UK online fashion sales surged in January

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Feb 2, 2021

UK fashion sales stayed robust online during January with a five-fold increase for some categories compared to January 2020.

That’s according to Salesfire, which works with retailers to improve their webstores and sales. It said total e-sales revenue rose 6% and online order numbers rose 15%, but on the latter measure, fashion retailers surged with a 124% increase as some categories saw an even bigger leap.

The monthly data was gathered from its eCommerce analytics platform, TrendDesk, and is based on 3,000 retailers with 70,000 sales a day. And it said that the positive January sales came after a good December that had also seen online sales rocketing. 

CEO Rich Himsworth said that while the online surge isn’t unexpected, it’s perhaps surprising that so many people are shopping online for fashion rather than saving their spend for when stores reopen.

And he expects the boom to continue in the absence of a date for when non-essential stores can open again. 

Himsworth added that the “men’s fashion industry has done particularly [well], closely followed by women’s fashion” and that the trend should continue throughout Q1. He feels that headline-generating news such as the sale of Debenhams and Topshop will further drive consumers to webstores even when shops are back up and running.