More than 50 percent of Fashion Shoppers plan to buy ‘everyday’ Fashion from regular brands during Peak Season 2020

AfterPay Insights’ , the e-commerce knowledge platform from Buy Now, Pay Later provider AfterPay – Arvato Financial Solutions, researches how Fashion Shoppers in the Netherlands, Germany and Norway plan to shop during the current and upcoming peak season sales like Singles’ Day, Black Friday and Christmas.

At least 50% of Fashion Shoppers intend to purchase in Fashion

Results show that the majority of Fashion Shoppers in all three countries intend to purchase within Fashion during at least one peak season sale. The share is highest among Heavy Fashion Shoppers (two or more bi-weekly online Fashion purchases). In the Netherlands, the share intending to purchase Fashion during peak season is 68%, 49% in Germany and 51% in Norway. Among consumers who traditionally don’t buy Fashion online, a relatively large share claim they will purchase in Fashion during the upcoming peak season (27% in the Netherlands, 24% in Germany and 33% in Norway). As the ‘Non Fashion Shopper’ segment makes the majority consumers, the impact of their purchase intention, although relatively low, is expected to be significant.

Dutch, German and Norwegian Fashion Shoppers claim to shop comfy, casual looks

The majority of Dutch and German Fashion Shoppers – 60 to 70% - intend to buy mostly casual Fashion from ‘regular’ brands (compared to around 9-11% who will buy mostly formal Fashion, and 25-30% who will buy both casual and formal Fashion).

But in contrast to Fashion Shoppers in Germany and the Netherlands, a larger share of Norwegian Fashion Shoppers aim to buy formal wear during the peak season sales. And with Norwegian Fashion Shoppers’ focus on more formal wear comes a much larger focus on shopping for specific occasions: 66% of Norwegian Fashion Shoppers intend to shop formal fashion, compared to only 46% of Dutch and 39% of German Fashion Shoppers. Of consumers who intend to buy Fashion for a specific event, most will shop 'for Christmas', ‘for a formal event/party' and ‘for a party’. Zooming out to overall purchases, around 50% of Dutch, German and Norwegian Fashion Shoppers have already planned what to buy in all product categories during peak season.

Black Friday and After Christmas are the ‘kings of sale’
Of all peak season sales, Fashion Shoppers in all three countries consider Black Friday and the ‘After Christmas’ sale the ‘kings of sale’ – that is where they can score the best deals. AfterPay Insights sees that the more a consumer buys Fashion online, the stronger the focus on making a Black Friday deal.

Although Black Friday and ‘After Christmas’ are the biggest sales moments, Cyber Monday is expected to grow more, measured in terms of consumers that bought last year vs consumers that intend to buy this year.

Singles’ Day is Fashion-oriented and especially embraced by younger consumers

AfterPay Insights’ survey results show that 46% of consumers who intend to shop on Singles’ Day will focus on buying Fashion. Cosmetics and Health products are also overrepresented. Singles’ Day Shoppers are predominantly younger, with the age bracket 18-34 years old being overrepresented. As Black Friday Shoppers are Fashion oriented too, we see that 52% of all Singles’ Day Shoppers also intend to buy on Black Friday.

Fashion sets the pace for overall e-commerce development

Since April, Fashion is outstanding in attracting Dutch, German and Norwegian brick-and-mortar shoppers to shift to buying Fashion through online channels; this shift is the driving force for Fashion’s growth in all three countries. Fashion purchases reach a peak in April/May. By that time, the share of online Fashion Shoppers grows dramatically: in the Netherlands from 18% to 29%, in Germany from 18% to 26% and in Norway from 14% to 20% of all consumers. In the Netherlands and Germany, the share of Heavy Fashion Shoppers doubles, from 6% to 14% in the Netherlands and from 6% to 12% in Germany. In Norway, the share of Heavy Fashion Shoppers also grows, though not as much, from 5% to 7%. Overall, Fashion has been a big contributor to the general e-commerce purchase growth and development in the Netherlands, Germany and Norway, more or less setting the pace for overall growth and development.

Fashion Shoppers demand flexibile payments, deliveries and returns

From a merchant perspective, Fashion Shoppers express higher demands on flexibility than the average online shopper, specifically when it comes to flexible payment- and return options. In Norway, Fashion shoppers also have higher demands on lower prices and a wide product assortment compared to non-Fashion shoppers. AfterPay Insights’ research shows that as a consumer purchases more in Fashion, they also become more demanding. But Fashion Shoppers are also very experienced online shoppers; they conduct an overall larger volume of purchases online compared to non-Fashion Shoppers. As a result, Fashion Shoppers know what to expect from merchants. They are therefore more satisfied with merchants’ performance compared to non-Fashion Shoppers.

Fashion Shoppers expect more and earlier promotions in 2020

Fashion Shoppers’ high level of experience with online shopping leads to higher expectations of merchants. We see that consumers who shop more Fashion online, expect more peak season promotions. They also expect promotions to come earlier this year compared to last year, and in addition they expect these promotions to impact their purchase patterns in a significant way. Are you prepped to meet these consumers’ demands this peak season?

AfterPay Insights researches Dutch, German and Norwegian consumers’ behavior and preferences on a bi-weekly basis. They present the findings on their blog. Read the latest analyses on Dutch, German and Norwegian e-commerce purchases Fashion here.