Fashion websites lead £9bn exports bonanza
PIONEERING UK fashion websites have helped fuel an exports bonanza that has seen a record £9bn of goods sold overseas.
the fall in the pound and a host of British sites which have shaken up the way clothing is sold across the globe have led to a boom.
sales have climbed by more than 40pc since 2012 and have passed £9bn a year, according to the UK Fashion & textile Association. One in four of all the cash spent on clothes is set to be online for the first time ever. Websites are expected to generate about £16.2bn in total of the £67.5bn that British fashion firms make.
And the figure from online is set to rise to nearly £30bn in five years as retailers compete to offer customers faster deliveries and better service.
the drive has come from a host of websites which have transformed shopping. Among them are names such as Asos, Missguided and Boohoo, but other smaller firms such as Koovs, which caters for the Indian market, and scottish-based Quiz are also causing waves.
their success has seen big names such as Burberry revamp the way they sell to tap in to fast-growing markets such as China.
experts believe that a mix of Britain’s excellence in internet design and fashion is what is helping drive the boom. And the figures come as London Fashion Week starts.
Asos, which is close to eclipsing Marks & spencer in market value, has shaken things up with next-day delivery offers and its ability to quickly replenish stocks to reflect the latest trends.
In the four months to the end of June, its international retail sales jumped 16pc to £234.6m – and international sales rose 44pc to £424.5m.
the tough competition has led traditional High street clothing chains such as next – which spent £11m on overhauling its website – scrambling to catch up. tamara sender, a senior analyst at Mintel, said delivery times – with options as fast as 90 minutes offered by some companies – and allowing customers to easily return clothes, were becoming ‘key battlegrounds’.
she added: ‘As consumers have become more accustomed to shopping for fashion online their expectations have been raised, and retailers will have to invest more in the online shopping experience to drive sales.’
Using technology such as virtual reality to allow shoppers to view clothing and the inside of stores remotely could also help transform shopping ‘from a chore into a form of entertainment’, she added.
Carla Buzasi, of trend forecasting business WGSN, said online fashion retailers had been so successful because of their ‘laser focus on ensuring they respond to what their target audience want to wear, and when they want to buy it’.
she added: ‘they test small product runs, then bulk-buy into trends that shift fast.
‘they’ve also been really quick to exploit social media channels and ensure the right influencers are wearing their clothes.’
thousands gathered yesterday for the bi-annual London Fashion Week, where designers and company bosses hailed Britain’s leading position in the industry. Christopher Bailey, Burberry’s former boss who remained as its creative chief, said the UK’s brands ‘resonated globally’ and that it was home to the best designers in the world. ‘We have got this creatively nourishing country and I think that is why you have people wanting to be educated here, but also then, subsequently, setting up their businesses here,’ he added. Former culture and creative industries minister ed Vaizey said the fashion industry helped to ‘project Britain’s image across the world’. the tory MP added: ‘London Fashion Week sits at the apex of a multi-billion-pound industry that is vital to Britain’s economy, creating jobs and value from fashion magazines to every High street in the land.
‘We stand alongside France and Italy as well as the Us, and we are held in high esteem because of our unique mix of edgy creativity and high skills.
‘Our fashion colleges are among the best in the world and fashion also helps project Britain’s modern image across the world.’