Fashion e-commerce in Canada - statistics & facts
With Canadian internet usage reaching new heights, the expansion of the fashion e-commerce market has followed suit. Canada’s online fashion industry has seen enormous growth in the last half decade, more than tripling in revenue from approximately 3.5 billion U.S. dollars in 2017 to 12 billion U.S. dollars in 2023. While Canadians have notably been slower than their global counterparts to adapt to the influx of tech changes in online shopping, they are gradually catching up with new digital consumer trends.
But what are Canadians buying, exactly? If we divide fashion into three categories – apparel, footwear, and accessories – the apparel segment generated the most revenue in 2023, accounting for almost eight of the 12 billion U.S. dollars total sales. Accessories came next, followed by shoes. Forecasts indicate that clothing purchases will continue to make up the bulk of fashion products that Canadians buy online.
How, what, and from where?
Canadian consumers value transparency and often engage in pre-purchase research. In fact, reading customer reviews and doing online research are the two most popular activities for Canadian e-shoppers. When it comes to product categories, clothing leads the ranking of products that are most frequently bought online versus offline, ahead of media and consumer electronics. Within the fashion segment, Walmart is the highest grossing online store by net sales. Walmart, an established player in both offline and online retail, generated over 780 million U.S. dollars from its Canadian e-commerce operations in 2022. In turn, in the mobile sphere, SHEIN was the most downloaded fashion and beauty shopping app.But what are Canadians buying, exactly? If we divide fashion into three categories – apparel, footwear, and accessories – the apparel segment generated the most revenue in 2023, accounting for almost eight of the 12 billion U.S. dollars total sales. Accessories came next, followed by shoes. Forecasts indicate that clothing purchases will continue to make up the bulk of fashion products that Canadians buy online.
