• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, August 25, 2003

Online Apparel Category Surges With Back-to-School Shoppers

Masha Geller, in her Just an Online Minute... for MediaPost last week, featured the importance of the Teen shopper on retail apparel. Here's more of the supporting documentation on brands and sites for those serving this market.

Week on the Web, by comScore Media Metrix, released data this week in their special feature on kids clothing driving the online apparel category showing that in July, more than 34 million Americans visited a site in the Apparel category, up 12 percent from June. The report continues:

Unlike other Retail categories such as Books and Computer Hardware, visitation to the Apparel category is distributed among a relatively large number of properties. In fact, 28 properties were visited by more than 500,000 Internet users in July.

Retail-Apparel Category Unique Visitors July 2003
(Excludes Mass Merchandise retailers that may also sell apparel)

	All Locations (000)	Home (000)	Work (000)	University (000)
Total Internet Users	147,455	127,803	48,993	10,319
Apparel Category	34,176	23,276	10,782	2,318
Otto Gruppe	4,260	2,794	1,535	169
Limited Brands	3,684	2,355	1,185	341
OLDNAVY.COM	3,666	2,210	1,267	207
Alloy	2,602	1,787	798	151
Gap Online	2,419	1,602	718	221
Foot Locker Sites	2,327	1,613	582	243
Nike	1,998	1,270	676	156
LLBEAN.COM	1,626	1,058	574	79
AE.COM	1,604	1,047	451	185
FREDERICKS.COM	1,595	1,080	442	111
NORDSTROM.COM	1,542	1,032	465	121
CHADWICKS.COM	1,430	885	569	53
ABERCROMBIEANDFITCH.COM	1,399	931	348	185
ZAPPOS.COM	1,332	846	463	92
Lands End	1,242	980	265	52

Source: comScore Media Metrix

Online spending on apparel and accessories was up 43 percent in June and 44 percent in July versus year-ago levels. This growth rate outpaced not only total non-travel spending, but also the year-over-year growth rate for the Apparel category in the previous six months (36 percent).

Online Consumer Spending Apparel and Accessories Category
June & July 2003 ($ in millions)
Excludes Auctions and Large Corporate Purchases

	June 2003	% Change vs. Year-Ago	July 2003	% Change vs. Year-Ago
Total Non-Travel	$3,590	17%	$4,087	32%
Apparel Category	$596	43%	$509	44%

Source: comScore Networks

While the total number of Internet users grew just one percent from June to July, back-to-school shoppers drove visitation to the Apparel category up by more than 12 percent.

Top Gainers Among Top 25 Apparel Sites Unique Visitors (000)
U.S. Home, Work and University Users

	June 2003 (000)	July 2003 (000)	% Change
Total Internet Users	146,476	147,455	1%
Apparel Category	30,420	34,176	12%
Alloy	1,572	2,602	66%
FREDERICKS.COM	1,082	1,595	47%
FINISHLINE.COM	480	665	39%
DELIAS.COM	679	909	34%
ZAPPOS.COM	996	1,332	34%
PACSUN.COM	858	1,135	32%
AE.COM	1,219	1,604	32%
LLBEAN.COM	1,251	1,626	30%
HOTTOPIC.COM	843	1,093	30%
CHADWICKS.COM	1,106	1,430	29%

Source: comScore Media Metrix

Teenagers are among the most sought-after age segments for apparel manufacturers and retailers. 8 of the top 10 apparel sites experienced a significantly higher increase in visitation among users age 13 to 17, compared to the previous month, than the total category.

Retail-Apparel Category July 2003
An index of 100 shows parity

	Unique Visitors (000)	% Change vs. June-03	Composition Index
Total Net Users Age 13-17	11,667	-2%	100
Apparel Visitors Age 13-17	2,430	5%	90
Alloy	365	40%	177
Limited Brands	334	110%	115
Foot Locker Sites	327	22%	177
HOTTOPIC.COM	244	36%	283
OLDNAVY.COM	216	-10%	75
Nike	211	4%	133
AE.COM	205	7%	161
PACSUN.COM	200	123%	222
DELIAS.COM	193	62%	268
Gap Online	138	191%	72

Source: comScore Media Metrix