European Fashion Trend Report: Publishers earn well with fashion!
The fashion segment is becoming more and more important for Tradedoubler in Europe and especially in the Nordics. When comparing numbers from 2017 with 2016, we saw particular growth in Poland, Sweden, Switzerland and the Netherlands in this segment. In Poland our fashion business grew by 91% YOY, and in the Netherlands by 29% YOY. In Sweden the share of the fashion industry in the overall affiliate business has grown by 27% YOY and now accounts for almost 20% of the overall Swedish affiliate business. In Switzerland the share of fashion has grown by 63% YOY and now accounts for 16% of the overall Swiss affiliate business.
The online shopper is going mobile quickly
While the percentage of mobile sales has risen from 18% in 2016 to 22% in 2017 in Europe across all industries, the fashion industry has already surpassed 30% (compared to 25% in 2016). Here again Sweden is outstanding with a mobile sales share of over 50% in fashion, compared to 38% across all industries. The highest increase in fashion customers going mobile has been noted in Switzerland (81% YOY increase) and Poland (69% YOY increase). The Italian and Spanish online fashion markets are also interesting. While mobile sales rates across all industries in both countries have been rather low in 2017 (Italy 10%, Spain 11%), the mobile sales rate in the fashion industry has been twice or even three times as high (Italy 20%, Spain 35%).
Average order value is very diverse across Europe
While the average order value has remained quite stable in 2017 compared to 2016 across Europe, both in the fashion industry and across all industries, we saw some spikes in individual markets.
- Biggest increase in the fashion industry was in the UK with 60% YOY
- Biggest increase across all industries with over 130% YOY occurred in Switzerland
- Highest AOV in the fashion industry was also noted in Switzerland with 124 €
- Highest AOV across all industries occurred in the Netherlands (147 €) and the UK (140€)
- Sweden provide an interesting trend-bucking statistic: While the AOV in fashion across Europe is generally lower than across all industries (68 € in fashion compared to 82 € across all industries), in Sweden the fashion AOV is almost double that across all industries (76 € in fashion compared to 39 € across all industries).
November is fashion shopping month
When looking at the 2017 seasonality of fashion shopping across Europe, we saw similar trends in the fashion industry as across all industries. The top month for online fashion sales was November with a share of over 13% of the yearly sales, followed by January with 11%. The calmest months were August (6%) and February (7%).
Publishers earn well with fashion!
Publisher commissions in the fashion industry are significantly higher than across all industries throughout Europe! Publishers can earn especially well in Spain with an average of 12% CPA and 11% in Germany , but the biggest difference between the publisher commission in fashion and across all industries was noted in Poland (10% in fashion compared to 4% overall).
Publisher models shifting
Cashback/loyalty and Coupons/Discount codes remained the dominant publisher models across Europe in 2017 with a share of around 20% each. But both have seen a decline compared to 2016. We have noted a rising importance of the following publisher models:
- Mobile/Desktop applications (+140% increase in order value 2017 YOY)
- Search (+112%)
- Premium networks (+100%)
- Horizontal portals (+50%)
- Retargeting (+50%)
The importance of bloggers in fashion has risen everywhere across Europe, but especially in the following countries:
- Switzerland: + 870% (increase in order value 2017 YOY)
- UK: + 173%
- Netherlands: + 134%
- Germany: + 125%
- Poland: + 78%
The country where Bloggers have had the highest share in affiliate marketing in 2017 was Sweden. In Sweden bloggers accounted for 63% of all fashion industry order values in 2017. One reason for this might be the strong growth of Metapic, the popular blogger platform, especially within the fashion segment in the Nordics. Metapic has just started in Italy and in Poland where we are expecting to see a rise of bloggers in the next few months. Other countries like Germany will follow shortly.
