FOCUS: Fashion e-commerce to rise further as foreign brands sold online

By Yekaterina Yezhova

MOSCOW, Jun 27 (PRIME) -- Russia’s online fashion market will burgeon faster than before after the closure of foreign brands’ brick-and-mortar stores, analysts said, as marketplace Wildberries has already offered some of Spain’s Inditex brands, like Zara and Bershka.

“The clothes and footwear category is traditionally one of the top five bestsellers on the Internet, and the 2022 year is not an exception. In January–April, the category was third biggest – digital and household appliances accounted for 20% of all sales, furniture and homeware for 17%, and clothes and footwear for 13.1%,” Russian Online Retail Association (AKIT) President Artyom Sokolov told PRIME.

“In money terms, Russians spent 201.7 billion rubles online on clothes and footwear in January–April, up 42% on the year. The average check swelled by 64% to almost 2,500 rubles.”

The accessories category – comprising bags, belts, gloves, headwear – has demonstrated an even higher increase since the beginning of the year. “Demand for the items used to be seasonal, but the sales behaved strangely this year. The average check soared by 430% to 7,000 rubles, and the sales reached 30.5 billion rubles, up 106% on the year,” the AKIT chief said.

Marketplace Ozon said its 2021 turnover of the category of clothes, footwear, and accessories, counting 32 million items, tripled to almost 40 billion rubles.

“We will continue to develop the apparel category. We will invest 1 billion rubles in it in 2022 to ensure retailers with flawless sales on the marketplace. We expect the category’s turnover to triple this year,” an Ozon spokesperson said.

“In January–March, the number of sellers of clothes, footwear, and accessories quadrupled on the year, and the assortment spiked by more than seven times.”

AKIT’s head Sokolov said that rising sales volumes in these categories will maintain. “These goods have always enjoyed steady demand, which became even stronger after the closure of brick-and-mortar outlets of the brands that said they will retreat from the Russian market – these goods are still available online,” he said.

At the beginning of June, Wildberries started selling goods of brand Massimo Dutti, part of Inditex that decided to pause its business in Russia in early March. The marketplace also added other brands of the Spanish group – Pull&Bear, Zara, Bershka, and Oysho – that month.

According to earlier reports, Wildberries purchases the goods directly from the makers and official distributors and sells them itself on its platform.

Fashion Consulting Group CEO Anna Lebsak-Kleimans said earlier that Wildberries sells original spring-summer collections manufactured for Russia and customized for local demand. The items were made in 2021 and supplied to the country in advance. The June prices of the goods were by 20–35% higher than the starting spring prices.

Wildberries said that fashion goods are its key assortment regardless of active diversification. “Sales of clothes, footwear, and accessories on Wildberries leaped by 79% on the year to 105 billion rubles in January–March, and the rise in units amounted to 63%,” a marketplace spokesperson told PRIME.

“We also see a rise in interest of buyers to fashion items by Russian designers – their sales jumped by 60% on the year in January–March. The bestsellers among local products were t-shirts, dresses, pyjamas, trousers, and sport suits, while in foreign products the clients picked underwear, trainers, jeans, jackets, and bags.”

Wildberries expects Russians’ interest to online shopping of clothes and footwear to keep on rising in the future thanks to a wide assortment of goods, convenient delivery, as well as an option to try on items at pick-up points equipped with fitting rooms.

Ozon also sees high interest to its marketplace from Russian brands and producers. “The marketplace can become for sellers – large brands, small local manufacturers, and self-employed – an entrance to a multimillion audience and a way to scale up business to the whole country,” the retailer spokesperson told PRIME.

(53.3234 rubles – U.S. $1)

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