Liam Solomon, Thursday 30th May 2019.

There's no denying fast fashion's impact on retail in recent years.

Despite the struggles of many mid to premium price retailers, cheaper brands are experiencing rapid growth. According to Hitwise data, fast fashion retailers accounted for 66% of all online fashion traffic in the first half of the year.

The Arcadia group, whose roster of brands includes Topshop, Topman, Evans, Miss Selfridge, Burton and Dorothy Perkins, are finding it hard to compete as consumers switch their loyalties.

Online search volume: Arcadia Group vs. Fast Fashion brands

Arcadia brands across the board have seen a 37% decline in their online search since 2016, while fast fashion brands are thriving.

Branded search for fast fashion retailers has increased by 64% over the same period.

Miss Selfridge, which this week announced store closures, has lost over half of its branded search in the space of three years (-55%). Evans, which will also be part of the 25 store closure, has seen its consumer search fall by a third.

More frequent and deeper discounting to blame

Due to low production costs and constantly changing trends, fast fashion brands are notorious for higher discounts than the industry standard.

In 2018 fast fashion retailers offered an average discount of 47% for womens clothing. This compares to an average discount of 35% for mid-level and luxury brands

A combination of less search volume and increasingly competitive discounting from fast fashion retailers has caused Arcadia group brands to push discounts more frequently than they have in previous years.

Frequency of sitewide* discounts

The graph above demonstrates that the volume of sitewide discounts offered by Arcadia brands has increased dramatically since the beginning of 2018.

Prior to 2018 sitewide discounting was not a common event for Arcadia. Of all Arcadia brands, Miss Selfridge and Topshop have been most prevalent in offering sitewide discounts, 3 times more than their sister companies.

*Sitewide discounting refers to reduced prices across the entirety of a brands range on their website.

LovetheSales.com is a retail discount aggregator which brings together over 6 million fashion items across 950 retailers onto one platform.

For more information please contact:

Liam Solomon

liam@lovethesales.com