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Introduction: Our Second Annual Survey of Amazon Apparel Shoppers

Pundits, consultants and Wall Street analysts all have much to say about Amazon’s expansion into apparel. A number of analysts have attempted to quantify Amazon’s apparel sales — though the resulting dollar figures are, in all cases, only best estimates. Amazon apparel sales remain difficult to quantify with any accuracy given Amazon’s limited disclosure on category sales — and it is further complicated by Amazon’s mix of first-party sales, where Amazon is the retailer, and third-party sales, where Amazon is merely an intermediary between seller and buyer.  This report takes a deep dive into Amazon apparel, using  the findings of our second annual online survey of US apparel shoppers, a sizable proportion of whom had bought clothing or footwear on Amazon during the past 12 months. We explore how many US consumers are buying apparel on Amazon, which retailers these shoppers have switched their spending from, what clothing and footwear brands and categories they are buying on Amazon, their attitudes toward Amazon Fashion and its offerings, and where else, besides Amazon Fashion, they shop for apparel. For some of these metrics, we present comparisons between our new findings and those from our 2018 survey. Throughout this report, “apparel” refers to both clothing and footwear. This report forms part of our How the US Shops series, in which we share insights into shopper behavior from original consumer research. Our most recent US consumer survey was carried out online among 1,732 adults between January 28 and February 5, 2019. Notes on our survey methodology can be found at the end of this report. The main body of this report discusses our survey findings, question by question. First, though, we bring together data points from various questions in our survey as we discuss six major themes that emerged from our research.

Our Top Six Survey Findings

1. Amazon Has Become America’s Most-Shopped Clothing and Footwear Retailer In the 12 months since we conducted our comparable survey of US apparel shoppers, Amazon jumped from joint second place (with Target) to first place among US apparel retailers, as measured by the number of shoppers that bought clothing or footwear from the retailer in the past year.  This year, fully 60.5% of all respondents said they bought clothing or footwear on Amazon, versus less than half last year. We have seen a similar jump in the proportion that expects to buy apparel on Amazon in the next 12 months, too.  [caption id="attachment_79082" align="aligncenter" width="550"] Base: US Internet users ages 18+ who have bought clothing or footwear in the past 12 months (1,628 in 2019; 1,564 in 2018)
Survey questions: In the past 12 months, have you purchased any clothing or footwear on Amazon.com?/Looking ahead, do you think you are likely to purchase clothing or footwear on Amazon.com in the next 12 months?
Source: Coresight Research[/caption] Two further data points underscore the growing demand for fashion on Amazon: 

• This year, one-quarter of respondents agreed with the statement “Amazon.com is one of my favorite retailers for clothing and footwear,” up from one in five last year. 
• Apparel is now the most-bought category on Amazon, by number of shoppers: We asked respondents which categories they had bought on Amazon.com and clothing and footwear leapt from fourth most popular category last year to #1 this year, pushing it ahead of books, beauty and electronics. 

2. Apparel Shopping Rates Show Signs of Peaking Among Prime Members Prime members have pushed Amazon into this strong position. Almost three-quarters of Prime members surveyed said they had bought clothing or footwear on Amazon in the past year. This compared to around one-third of those without Prime membership stating they bought apparel on Amazon in the past year.  Based on these figures, we estimate that Prime members account for fully two-thirds of all Amazon apparel shoppers, up from around 60% last year (and our definition of Prime members includes only those that have a membership themselves and excludes those who have access to Prime benefits through membership of another member of their household). However, when we asked about expectations of buying apparel on Amazon, we saw a much greater uplift from “have bought” to “expect to buy” among those without Prime membership than among Prime members — the difference among non-members is a full 8.5 percentage points, as shown below.  This suggests that penetration rates for apparel shopping among Prime members may be at or close to their peak: to grow apparel sales from Prime members, Amazon may therefore need to turn to levers such as increasing average spend and frequency of purchase. These data also imply that further growth in Amazon’s pool of apparel shoppers will likely be driven by pulling in those without Prime membership.  [caption id="attachment_79083" align="aligncenter" width="550"] Base: 1,628 US Internet users ages 18+ who have bought clothing or footwear in the past 12 months,
“Prime Members” have a personal Prime membership; “Not Prime Members” have no access to Prime benefits, including through a membership of someone else in their household.
Source: Coresight Research[/caption] Further compounding the challenge in growing apparel shoppers with a Prime membership is an apparent levelling off of Prime membership rates among US consumers: See Appendix 1 for an illustration of this trend.  In our 2019 survey, some 53% of those surveyed said they have a personal Prime membership and a further 23% said they have access to Prime benefits through someone else in their household. This is up from 43% and 21%, respectively, in our 2018 survey.  3. One in Six Amazon Apparel Shoppers Say They Have Bought Amazon Private-Label Clothing or Footwear Amazon continues to grow its private-label collections: Our June 2018 analysis found Amazon.com offered 4,904 private-label apparel products, and that these accounted for fully three-quarters of all Amazon private-label products. Our latest survey indicates substantial shopper demand for these collections: One in six Amazon Fashion shoppers said they have already bought from one of its growing collection of private labels and more than one in five are interested in trying Amazon’s apparel offerings.

• Amazon’s private-label ranges are the fourth-most-bought clothing or footwear “brand” on Amazon.com. Among the brand options we asked respondents to choose from, only Nike, Under Armour and Adidas ranked higher than Amazon’s private labels, collectively.
• The 17.0% who said they bought those private labels compared to 11.0% when we surveyed Amazon apparel shoppers last year. 
• More than one in five Amazon apparel shoppers are interested in trying the retailer’s apparel private labels. While only 7% of those we surveyed said that those labels were what specifically attracted them to shop on Amazon, this is up meaningfully from just under 3% last year.

[caption id="attachment_79084" align="aligncenter" width="700"] Base: US Internet users ages 18+ who have bought clothing or footwear on Amazon.com in the past 12 months (985 in 2019; 719 in 2018)
Source: Coresight Research[/caption] 4. Amazon Has Established Its #1 Position by Penetrating the Heart of the Mid-Market Our analysis indicates that the profile of average Amazon apparel shopper is very close to the profile of the average apparel shopper overall — in other words, Amazon is at the heart of the mid-market in the apparel category. By age and income, Amazon’s average shopper is similar to those at several department stores, mass merchandisers and off-pricers.  As shown below, the typical Amazon apparel shopper has a household income that is similar to the average shoppers of Target, T.J.Maxx/Marshalls and Kohl’s. And the age of the average Amazon shopper is similar to that of the average shopper at T.J. Maxx/Marshalls, Macy’s and JCPenney. The average Amazon shopper is slightly younger than the average apparel shopper but slightly older than those of Target, the off-pricers and specialty stores such as Old Navy, H&M and Forever 21.

[caption id="attachment_79086" align="aligncenter" width="550"] Bubble size represents shopper numbers. Note that average age excludes shoppers ages under 18, who were not surveyed. T.J. Maxx includes Marshalls.
Base: 1,628 US Internet users ages 18+ who have bought clothing or footwear in the past 12 months
Source: Coresight Research[/caption] Confirming this mid-market positioning, our survey suggests that Amazon and Target remain head to head in apparel — and Amazon looks to be competing head-on with Walmart more than it was last year. 

• When we asked Amazon clothing and footwear shoppers which retailers they had switched apparel spending from, the number one answer this year was Walmart, closely followed by Target (see later for full data). We believe this reflects Amazon’s incremental shift toward the very heart of the apparel market, given Walmart has long been the biggest retailer of apparel in the US. 
• Target shoppers continue to overindex versus the average and versus Walmart shoppers in terms of expecting to buy clothing or footwear on Amazon in the next 12 months, as we chart below. Target apparel shoppers are also more likely than average to have an Amazon Prime membership — and our survey confirms that Prime membership drives apparel shopping on Amazon.
• In addition to Old Navy and Target shoppers, shoppers at T.J. Maxx/Marshalls, JCPenney, Macy’s and Kohls are more likely than the average shopper to say they expect to buy apparel on Amazon in the next 12 months.

[caption id="attachment_79085" align="aligncenter" width="700"] Base: US Internet users ages 18+ who have bought clothing or footwear in the past 12 months (1,628 in 2019; 1,564 in 2018)
Source: Coresight Research[/caption] 5. Shoppers Say the Amazon Website Is Fit for Fashion A criticism frequently made of Amazon is that its site is not equipped to cater to the desires and aspirations of fashion shoppers: Commentators frequently opine that Amazon.com may be suited to selling books and electronics but it is less equipped to sell dresses and shirts. However, our survey suggests that few of its customers perceive such a problem:

• Just 15.9% of all Amazon apparel shoppers agreed with the statement “I think the Amazon website could be made more appealing or engaging for fashion shoppers.” 
• And only 12.9% of Amazon apparel shoppers agreed with the statement “I think the Amazon Fashion website could be made easier to browse.” This statement saw a similarly low response rate in last year’s survey.
• Meanwhile, fully 59.9% cited the ease of browsing or searching the Amazon website as a reason for buying apparel there — in fact, this was the number one reason for buying apparel on Amazon.com. This was the top reason last year, too, though with a slightly higher 65.5% stating it as a reason for shopping on Amazon. 

While these figures represent the views of current Amazon apparel shoppers only, they suggest that some industry commentators could be overstating the need for Amazon to improve its fashion website. 6. Amazon Apparel Shoppers Show Average Rates of Concern on Sustainability   Sustainability is a big topic for apparel retailers and increasingly a point of differentiation for retailers and brands. Our data suggest that Amazon apparel shoppers are not much, if any, more concerned with sustainability than average shoppers: 

• Among customers of the 12 most-shopped retailers, Amazon shoppers recorded the second-lowest level of agreement with the statement “I try to buy from brands or retailers that I think have a good record on environmental issues”; only Walmart shoppers recorded lower rates of agreement. 
• Amazon shoppers show slightly above-average agreement with the statement “I am willing to pay more for clothing produced in an environmentally friendly way,” though agreement levels are far below those of several major store-based competitors, such as H&M and Nordstrom. 

H&M shoppers are most likely to try to buy from brands with a good environmental record; the shoppers least concerned are Walmart and Amazon shoppers. Only 18.2% of all apparel shoppers are willing to pay more for environmentally-friendly apparel. The most willing to pay up for sustainalby produced apparel are H&M shoppers. The average Prime member shows slightly more concern for sustainability than the average Amazon apparel shopper, perhaps reflecting greater affluence among those with Prime membership.  [caption id="attachment_79088" align="aligncenter" width="700"] Base: 1,628 US Internet users ages 18+ who have bought clothing or footwear in the past 12 months
Source: Coresight Research[/caption]

Survey Findings in Detail

More than 60% of Apparel Shoppers and 74% of Prime Members Buy Apparel on Amazon Key findings:

• Some 60.5% of all apparel shoppers said that they had bought apparel on Amazon in the past 12 months.
• Some 63.3% said that they expect to buy apparel on Amazon in the coming 12 months.

We asked survey respondents who had bought clothing or footwear in the past 12 months if they had bought apparel on Amazon during that time. We also asked apparel shoppers if they think they are likely to buy clothing or footwear on Amazon in the next 12 months. Respondents were required to choose either “yes,” “no” or “cannot remember” (“don’t know” for the next-12-months question) as their answer. Prime Members Account for a High Percentage of Apparel Shoppers on Amazon Amazon registers very high shopper numbers for clothing and footwear: As charted earlier, some 60.5% of all clothing and footwear shoppers we surveyed said they bought apparel on the site in the past 12 months, this is up from 45.9% in our 2018 survey.  With regard to respondents’ current expectations, our survey findings suggest that Amazon Fashion’s total shopper numbers will be driven by an increase in the number shoppers who are not Prime members. We recorded an 8.5-percentage-point gap between “have bought” and “expect to buy” among those without Prime membership. In sharp contrast, nearly the same proportion of Prime members who bought apparel in the past 12 months (74.0%) expect to purchase apparel in the next 12 months (73.8%).  Which Retailers Amazon’s Clothing and Footwear Shoppers Have Switched Spending From Key findings:

• Walmart (closely followed by Target) is the top retailer from which Amazon apparel shoppers have switched some or all of their apparel spending.
• Macy’s and JCPenney overindex in terms of switching spending to Amazon, relative to their scale.

We asked respondents if they now spend more of their apparel budget on Amazon than they did 12 months ago (this includes if they started shopping for apparel on Amazon in that time). We then asked those shoppers who had increased their apparel spending on Amazon from which retailers they had switched some or all of their spending. Shoppers Have Switched Spending Disproportionately from Walmart, Target, Macy’s and JCPenney Walmart has lost the most in terms of apparel shoppers who have switched some or all of their apparel spending to Amazon, with Target in second place; this is a reversal of the number one and two spots in 2018 and aligns with these two retailers’ overall ranking in terms of apparel retail, as Walmart is a significantly bigger clothing and footwear retailer than Target, as measured by both sales and shopper numbers. Department stores continue to rank high in shoppers switching to Amazon. Macy’s and JCPenney rank disproportionately high in terms of how many apparel shoppers they have lost in part or in full to Amazon Fashion.  More of a surprise is off-price retailer T.J. Maxx/Marshalls seeing meaningful switching rates. Some 19.0% of survey respondents said they switched some or all of their apparel spend from T.J. Maxx/Marshalls in 2019, up from 16.6% in last year’s survey.    [caption id="attachment_79089" align="aligncenter" width="700"] Base: 379 US Internet users ages 18+ who spend more of their clothing and footwear budget at Amazon than they did one year ago
Survey question: You have indicated that you spend more of your clothing and footwear budget at Amazon.com than you used to. Which retailer(s) have you switched this spending from? Select all that apply.
Source: Coresight Research[/caption] To some extent, the ranking shown above reflects the scale of these retailers and the total number of shoppers they have. It is logical that larger retailers would tend to lose the most, in absolute terms, when shoppers switch their spending from one retailer to another. But the ranking does not track scale exactly. Below, we compare the top five retailers that respondents said they had switched spending to Amazon from with the top five they said they had bought apparel from in the past 12 months. The comparison shows that Macy’s and JCPenney overindex in terms of switching to Amazon, relative to their overall strength in shopper numbers. [caption id="attachment_79090" align="aligncenter" width="546"] Source: Coresight Research[/caption] What Apparel Brands and Categories Shoppers Buy on Amazon Key findings:

• Nike, Under Armour and Adidas are the most popular apparel brands on Amazon with Adidas replacing Hanes this year.
• One in six Amazon apparel shoppers have already bought Amazon private-label apparel.
• Adult footwear and casual clothing are among the categories bought most often on Amazon.

We asked those who had bought clothing or footwear on the site in the past 12 months what apparel brands and categories they had purchased on the site during that period. One in Six Shoppers Have Bought Amazon Private-Label Apparel Sports brands such as Nike, Under Armour and Adidas are the most-bought brands bought on Amazon, based on shopper numbers. These brands’ presence across both clothing and footwear likely supports their leading positions — and, as we discuss later, footwear is a very popular category on Amazon Fashion.  It also further indicates the prominence of sportswear on Amazon Fashion: Our November 2018 analysis of clothing listings on Amazon.com confirmed that activewear is one of the most-listed clothing categories on the site. Lower-cost casualwear also ranks highly, as do underwear brands such as Hanes and Fruit of the Loom, implying that Amazon is popular for basics. Some 17% of the Amazon apparel shoppers we surveyed said that they had bought Amazon private-label goods in the past year, which is notable because those private-label lines are still relatively new. This is up from 11% in 2018. Our survey provided respondents with several examples of Amazon’s private labels, in order to minimize any confusion about the company’s own private labels versus other brands featured on Amazon that respondents may not have been familiar with. [caption id="attachment_79091" align="aligncenter" width="700"] Base: 985 US Internet users ages 18+ who have bought clothing or footwear on Amazon.com in the past 12 months
Survey question: Which, if any, of the following clothing or footwear brands and private labels have you purchased on Amazon.com in the past 12 months? Select all that apply.
Source: Coresight Research[/caption] Footwear and Casual Clothing Are the Most-Bought Categories on Amazon Fashion Men’s and women’s footwear and adult casualwear top the categories that shoppers buy on Amazon Fashion. Underwear and sportswear are middle-ranking categories. Children’s clothing and footwear, men’s and women’s coats and jackets, and adult formal clothing are significantly less popular categories on the site. [caption id="attachment_79092" align="aligncenter" width="700"] Base: 985 US Internet users ages 18+ who have bought clothing or footwear on Amazon.com in the past 12 months
Survey question: Which of these categories have you bought on Amazon.com in the past 12 months?
Source: Coresight Research[/caption] Why Consumers Shop on Amazon: Ease of Shopping Beats Fulfillment, Price and Choice as the Top Driver Key findings:

• Respondents cited ease of browsing or searching the Amazon website as the top reason for buying apparel on the site.
• Good or cheap delivery was the second-most-popular reason cited for buying apparel on Amazon Fashion, driven by Prime members.

We asked those who had bought clothing or footwear on Amazon.com in the past 12 months why they had bought apparel on the site.  Availability, Choice and Value for Money Are Top Reasons to Shop on Amazon Fashion Amazon apparel shoppers cited the ease of browsing and searching on the site as the top reason for buying clothing or footwear there. That factor came in ahead of traditionally important considerations such as price and choice. However, wase of browsing and searching dropped from 65.4% of respondents citing it as a reason in 2018, to 58.9% in 2019 while lowest-price increased as a factor, moving from 32.1% in 2018 to 38.2% in 2019.  Good or cheap delivery is another key reason that apparel shoppers cite for shopping on Amazon. Some 51.3% of Prime members cited good/cheap delivery this year, compared to 42.2% of those without a Prime membership. However, the overall 49.4% citing this factor was down fully 12.8 percentage points on last year. This may suggest that Amazon has succesfully extended its appeal in fashion beyond simply the convenience it offers in fulfillment.  However, few apparel shoppers are driven to shop on Amazon because they perceive it as offering up-to-date collections, and we saw no meaningful improvement on this metric versus last year. This may reflect the desires of shoppers looking for staples rather than on-trend designs, but it adds weight to our view that some apparel shoppers have traditionally seen Amazon as a retailer that sells less desirable collections or out-of-season merchandise. In addition to price, the only other factor that increased as a factor for shopping Amazon was private-label offerings. Amazon’s apparel private labels are not (or not yet) a meaningful driver of shopper numbers to the site, but on a year-over-year basis, the percentage of shoppers who cited it more than doubled from 2.8% to 7.0%. [caption id="attachment_79093" align="aligncenter" width="700"] Base: US Internet users ages 18+ who have bought clothing or footwear on Amazon.com in the past 12 months (985 in 2019; 719 in 2018)
Survey question: Why do you shop for clothing or footwear on Amazon.com? Select all that apply.
Source: Coresight Research[/caption] How Shoppers View Amazon Fashion: Younger Shoppers Want the Full Experience but Older Shoppers More Likely to Consider Amazon.com as One of Their Favorite Apparel Retailers  Key findings:

• About 40% of Amazon apparel shoppers always expect to pay less than full price on the site, and one-third buy only when their purchase qualifies for free shipping.
• Younger shoppers are most interested in Amazon’s private-label apparel assortments.

We wanted to gauge how Amazon apparel shoppers perceive Amazon Fashion and their interest in new offerings and potential changes. So, we presented survey respondents with a series of statements and asked them to select any that they agreed with. Attitudes Toward Amazon Fashion Our survey found positive indications on Amazon’s inroads into mainstream apparel retailing:

• This year, 40.9% of Amazon apparel shoppers said they expect to always pay less than full price on the site; this is down from 48.4% in 2018, suggesting that Amazon may be incrementally shifting consumer perceptions of it closer toward that of a full-range, full-price retailer.   
• This year, one-quarter of Amazon apparel shoppers told us the retailer is one of their favorites for clothing and footwear, representing a meaningful uptick from the one-in-five that claimed this in our 2018 survey. 

Amazon has enhanced its competitive-pricing proposition and product ranges by hosting a large number of third-party sellers on its site. But a significant percentage of Amazon apparel shoppers — 37.2% — prefers to buy directly from Amazon rather than from third-party sellers on the site; this was broadly level on the response rate we saw in last year’s survey. This preference could be due in part to shopper perceptions that third-party sellers offer less clarity with regard to shipping fees, eligiblity for shipping under Prime memberships, returns charges and the right to return items. One-third of all of survey respondents expect to buy “a lot more” clothing or footwear on Amazon in the coming years, level with the rate we recorded last year. This expectation is higher among Prime members, at 34.2%, than among those with no access to Prime, at 29.7%. [caption id="attachment_79094" align="aligncenter" width="700"] Base: 985 US Internet users ages 18+ who have bought clothing or footwear on Amazon.com in the past 12 months
Survey question: Which, if any, of the following statements about shopping for clothing and footwear on Amazon.com do you agree with? Select all that apply.
Source: Coresight Research[/caption] What Shoppers Want from Amazon Fashion One-quarter of Amazon apparel shoppers would like to see more clothing and footwear brands on the site. A  meaningful 21.5% of Amazon apparel shoppers are interested in trying the retailer’s private labels, up from 18.8% last year, with the shift likely reflecting the media coverage that those private labels have garnered.  Just 12.9% think that the website could be made easier to browse (broadly comparable with last year), indicating that the majority of the site’s apparel shoppers are satisified with the Amazon Fashion shopping experience. Further reinforcing the perception of satisfaction is that only 15.9% think the Amazon website could be made more appealing or engaging for fashion shoppers.   [caption id="attachment_79095" align="aligncenter" width="700"] Base: 985 US Internet users ages 18+ who have bought clothing or footwear on Amazon.com in the past 12 months
Survey question: Which, if any, of the following statements about shopping for clothing and footwear on Amazon.com do you agree with? Select all that apply.
*Statement not included in 2018 survey.
Source: Coresight Research[/caption] Younger Consumers Tend to be More Interested in Amazon Building Out Its Apparel Proposition  Many younger shoppers registered higher interest than older shoppers in Amazon’s private labels and the possibility of Amazon opening physical fashion stores; they also are the cohort most faulting Amazon’s browsability. On the other hand, older consumers were more likely to consider Amazon.com as one of their favorite clothing and footwear retailers.  Given Amazon’s supremacy in terms of broad assortment, ease of shopping, efficiency and speedy delivery, older shoppers, who are likely to know what brand and size they want, are more apt to choose Amazon as a top apparel retail choice. Younger shoppers exploring fashion are shopping the mall and downtown destinations to touch and feel product and discover and explore new brands; reflecting this demand for physical stores, younger shoppers are more likely than older shoppers to want Amazon to open brick-and-mortar fashion stores.  [caption id="attachment_79096" align="aligncenter" width="700"] Base: 985 US Internet users ages 18+ who have bought clothing or footwear on Amazon.com in the past 12 months
Source: Coresight Research[/caption] Prime Members Push Amazon to First Place Among America’s Clothing and Footwear Retailers Key findings:

• Amazon is America’s most-shopped apparel retailer.
• The site’s popularity is driven by Prime members.
• For Amazon apparel shoppers, Walmart is the most popular alternative retailer for clothing and footwear.

To put Amazon in context, we asked survey respondents (all of whom had bought clothing or footwear in the past 12 months) to choose which, if any, of the retailers listed they had bought apparel from during that period. Respondents were free to choose any of the retailers listed and were asked to choose all that apply; this is a different format from our forced yes/no question that we used to establish the proportion of apparel shoppers that had bought on Amazon, and that we have cited above as our definitive figure on Amazon apparel shopper numbers. By Total Number of Apparel Shoppers, Amazon Wins Our survey confirmed that Amazon rose to become the most-shopped retailer for clothing and footwear in the past 12 months. That does not directly imply that Amazon is America’s biggest apparel retailer by sales, however, as shoppers’ average spend and frequency of purchase both factor into this metric. As an aside, our data also indicate how peripheral eBay has become to the US fashion market: eBay languishes in 16^th place in our list of major selected retailers and marketplaces, the same position it held last year. [caption id="attachment_79097" align="aligncenter" width="700"] Base: 1,628 US Internet users ages 18+ who have bought clothing or footwear in the past 12 months
Survey question: Which retailers have you bought clothing or footwear from in the past 12 months (whether online or in-store)? Select all that apply.
Respondents were free to to select any options from the list provided; this is a different format from the forced yes/no question format used to establish whether respondents had bought apparel on Amazon, and it yields different results from those shown earlier.
Source: Coresight Research[/caption] Prime members are responsible for pushing Amazon up the “most-shopped retailer” ranking. Among Prime members, Amazon is by far the leading retailer for clothing and footwear, as measured by number of shoppers. This is balanced out by Amazon ranking relatively low among those with no access to Prime: In fact, Amazon is fourth-most-popular retailer among those who do not subscribe to Prime, behind Walmart, Target and Kohl’s. [caption id="attachment_79098" align="aligncenter" width="700"] Base: 1,628 US Internet users ages 18+ who have bought clothing or footwear in the past 12 months, including 914 with a personal Amazon Prime membership
Respondents were free to to select any options from the list provided; this is a different format from the forced yes/no question format used to establish whether respondents had bought apparel on Amazon, and it yields different results from those shown earlier.
“Prime Members” have a personal Prime membership; “Not Prime Members” have no access to Prime benefits, including through a membership of someone else in their household.
Source: Coresight Research[/caption] Where Else Do Amazon Apparel Shoppers Buy Clothing and Footwear? Walmart is the leading alternative clothing and footwear retailer for Amazon apparel shoppers according to our 2019 survey results, up from second place in 2018. Target fell from first place to second place as the alternative source for Amazon apparel shoppers.  We think Walmart’s switch from second to first place highlights the incremental shift of Amazon, from a more niche or peripheral apparel destination to one shopped by mass-market consumers — such as those who shop at Walmart.  A further contributing factor to the Walmart/Target switch may be Target’s launch of 20 private label apparel brands in the past three years: We believe this effort is likely to have fortified Target’s appeal among apparel shoppers.  [caption id="attachment_79099" align="aligncenter" width="550"] Base: US Internet users ages 18+ who have bought clothing or footwear on Amazon.com in the past 12 months (985 in 2019; 719 in 2018)
Source: Coresight Research[/caption] Apparel Is the Top-Shopped Category on Amazon.com Our survey found that clothing and footwear moved to the top most-shopped category on Amazon in the past 12 months, up from #4 in 2018. Rounding out the top five categories that shoppers buy on Amazon.com are books (including e-books), beauty and personal care products, electronics, and health products (such as vitamin supplements). 

What We Think

A key finding of our research is that Prime membership is the principal support for Amazon’s apparel expansion, as Prime members show a much higher tendency than the average consumer to buy apparel on the site. However, Prime membership growth appears to have stalled (see Appendix 1). Moreover, our survey recorded no meaningful increase from “have purchased” to “expect to purchase” on Amazon Fashion among Prime members. To sustain solid growth in clothing and footwear sales, we think Amazon will need to drive up average spend and frequency of purchase among Prime members while attracting more non-members to its apparel offering.   

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Appendix 1: Amazon Prime Membership Rates

[caption id="attachment_79100" align="aligncenter" width="550"] Through January 2019
Base: 7,000+ US Internet users ages 18+ in each month
Survey question: Do you have an Amazon Prime membership?
Source: Prosper Insights & Analytics[/caption] [caption id="attachment_79101" align="aligncenter" width="550"] Through January 2019
Base: 7,000+ US Internet users ages 18+ in each month
Survey question: Do you have an Amazon Prime membership?
Source: Prosper Insights & Analytics[/caption]

Appendix 2: How Big Is Amazon in Apparel? 

Euromonitor International estimates that Amazon US sold $35.5 billion of clothing and footwear in 2018, of which an estimated $30 billion was sold by third-party sellers. We believe this total would place Amazon ahead of Walmart, which we estimate sold in the region of $25 billion of clothing, footwear and accessories (including jewelry) in 2018, and which was hitherto America’s biggest apparel seller — although we note that Walmart achieves this position primarily through first-party sales while Amazon is largely transacting third-party sales. However, no research firm truly knows how much clothing and footwear is sold on Amazon. Not only does Amazon not report sales in the category, but estimates are complicated by the mix of first-party and third-party sales. Most estimates of apparel sales on Amazon include third-party sales, though Amazon is not the “retailer” of these. Moreover, these figures are often estimates on estimates: They are calculated from Amazon’s total gross merchandise volume (the value of its sales including third-party sales), which Amazon does not declare and so are also estimated.  Survey Methodology For this report, we conducted an online survey of 1,732 demographically representative US adults between January 28 and February 5, 2019. Of the respondents, 1,628, or 94%, had bought clothing or footwear in the past 12 months. Our 2018 survey was carried out between January 18 and January 24, 2018. At the total level, the results have a margin of error of 3% with a 95% confidence interval.  Online surveys represent Internet users and, according to the Pew Research Center’s latest published data, 89% of US adults were Internet users in early 2018. The proportion of the total US population using the Internet has been climbing by around two percentage points per year, according to Pew data.  Where we have compared findings for Prime members and those without Prime membership, we have used the following definitions: Prime members are those who stated they have a Prime membership themselves; non-members are those who do not have a Prime membership and do not have access to Prime membership benefits through someone else in their household.