Amazon and Walmart's apparel market share continues to decline!

Over the past year, the pandemic has affected people's lifestyles, and consumers have also changed their clothing purchases. Due to the lockdown measures, many people can only work and study at home. People no longer pursue fashion, but prefer comfortable home clothes. Most people choose to buy clothes on platforms such as Amazon and Walmart. For this reason, these two platforms have grabbed a lot of market share in the clothing market.

According to a PYMNTS survey, Amazon’s apparel market share once reached 18.4%, while Walmart ’s market share once exceeded 10%.

However, as vaccination rates rise and social activities are underway, demand for fashionable clothing has become strong. Coupled with the reopening of major physical stores, consumers have begun to buy fashion brand clothing elsewhere.

It is understood that the sales of Nordstrom, a high-end department store chain in the United States, increased by 101% year-on-year in the second quarter. The sales of fashion sports brand Skechers in the second quarter increased by 127% compared with 2020 and 32% compared with 2019.

As a result, Amazon and Walmart's share of the clothing market has also decreased. Data shows that Amazon's market share in the second quarter has dropped to 13.2%. Walmart's market share is as low as 6.5%, which is lower than the market share in the first quarter of last year.

When it comes to fashion, many people may not think of going to Amazon or Walmart to buy it. However, judging from recent moves, both platforms seem to want to make up for this shortcoming.

Last year, Amazon launched a luxury store that allows customers to buy products from brands such as Oscar de la Renta, Chufy, Boglioli, Christopher Kane, etc. Initially, this was a store only for Prime members, but now it is available to all US consumers. Not only that, there are recent reports that the Amazon luxury store will be launched in Europe later this year.

In addition to Amazon, Walmart is also looking for partners to strengthen its apparel products. In March of this year, the retailer hired well-known designer Brandon Maxwell as the creative director of its two internal private brands. Maxwell will be involved in various parts of the design process and will oversee four seasonal collections for men, women and children's clothing in addition to a series of accessories.

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