Providing an overview of the European fashion retail market in 2021, the business platform Cross-Border Commerce Europe (CBC) has published its first fashion online retail ranking, called “Top 20 Fashion Retail Europe.” CBC plans to make this a yearly report. The study covers and evaluates the leading online fashion retailers and marketplaces in Europe. Both Adidas (no. 13) and Decathlon (16) have made the list.
According to the CBC release, online retail in the EU generated sales of €119 billion in the fashion segment in 2021, accounting for 18 percent of the total online business. In 2025, the industry’s sales are expected to reach €175 billion (+50 percent). This growth is being fueled by, among other things, the success of C2C second-hand marketplaces like Vinted and Vestiaire Collective. However, CBC Europe expects demand for fashion in Europe to slow noticeably in 2022, as rising freight, energy, raw material and labor costs cause consumer prices to soar. The significant increase in the volume of returns seems to suggest that this development will not remain without consequences.
The leading players in cross-border European fashion retail are Zalando, Amazon, Shein, the fast fashion company Inditex (including Zara) and H&M. Zalando books an online market share of 11.7 percent for itself, with a GMV of €14 billion in 2021, and aims to double this by 2025 (>23%). This will give the company an overall market share of 5 percent in the fashion industry and make it competitive with the current leaders, Inditex (5.6 percent) and H&M (4 percent).
Allbirds, Gymshark, NA-KD, Qwertee and Stitch Fix are the top five of the so-called Digital Native Vertical Brands (DNVB) in the fashion segment, a second ranking that the platform has created. According to CBC Europe, the five will play a key role in innovation as they incorporate new technologies into the customer journey and change the way customers discover their products.
