NEW YORK – The amount of clothing retailed on Amazon increased by 27 per cent between February and September 2018. Most of the increase was driven by third-party listings, which were up 30 per cent, as against just a 2 per cent increase in Amazon own products. In fact, just 11 per cent of all clothing products on Amazon are now Amazon own, with the rest from third-parties from the likes of Nike, Tommy Hilfiger – which is growing rapidly – and Under Armour.
Coresight Research, in collaboration with competitive intelligence provider DataWeave, aggregated data on more than one million women’s and men’s clothing products listed on Amazon.com. The findings illustrate the extent to which Amazon continues to steal clothing industry market share from the high street, thanks in large part to convenience services such as Amazon Prime.
Says the report: “In just over six months, we have seen major brand shifts on Amazon Fashion. The number of Nike listings has slumped by 46 per cent, driven entirely by a drop in third-party listings that followed Amazon’s partnership with Nike. The number of Tommy Hilfiger clothing products has grown rapidly, fuelled by third-party sellers. Under Armour listings have grown strongly on the back of many more first-party listings.
“Amazon built much of its early success in apparel on sportswear. Our research suggests that Amazon is now rebalancing its offering, with strong growth in listings for formal categories such as suiting. We recorded a 98 per cent increase in women’s suiting and blazer listings and a 52 per cent rise in men’s suit and sport coat listings between February and September 2018.
“We compared selected brand offerings on Amazon.com to those on the website of leading branded clothing retailer Macy’s and found a mixed picture. If we exclude third-party sellers on Amazon and look only at first-party listings, Amazon.com offers many more Calvin Klein and Under Armour clothing products than Macys.com does. However, Amazon.com offers slightly fewer Adidas products and many fewer Nike products than Macys.com does. For many brands, Amazon remains reliant on third-party sellers.