Online Sales In The UK Fashion Industry Have Slowed To Record Lows.

In recent years, online sales have been the main driving force for the growth of fashion industry. However, according to the latest data from Kantar, the growth rate of online sales in the UK fashion industry has slowed to its lowest level.

According to Kantar data, in the first 12 weeks of June 2, 2019 (March ~5 months), online sales of fashion industry in the United Kingdom increased by only 0.6% over the same period last year, while the growth rate in 2018 and 2017 was 8% and 6.8% respectively.

Industry analysts believe that the slowdown in online sales growth is worrying. At present, the growth of physical retail sales is weak, including fashion retailers such as Topshop parent Arcadia group. But previous growth in online sales has proved at least that in the fashion industry, consumers' enthusiasm for buying has not diminishes.

At present, the sale value of the British fashion industry is estimated at 5 billion 500 million pounds, compared with the online sale value of 2 billion 100 million pounds, which is also very large. The sluggish growth of online sales will have a huge impact on the entire fashion and retail industry.

For the reason why online sales growth is slowing down, Kantar consumer insight director Glen Tooke believes that in the past few years, with the continuous growth of online sales, its growth has slowed down. Today, online sales of fashion industry will enter the platform stage.

Of course, the slowdown of ~5 month in March is also partly related to the weather. These three months are in the transitional period between the end of winter and spring, but this year's mild temperature may inhibit consumers' demand for warm and cold resistant clothing. The heavy rainfall near the end of spring also inhibited consumer demand for spring and summer clothing, usually in May.

With the advent of summer, rising temperatures may help stimulate consumer demand for summer money, thereby enhancing overall growth. The Swedish fast fashion giant H&M group revealed in its latest half yearly earnings report that the group's summer series started well and forecast that its sales in June increased by 12% over the same period last year.

Karl-Johan Persson, chief executive of H&M group, said that this growth partly benefited from the warmer weather in northern Europe. The cold weather in the Nordic market in the second quarter depressed the consumption demand of the summer series. However, as the temperature rose, the market performance in June was particularly good.