Over half of UK shoppers ‘have purchased fashion or accessories online in past year’ 

Many clients of our luxury digital agency here at Skywire London are likely to take an interest in the findings of a recent report from a leading research source for European multichannel retail, highlighting the continued relevance of both offline and online fashion experiences in 2025.

According to InternetRetailing’s UK Fashion Report 2025, some 51.8% of UK shoppers have bought fashion or accessories online over the past 12 months. 

Moreover, the tendency to turn to e-tail shopfronts for fashion items appears fairly consistent across the age cohorts. Millennials – defined as those aged from 28 to 43 – were the likeliest to shop online for fashion or accessories, 60.6% having done so over the past year. But Generation Zers (59.2%), Generation Xers (53.6%), and Boomers (42.2%) weren’t so far behind.  

So, what has changed about how people buy fashion online in recent times? 

Looking over the data set out in InternetRetailing’s report, the obvious answer to this question is seemingly the rise of “true” social commerce. 

“True”, in this context, refers not to the model that many of us have been accustomed to down the years, whereby social media influences a purchase that is then made elsewhere. 

Instead, there appears to be a heightening tendency among current UK fashion shoppers to make purchases directly through social media platforms. Indeed, the research revealed that some 25.7% of them had done so during the past year. 

However, while many fashionistas in the UK have become increasingly comfortable with the notion of buying directly on social platforms themselves, it is worth noting that nearly one in 10 UK shoppers depend heavily on the opinion of social media influencers when buying fashion. 

So, this element of the online world is clearly continuing to shape trends and influence purchases, even in situations where the customer may still be redirected from a social post to a brand’s shopfront elsewhere. 

Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok fare strongly among social commerce shoppers 

As for what is the dominant channel for fashion social commerce shoppers, it continues to be Facebook that occupies this role. 

According to the InternetRetailing report, over half (55%) of such customers buy through the Meta platform. TikTok’s 44%, though, is now good enough to put it in second position, with Instagram (37%) third. 

The increasing prominence of social commerce shouldn’t be overly surprising, given that mobile devices are taking over from desktop ones among those that consumers use for shopping. Half of all fashion ecommerce purchases were made on desktop computers in 2019, but by 2023, this proportion had slipped to just over a third (36%). 

When recent research quizzed consumers on how they bought clothing, footwear, and accessories, almost half (45%) said they did so mostly online. 

Nearly four in 10 (38%) of shoppers said they bought using a smartphone all the time. This was additional to the similar proportion (37%) that claimed they did so most of the time. 

Fashion e-tail and social commerce are here to stay – but will the same be true for your brand? 

With online sales projected to account for 60% of apparel sales by 2026 – even amid shoppers’ persistent fondness for “high-street” fashion retail – your own brand’s growth prospects will likely depend heavily on your optimisation of this side of the customer experience. 

To learn more about how Skywire London can help deliver the excellence that will drive the growth of your lifestyle or fashion business over the coming years, please get in touch with the forward-thinking professionals who make up our luxury digital agency.

Photo by Microsoft Edge on Unsplash