“The ‘fashion and lifestyle’ segment surged in terms of number of orders. It accounts for about 10% of the electronic commerce market by value. Average online fashion order stands at EUR35,” Doina Vilceanu, ContentSpeed marketing manager, told ZF.
ContentSpeed customers include Diverta, IL PASSO, QuickMobile, ZorileStore, Chicco, Flomar Cosmetics, Austral, Radox, Indesit, Ariston, Hotpoint, OptiBlu and Vitacom Electronics. It posted almost EUR1 million revenue in 2014, about 70% up on 2013.
“Almost half of the new stores launched on the ContentSpeed platform since the beginning of 2015 have been ‘fashion and lifestyle’ stores – double as many as last year, when most were electronics and home appliances, DIY and auto stores.”
New brands are due to launch online in the second half and make a significant impact on the ‘fashion and lifestyle’ segment.
Another trend the entire online commerce market has seen is increased use of mobile devices to place orders, because of the rise in the number of smartphone and tablet owners. Smartphone penetration has reached about 40% of the total number of mobile phone users in Romania.
“Online fashion retail is ‘moving’ in full gear to mobile devices. This is where the highest growth is. Online fashion stores have developed a lot – 360-degree images or video, customers are allowed to open the parcel for inspection upon delivery, complex integration with internal ERP and WMS systems.”
These things help consumers and make them less reluctant to buying products they would normally like to touch in store, Vilceanu said.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)