Online apparel sales keep growing. Who knew?
Just read a great article in “Internet Retailer Magazineâ€, January 2005 by Mary Wagner. Here are some of what I think are the most interesting facts from the article.
"Forrester Research predicts that with $13.8 billion in sales this year, the fast-growing apparel category, including general apparel, accessories and footwear, will rack up more online sales this year than any other merchandise category, overtaking online sales of computer hardware and software for the first time."
Forrester puts that gain down in part to factors including increasing online access among shoppers, better multi-channel integration, more broadly distributed online campaigns that actively reach out to more consumers, and a better, easier online shopping experience.
But two other elements that having a particular impact on the growth in the apparel category are visualization technology and custom fitting. Online visualization tools that give consumers increasingly detailed and representational visual information about fit, fabric, sizing, and multi-angle product views a re going a long way toward compensating for the inability to actually try on clothing online...â€
However, she goes on to say that investing in all of the latest visualization technologies at once for those retailers not dealing in the volume of the leaders can be a costly investment that may not provide proportional returns.
“…different pricing models exist to support retailers buying into technology and services at different levels. A single function like zoom, for example, might cost somewhere in the range of a few thousand dollars a month for a retailer…, while implementing a broader functionality under a license model could entail a one-time fee in six figures†(!) – a sobering thought for mid-level retailers who already possess some or many of these visualization technologies and are experiencing the increased returns associated with them.