Online sales increased by 98%, and the US apparel category continued to rebound

Women's clothing online sales increased by 98%

As a key development, the clothing industry has always been the focus of consumers. In anticipation of sunshine, socializing and summer vacation, US clothing sales continued to reverse, with an overall increase of 60.9%. Among them, the proportion of women's clothing was as high as 98.9%. Compared with last year's sharp decline (-25.1%), it does show that people are beginning to prepare for the end of government restrictions.

In contrast, there were significant declines in health and beauty ( -9%), electrical (-3.7%) and garden sales (-13.3%), all of which have seen significant declines since the first government-imposed ban began. For electronics and garden, this was the first bad result in about 1.5 years, perhaps related to people shopping offline after the pandemic.

Despite the reopening of high streets and on the back of strong data in April 2020, online retail sales in the US continued to grow in April 2021, up 10.2% year-on-year. Moreover, in the month-to-month (MoM) data, there is some evidence of the impact of the reopening of non-essential stores, down -12% compared to March. There is usually a slight decline between March and April, usually around -1%.

US apparel category continues to rebound

Industry insiders expect the US apparel category to continue to rebound, with multichannel and online apparel growing 50% and 70% respectively , largely due to pent-up demand combined with increased consumer confidence.

Overall, April sales data is a relatively positive example for the U.S. retail industry as consumers begin to emerge from their homes and online shopping will remain key going forward. However, comparators will be hard to beat in the coming months.

In April, retail sales overall appeared to be performing well. In addition, the online sales growth rate in this forecast is currently between average and good. As people have more choices to spend money in late May and early June, there may be new changes in their categories and consumption channels.

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