Setting new benchmarks in the e-commerce industry amid the pandemic, the online Fashion industry in India continued to demonstrate overall 51 per cent growth in FY21 and 66 per cent growth on various brand websites, a new report showed on Thursday.

Tier 3 cities and beyond reported the highest order volume growth of 192 per cent, while kids’ wear has been the biggest gainer with over 200 per cent order volume growth online, according to the ‘Fashion e-commerce Report’ by Unicommerce, an? ?e-commerce? ?focused? ?supply-chain? ?SaaS? ?technology? ?platform.

The rising adoption of D2C (direct-to-consumer) among fashion brands has helped them build a strong connect with the consumer leading to higher growth.

“Fashion segment is one of the biggest contributors to the e-commerce industry of India with the highest order volume. We are confident that this report will help fashion e-tailers in understanding the changing dynamics of the fashion e-commerce industry,” said Kapil Makhija, CEO of Unicommerce.

The brand websites have reported 66 per cent order volume growth and 77 per cent GMV growth in FY-2021 as compared to the previous financial year, the report said.

The strong order volume growth supported with higher GMV growth has led to a 6 per cent increase in average order value.

As compared to websites, marketplaces have reported 45 per cent order volume growth and 33 per cent GMV growth, with an 8 per cent decline in the average order value for FY-2021.

“This strongly reinforces that the fashion brands are investing aggressively to build a stronger D2C presence,” the findings showed.

The trend of shopping fashion online is getting prominent in Tier 2 and 3 cities and beyond.

Companies are now fulfilling 20-25 per cent of their omnichannel orders from the store, indicating increased adoption of omnichannel across the majority of brand stores.

Women wear holds the majority share of the e-commerce fashion market with a 50 per cent market share in FY-21 and reported 30 per cent order volume growth as compared to the previous financial year.

On the other hand, the kids wear segment took the industry by surprise with over 200 per cent order volume growth and the market share significantly increased from 3 per cent in FY-2020 to 17 per cent in FY-2021.

The menswear segment maintained consistent growth with 37 per cent order volume growth and 33 per cent market share in FY-21.

“Western wear segment is growing rapidly 57 per cent order volume growth in FY-21 compared to the previous financial year, and it accounted for 65 per cent market share, the report said.