London Fashion Week likely to spur UK retail binge

Wednesday, September 18, 2013 - 10:32 by Sarah Collinson

Representatives of the fashion industry believe that London Fashion Week (LFW), which ended on September 17th, is going to have an impact on the shopping habits of British consumers over the next few days, according to The Express.

Each year, LFW sees designers, models and tens of thousands of journalists and amateur fashion fans descend on the capital to get involved in this huge and influential event, which receives international coverage and reignites interests in the art of designer clothing.

A recent report from Barclaycard revealed that there was just a 0.7 per cent rise in sales for the fashion industry as a whole, with things like inclement weather and economic instability keeping spending relatively muted.

However, industry experts believe that shopping online will continue to help fashion outlets to boost sales over the coming months and years.

31 per cent of respondents to the Barclaycard survey said that they were more likely to buy something unusual and adventurous in fashion terms when using safe shopping online, as opposed to going clothes shopping at bricks and mortar outlets.

44 per cent said that they picked up brighter clothes via the web, perhaps because there is a higher emphasis on engaging imagery and people do not actually see the clothes in person before they commit to the purchase.

In the period during and immediately after LFW, it is usually anticipated that a rise in fashion sales will occur across the board, both on the high street and online.

It will be interesting to see whether the growth in consumer activity is greater in the e-commerce market, particularly since a lot of the content relating to LFW has appeared online and people will find it easier to click through to shopping sites on a whim.