Fashion research and publications High-end & Designer manufacturing report This report, published by the British Fashion Council, contends that supporting high-end manfuacturing is essential to the high end designer fashion sector in the UK. It identifies 137 UK businesses involved in the manufacture of high-end clothing, footwear and accessories with a combined turnover of £1.76bn a year. It includes recommendations to improve education and communication initiatives about manufacturing, and provide targeted support and research on overseas opportunities for manufacturers. Published: March 2015. Download report. British fashion council 2013-14 Annual Review The annual report from the British Fashion Council estimates that the industry contributes £26bn to the UK economy, and outlines the organisation's five strategic pillars. Published: September 2014. Download BFC reports from here. Commercialising Creativity The authors offer multiple recommendations for designers including: Published: May 2014 Download and print report.
UK online shoppers to spend average of £1,174 each in 2015 Online shopping in the UK is to experience growth this year as consumers are set to spend an average of £1,174 via the web in 2015, which is up 9.6 per cent on 2014. Image via Shutterstock. The study from Vouchercodes.co.uk's parent company RetailMeNot observed international online shopping trends and found that British online retailers will experience a 16.2 per cent year-on-year sales spike in 2015 to hit £52.3bn, compared to £45bn in 2014. Web transactions in the UK are set to account for 15.2 per cent of all retail sales in the UK, according to the report. The average spend per online transaction has fallen year-on-year from £57.08 to £55.76, however, Brits are set to increase the number of sales they make with an average of 21.2 purchases this year, up from 18.8 last year. Giulio Montemagno, SVP of international at RetailMeNot, said: “Investment by retailers in improving the online shopping experience and in more sophisticated consumer targeting is clearly paying dividends.
British Fashion Council At a press conference to open London Fashion Week Natalie Massenet, Chairman of the British Fashion Council, announced updated figures showing substantial growth in the UK fashion industry over the past five years. The direct value of the UK fashion industry to the UK economy is £26 billion; up from £21 billion in 2009. Showing an increase of 22% in nominal terms (source: Oxford Economics 2014) The UK fashion industry is estimated to support 797,000 jobs (source: Oxford Economics 2014). This is a decrease of 2.3% from 2009 Whilst employment figures have dropped overall the increased contribution to UK GVA reflects higher productivity within the fashion sector. The British Fashion Council is committed to supporting growth in the sector which it hopes will lead to more employment opportunities Fashion’s total contribution to the economy via both indirect support for supply chain industries and induced spending of employee’s wage income is estimated to have risen to over £46 billion.
Mobile Shopping Pushes UK Online Sales To New High British shoppers spending more online, particularly via mobile, than ever, as growth hits double digits British shoppers have recorded the largest growth in online spend for some time, new figures have revealed. The warmer weather and an increase in must-have gadgets resulted in a 13 percent year on year growth for online sales in April, according to the latest figures from the IMRG Capgemini e-Retail Sales Index. This figure was even more surprising as it followed an unprecedented four months of single-digit growth. Mobile commerce proved to be a particularly important growth sector, with April’s figures showing a 52 percent year-on-year increase and eight percent higher than March. Along with the warmer weather – which provided a boom in the amount spent on new clothing, seeing a 15 percent rise – the report, which collates data from over a hundred major retailers, also highlighted that consumers were unaffected by the uncertainty surrounding the General Election.
British Fashion Council At a press conference to open London Fashion Week Natalie Massenet, Chairman of the British Fashion Council, announced updated figures showing substantial growth in the UK fashion industry over the past five years. The direct value of the UK fashion industry to the UK economy is £26 billion; up from £21 billion in 2009. Showing an increase of 22% in nominal terms (source: Oxford Economics 2014) The UK fashion industry is estimated to support 797,000 jobs (source: Oxford Economics 2014). This is a decrease of 2.3% from 2009 Whilst employment figures have dropped overall the increased contribution to UK GVA reflects higher productivity within the fashion sector. The British Fashion Council is committed to supporting growth in the sector which it hopes will lead to more employment opportunities Fashion’s total contribution to the economy via both indirect support for supply chain industries and induced spending of employee’s wage income is estimated to have risen to over £46 billion.
Rocket Internet Fashion Group GFG Raises $35M, Poaches Amazon Exec To Lead It Rocket Internet — the Berlin-based startup incubator that went public in October 2014 — is today adding more muscle to the Global Fashion Group, a cluster of five of its emerging market fashion sites that consolidated into one bigger operation last September. The GFG has raised €32 million ($35 million) at a €2.8 billion ($3 billion) post-money valuation, and it now has its own CEO — Romain Voog, who jumped from his former role as the head of Amazon France to lead the group. The developments at GFG speak to how Rocket Internet and GFG’s other shareholders — the three largest investors are Kinnevik (25.1%), Rocket (23.5%) and Access Industries (7.4%) — are looking for better economies of scale in its operations. GFG brings together Dafiti (Latin America), Jabong (India), Lamoda (Russia and CIS), Namshi (Middle East) and Zalora (South East Asia and Australia) — fashion portals that effectively do the same thing as each other.
Clothing sales drive online shopping growth, says ONS Clothes have been the most popular items bought on the internet this year, according to official figures. Some 74% of adults had bought goods or services online this year, according to a snapshot of the way the internet is used in our daily lives. Almost half had bought clothing, with 64% of 25 to 34-year-olds buying clothes online, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said. Internet activity has risen significantly in recent years. The ONS said that 38 million, or 76%, of British adults accessed the internet every day. Internet shopping had grown in popularity, rising from 53% of adults buying goods and services online in 2008 to 74% now, it added. Younger age groups have been regular users of online shopping, notably on smartphones, with nine out of 10 people aged 25 to 34 having shopped online. Some 40% of those aged 65 and over bought online in 2014. Other financial transactions have also risen in popularity online.
Strong Growth for Retail Ecommerce Sales in Sweden Sweden has seen good growth in retail ecommerce sales over the past few years, and 2014 was no exception. According to a February report from PostNord, Svensk Digital Handel and HUI Research, digital buyers in Sweden spent a total of SEK42.9 billion ($6.25 billion) on online purchases of retail goods last year, representing 16% growth from 2013. As such, digital accounted for 6.4% of total retail sales in the country in 2014. While internet users in Sweden still tended to prefer domestic ecommerce sites when it came to buying on the web, one-third of digital buyers told PostNord that they had made an online purchase of a retail good from a foreign merchant in 2014. As in 2013, consumer electronics was the single-largest sector in terms of retail ecommerce sales in Sweden last year. eMarketer expects retail ecommerce sales in Sweden to grow by 11.7% in 2015 and reach $9.71 billion, representing 3.8% of total retail sales in the country.
Debenhams' size 16 mannequins are great. Now we need even more diversity The average woman in the UK is 5ft 3in tall, weighs 11 stone (70.2kg) and wears a size 16. So the first thing to say about the mannequins launched today in department store Debenhams is that they are not "plus" size, they are bang on average. So ingrained is the idea that the typical British woman must need to shop at a specialist retailer for chubsters that even the BBC suggests that size 16 is "plus size". With us all being constantly bombarded by images of tall, slender women from billboards, television screens and magazines, is it any wonder that the nation's biggest broadcaster thinks normality is represented by women so skinny that there's a gap between their thighs? Which is why the use of size 16 mannequins in Debenham's flagship store in London's Oxford Street, the busiest retail street in Europe, is to be welcomed. He may not have said as much, but using average-sized women is also good for business.