Fashion drives e-commerce growth in February as Fashion Shoppers’ satisfaction with delivery time improves

AfterPay Insights, the research platform from Buy Now, Pay Later service AfterPay – Arvato Financial Solutions, researched how e-commerce purchases develop in 2020 in the Netherlands, Germany and Norway. Particularly also how consumers shopped in specific product categories. And what did they find out about Fashion, the biggest online product category of all? How satisfied are consumers with merchants’ performance and how did that develop over time? But more importantly, what is the current state of Fashion Shoppers’ satisfaction with merchants’ performance? Read on to find out.

Consumers focus e-commerce purchases on Fashion/Cosmetics, Food and Home in February

AfterPay Insights sees that the number of e-commerce purchases and the fluctuations largely depend on the mix of products and services that consumers buy. For example, purchases in Entertainment and Toys peaked in November/December. This is almost certainly the result of Christmas gift shopping and consumers spending more time at home due to the holidays, hence have a larger need to be entertained. But following peak season, AfterPay Insights sees that Fashion/Cosmetics, Food and Home purchases primarily drive e-commerce in the Netherlands, Germany and Norway.

Dutch consumers increase purchases in the Entertainment categories (Media/Electronics and Sports/Craft/Play) during peak season and over Christmas. But that share decreases significantly in January. Toys purchases decrease dramatically in the Netherlands, from 16% of Dutch consumers having made at least one online Toys purchase in December to 8% having done so in February. Another category that reaches a high in peak season, but reduced since then is Media (Books, Movies, Games, Music) from 16% online shoppers in December to 11% in February. Categories in the Netherlands that continue to attract consumers to online channels in February are Fashion/Cosmetics, Household/Home Improvement and Food/Health Products.

In Germany, the same pattern is visible as in the Netherlands. The share of consumers who make at least one purchase in Entertainment (Media/Electronics and Sports/Craft/Play) decreases significantly in January, after a peak in purchases during November and December – as mentioned almost certainly due to Christmas gift shopping and holidays. In this light, Toys purchases decrease dramatically, from 15% of German consumers having made at least one online Toys purchase in December to 7% having done so in February. And online purchases in Media drop from 20% online shoppers in December to 15% in February. But the number of consumers who purchase Food/Health products online in February increases - this includes groceries, take-away food and health products. And in Germany, Fashion remains one of the key drivers for e-commerce growth.

In Norway, the share of consumers who make at least one purchase in Sports/Craft/Play and Household/Home Improvement decreases significantly in January. Media/Electronics purchases decline in January, but not as dramatically. These were also the big Christmas shopping categories that experienced a heavy increase in shoppers during peak season. And just like in the Netherlands and Germany, purchases in Toys decrease, from 7% of Norwegian consumers having made at least one online Toys purchase in December to 3% having done so in February. Fashion/Cosmetics remains the driver of Norwegian e-commerce in February, followed by purchases in Food.

Online Fashion Shoppers’ satisfaction with merchants’ performance

Fashion/Cosmetics is the largest online product category: between 30-35% of consumers make at least one monthly purchase in Fashion/Cosmetics. As a result, this category forms the expectations of online shoppers in general and it is for this reason that we analyze how Fashion/Cosmetics shoppers satisfaction with merchants develops over time.

In April/May 2020 (the pandemic’s ‘first wave’ and a subsequent peak in online purchases), online Fashion/Cosmetics Shoppers in the Netherlands are particularly dissatisfied with merchants’ ability to deliver products on time. By September, the relative customer satisfaction returns to normal. As the online Fashion/Cosmetics shopper base and purchase volumes grow through the autumn and into peak season consumers’ satisfaction with delivery time reduces, but not as much as in April/May - a remarkable improvement by merchants. Fashion/Cosmetics Shoppers’ lower expectations of fast delivery times during peak season can also impacts these numbers. But this effect is small when taking the difference in satisfaction levels between the two moments into consideration. Moving further along and into 2021, Dutch online Fashion/Cosmetics Shoppers grow less satisfied with product availability as well as price.

Online Fashion/Cosmetics Shoppers in Germany also reacted to merchants’ ability to deliver products on time in April/May 2020. But by September, the one aspect that German online Fashion Shoppers are most satisfied with is in fact ‘fast delivery time’. However, satisfaction levels take a hit during the first weeks of peak season (October-November) - as the Fashion/Cosmetics shopper base and purchase volumes grow. Since then, satisfaction with delivery time increases steadily, continuing to climb in January and February 2021.

And in Norway, Fashion/Cosmetics Shoppers’ satisfaction with delivery time also takes a hit during the ‘first wave’ and during the autumn – a pattern that we also see in the Netherlands and Germany. But overall, Fashion/Cosmetics shoppers’ satisfaction with merchants does not show a comparable dramatic shift as in the other two countries. In Norway, satisfaction with delivery time does not dip in November and December. Instead, Fashion/Cosmetics Shoppers are significantly more satisfied with this aspect in February. Another distinguishing aspect for Norwegian Fashion/Cosmetics Shoppers is the high level of satisfaction with the low prices online.

This article was originally published on AfterPay Insights - read it here.

About AfterPay

AfterPay enables consumers to pay after delivery: a quick, easy and safe way of paying that is preferred by more than half of all consumers. AfterPay offers five different payment options: the 14-Day Invoice, Campaign Invoice, Consolidated Invoice, Fixed Instalments, and AfterPay FLEX. These services are available at the biggest global and local brands in nine countries: The Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark. AfterPay is a business unit within Arvato Financial Solutions and Bertelsmann.