The impact of COVID-19 on fashion, apparel and accessories e-commerce retailers globally seems to have subsided in April, with total sales revenue rebounding on average 21 per cent higher year-on-year (YoY) after a dramatic 30 per cent fall in March, according to a report by Helsinki-based Nosto, an e-commerce platform powered by artificial intelligence.

Visits are now up by 9 per cent on an average compared to a year ago, with orders 30 per cent higher and the conversion rate rising by 12 per cent, Nosto said in a press release.

However, the data suggests that the average order value (AOV) has gone down by 3 per cent globally and appears to be staying at a lower level. The analysis covered 271 merchants from the United States, New Zealand, Australia, the United Kingdom, Germany, France and Sweden.

“The data suggests that locked down shoppers are buying from online fashion stores even more than last year right now, possibly because they can’t venture out,” said Matthew Levin, global head of marketing at Nosto.

“It could be that even with the closure of overall physical retail, there is enough consumer demand to continue to drive online sales, which would be a positive indicator for e-commerce overall. Alternatively, perhaps consumers are simply being lured into making fashion purchases now through heavy discounting by retailers who are fighting to keep the sales coming in, which is pushing down average order value. If so, this would be an unsustainable tactic over the longer term,” he said.

Over the whole period, the data shows that visits, orders, and total sales globally started dropping noticeably around March 7. A significant drop was seen after March 12 that bottomed out on March 20 for many, with sales revenue down 32 per cent YoY. At this low point, visits were down by 24 per cent and AOV declined by 6 per cent, while conversion rate was down by 9 per cent. Going into April, visits, sales and orders have all eclipsed where they were at during the same time last year, the report said.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)

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