In December, online fashion revenues increased by 6 per cent year on year, while muted’ Golden Quarter (Q4) apparel purchases were boosted by a Black Friday surge.
True Fit, the AI platform’s most recent statistics revealed that, although demand declined modestly year on year in December, total demand during peak trade was boosted by the ‘Cyber 5’ period (23rd-27th November).
True Fit’s ‘Fashion Genome’, claimining to be the world’s biggest linked data collection for clothes and footwear, combining the fashion tastes of 82 million active shoppers and 20,000+ businesses, revealed that garment order volumes declined 7 per cent year on year in December. Fashion revenue increased 10 per cent in October, 12 per cent in November, and 6 per cent in December. Meanwhile, the Average Order Value increased by 11 per cent compared to Q4 2022.
According to the research, discount events such as Black Friday “played an important part in creating desire during Peak Trading,” with order volumes for the period of Black Friday (19th-25th November) up 14 per cent year on year as price-sensitive buyers searched out offers.
Its research also indicated that demand for fit recommendations increased during peak trading, up 60 per cent month on month in November and 122 per cent from Black Friday to Cyber Monday (BFCM) compared with the first week of November.
During BFCM, True Fit witnessed 2.4 million new shopper registrations, while True Fit registrations increased by 20 per cent between the week of Christmas and the final week of December, with Boxing Day (26th December) being the highest-grossing day for new sign-ups.
Jessica Arredondo Murphy, True Fit’s co-founder and COO, stated, “Discounting will, of course, be a significant lever in gaining share of wallet as household spending remains constrained. With a weak economic forecast, this will persist beyond high selling and into 2024, rendering margin protection a critical issue for retailers in 2024.”
