A new report has revealed that apparel retailers only made up 17% of all online sales globally last year, leading experts to say that the market is wide open for large or small companies to succeed. Whilst Amazon and Alibaba made up the majority of the 16.3 billion US dollar market last year, the size of those companies mean that the personal touch is missing; something that clothes buyers feel is important. Zalando is the fourth largest online clothes retailer in the world, and says that its success is allowing customers to “use their homes as a fitting room”. The company sees 50% of its purchases returned under its unusually flexible policy, but according to experts, allowing customers to use online stores as they would a high-street shop is what can bring real success in this sector.Â
