Industry Analysis: Online Contemporary Apparel

Loft and Express are the strongest online players in contemporary apparel, with less promotional activity and strong assortments, according to a report analyzing key contemporary players and year-over-year changes by fashion trendsetting and analysis firm WGSN. On the other hand, Anthropologie and J. Crew lack a cohesive merchandising and pricing strategy.



The report is based on data is sourced from the WGSN INStock analytics platform, which monitors the e-commerce catalogues of 12,000 brands and retailers, 400 product categories and 40 million SKUs.



In other findings from the report:



• Promotional Activity: While we expect to find unseasonable items on promotion during this time period, high numbers of in-season goods on promotion might indicate problems. Given their strong performance in other KPIs, and clear improvement over last year’s markdown strategy, the percentage of shorts (74%) and tops (67%) on promotion at Express begs the question: Why are they marking down seasonal goods so heavily in season?



• Predominant Price Point: Anthropologie and Club Monaco mark the high-end of the range in this market, with Gap, Loft, and Express holding down the lower-end. J. Crew has failed to stake out a mark at either end, changing their price point from category to category.



• Assortment: Most retailers are leading with tops as a key category in their overall assortment but only Gap (24%) & Loft (16.25%) have increased this category over last year.



Loft also leads with a nice assortment of trousers (15.44%), jeans (13%) and dresses (11%) – to round out a strong offering. Banana Republic increased their assortment of knitwear (11%), while simultaneously increasing the % of items on promotion to 48% from 23% last year.