With more than 17 per cent increase in market share, Kidswear has seen a tumultuous growth in volumes of over 200 per cent in online fashion retail in the last year, according to the Fashion E-commerce Report by Unicommerce. The report shares another interesting trend, according to which, online fashion gained more prominence in Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities.

The report analyses fashion trends of FY21 and FY20 with a sample size of over 70 million orders. The online fashion industry continued to grow with order volume growing 51 per cent and gross margin value growing at 45 per cent in FY21 as compared to the previous financial year. The faster volume growth as compared to GMV led to a marginal decline of 4 per cent in the average order value, the report found.

“Fashion segment is one of the biggest contributors to the e-commerce industry of India with the highest order volume. This report dives deep into the fashion industry to analyze the trends in the online fashion space. It’s a unique report that sheds light on changing consumer buying patterns and preferences, rising adoption of D2C and omnichannel and new segments in the online fashion space,” said Kapil Makhija, CEO of Unicommerce.

The report further found as much as 118 per cent order volume growth came from tier-2 cities, while tier-3 and tier-4 cities drove 192 per cent order volume growth.

Adoption of omnichannel sales across the majority of brand stores also rose due to the Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic. Omnichannel implies that a retailer’s customers get the same buying experience and treatment in both physical stores, online and through mobile devices.

While a majority of omnichannel orders (55-60 per cent) are still being generated from brand websites, the marketplaces have grown omnipresence significantly in the last 15-18 months from being a negligible contributor last year to now contributing 40-45 per cent of overall omnichannel orders.

Companies are now fulfilling 20-25 per cent of their omnichannel orders from the brand store, indicating increased adoption of omnichannel sales across a majority of these stores.

Women’s wear continued to hold the majority share of the e-commerce fashion market with a 50 per cent market share in FY21 and reported 30 per cent order volume growth in FY21 as compared to the previous financial year.

The order volume of western wear showed a growth of 57 per cent in FY21 compared to a year ago, and accounted for 65 per cent market share in FY21.

“Interestingly, the men’s apparel segment is the biggest contributor to the overall western wear segment and it accounted for 55 per cent market share of overall western wear in FY21 and reported 40 per cent order volume growth. The kids western wear segment reported a sharp order volume growth of over 300 per cent and its market share increased from 3 per cent in FY-20 to 28 per cent in FY21,” the report found.

On the other hand, the ethnic wear segment reported an order volume growth of 41 per cent in FY21, majorly led by the women’s apparel segment and constitutes a 95 per cent market share of overall ethnic wear in FY21. It reported 43 per cent order volume growth.

Casual wear continued to be a preferred choice of consumers but formal wear also gained momentum with over double order volume growth.