U.S. online apparel sales rise 32% year-over-year in Q3

U.S. online apparel sales increased 32% year-over-year during the third quarter, with specialty retailers such as VictoriasSecret.com and OldNavy.com accounting for the largest share of sales at 46% of total dollars spent, according to comScore Networks.

Department store sites followed, accounting for 21% of the dollars spent and pureplay sites, such as Amazon.com, accounting for 16%, comScore found.

An influx of new buyers drove online apparel sales during the past year, with five of six apparel site segments showing double-digit percentage increases in the size of their respective buyer bases, comScore says. Department store site led with a 60% growth in the number of buyers, followed by manufacturer and specialty store sites, which each saw 48% growth, and online pureplays, which saw a 32% increase.

“That the number of online retail apparel buyers is increasing so rapidly bodes well for long term category growth,” says Rob Harles, senior vice president of comScore Networks. “Because new buyers tend to spend less online until they’ve become comfortable with the purchase process, the average order value is experiencing declines among some of the site segments. But as new buyers become acclimated to the online buying process, they ratchet up the size of their orders, which will yield significant overall sales growth in the future.”

Online apparel sites experienced decreases in average order value ranging from 2% (specialty store sites) to 17% (manufacturer’s sites) over the past year, according to comScore.

Loyalty rates also decline modestly during the past year, an indication that consumers are varying their online purchase behavior among multiple site segments, comScore says. Discount retailers experienced the most significant drop, from 61% in Q3 2005 to 46% this year.

Consumers were most loyal to specialty store sites, with 74% purchasing only within that site segment, followed by catalog and online pureplays, each with 68% loyalty, according to comScore.