British Fashion Outlets Lead World in E-Commerce Conversion Rates

Thursday, March 14, 2019 - 13:05 by Paul Tissington

A new report from Nosto has shown that UK-based clothing retailers are superior to any of their international contemporaries in terms of convincing site visitors to make purchases via safe shopping online.

Conversion rates in the British e-commerce fashion sector sit at 2.9 per cent on desktop devices, which is well above the 2.4 per cent worldwide average. Even on mobile devices, where conversion rates are typically lower, the UK manages to excel.

This seems like good news in theory, although interestingly analysts also revealed that consumers from Britain actually spend less money when they make fashion purchases online.

Globally the desktop average spend sits at $120 (£90), but in the UK this is far lower at just $82 (£61). A further twist to these figures is that Brits add more items to their e-commerce baskets on average yet still manage to spend less overall.

Report spokesperson James White said that fashion brands in the UK were leading the pack thanks to their compelling conversion rates, with the next challenge being that of convincing shoppers to add more expensive products to their baskets rather than choosing larger volumes of lower-value items.

There are a number of factors which come into play in determining how much shoppers are willing to spend on fashion sites, including the degree to which they trust the brand in question and the ease with which they are able to send back products that are deemed unsuitable.

White explained that retailers could change habits by making sure that consumers in the UK are aware of the alternative products that are available when searching for fashion items. Improving the visibility of more valuable lines could lead to higher basket values without compromising on the current strength of conversion rates.