews’ survey shows a continuation of multiple trends that emerged early on in the COVID-19 pandemic: More online spending and a shift toward casual styles.

The majority of survey respondents (96%) said they shop online for casual clothing and footwear, followed by athleticwear and shoes (84%) and sleepwear and intimates (73%). Under half of the survey respondents said they look for children’s clothing and footwear online (49%), formal clothing and shoes (49%), or business clothing and shoes (46%).

PowerReviews’ survey echoes previous research predicting a rise in e-commerce spending. Recent reports from FTI Consulting and Forrester projected that this year’s online spending would surpass $1 trillion. Adobe made a similar prediction last year.

Even with e-commerce spending expected to grow, apparel and shoe brands could see a slowdown. Kearney released a report in January estimating that North American clothing and shoe brands could lose between $9 billion and $17 billion in EBITDA in 2022 because of supply chain issues — and that was before record inflation hit the industry.

A survey from Footwear Distributors and Retailers of America in July found that the majority (87%) of shoe company executives anticipated lower sales in Q3 and Q4 of this year. As a result, two-thirds of the respondents said they wouldn’t hire more employees over the next few months, and a third said they foresee their inventories declining. In the weeks since then, footwear brand Allbirds has laid off employees alongside a host of other retailers, including Walmart.