Consumers are growing more comfortable buying fashion items on their phones, resulting in mobile phones accounting for 71 per cent of the traffic and driving 56 per cent of the total festive online fashion sales. A recent study has revealed that for fashion retailers, Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2018 was 36 per cent bigger than last year. 

Black Friday and Cyber Monday data from AI-powered retail personalisation platform Nosto says mobile accounted for 71 per cent of traffic and 56 per cent of sales revenue (up from 64 per cent of traffic and 50 per cent of sales revenue in 2017) on the two holiday shopping days. Conversion rates are also up on mobile phones from 1.98 per cent last year to 2.28 per cent in 2018. 

“For a few years now, most e-commerce businesses have been heavily focused on improving the mobile experience. And our early holiday season data suggests that in fashion it’s paying off: the proportion of consumers who are now willing to both research and buy fashion on their phones is on the rise - and the revenue gap between mobile and desktop is widening,” said Jim Lofgren CEO of Nosto. 

However, there’s still work to do as the conversion rate is still significantly lower on phones than on desktops, added Lofgren. “There’s still a lingering suggestion that some consumers are more likely to make their fashion purchases on a bigger screen than on a mobile. That’s going to change as new innovations including the increasing use of AI and the greater availability of personalisation on native mobile apps helps to make the mobile user journey even better and easier – and as people naturally become more accustomed to buying clothes on their phones.” 

Nosto’s data reveals that in 2018 Black Friday attracted around 13 per cent more traffic and generated 29 per cent more sales than Cyber Monday for fashion retailers in the study. Overall the sales revenue within the fashion sector on the two seasonal shopping days was up 36 per cent in 2018 compared to 2017. 

The study also notes that in the UK, men’s military-style winter jackets were checked out most, in France, unisex winter parkas were the priority for shoppers, while in the US, the women’s undergarment category saw the most action, with a buttocks lifter among the most clicked products recommended. 

Nosto’s findings are based on an analysis of 25 million visitors spanning an estimated 350 online stores across the fashion retailers who use the Nosto online retail personalisation platform in North America, UK, DACH (Germany, Austria, Switzerland), France, Northern Europe (Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark, Iceland), Australia and New Zealand. The analysis incorporates data for both Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2018 and compares the seasonal performance metrics for the same set of merchant websites in 2018 and 2017. (KD)

(Source: Fibre2Fashion)