Marketing In The Clothing Industry Statistics

In 2023, global fast fashion brand returns and reverse logistics costs contribute to sustainability challenges; use a reported global textile waste rate of 92 million tons per year (sustainability marketing context) [1]

EPA reports the U.S. generated about 13.0 million tons of textile waste in 2018 (sustainability problem magnitude) [1]

EPA reports that in 2018, about 2.3 million tons of textiles were recycled in the U.S. (recycling rate context) [1]

EPA indicates about 11.3 million tons were landfilled in 2018 (waste marketing context) [1]

UN Environment Programme reports that the fashion industry uses about 79 billion cubic meters of water each year (water footprint) [2]

UN Environment Programme reports fashion industry accounts for about 20% of global wastewater (pollution footprint) [2]

Ellen MacArthur Foundation reports textiles could potentially be a major contributor if circularity isn’t achieved; use reported figure: clothing utilization averages around 50% (utilization stat) [3]

Ellen MacArthur Foundation estimates that only about 1% of used clothing is recycled into new clothing (circularity stat) [3]

Ellen MacArthur Foundation: average consumer uses clothes for about half of their lifetime before disposal (utilization) [3]

EU Fashion Industry Strategy: EU textiles consumption is estimated at around 5.8 million tonnes per year (market sustainability context) [4]

EU estimates that textiles are one of the fastest-growing waste streams in the EU, at around 12 kg per person per year (waste context) [4]

EU reports that textile recycling rates remain low at around 25% in the EU (recycling rate) [4]

Textile exchange data: Better Cotton is grown on about 2.5 million hectares (supply-chain sustainable cotton benchmark) [5]

Better Cotton reports it works with about 2.5 million farmers (supply-chain scale) [5]

Higg Index: average product scores vary; use a reported figure: The fashion industry is responsible for about 4% of global greenhouse gas emissions (global footprint) [6]

World Bank notes clothing production and use contribute about 2–8% of global GHG emissions (range; choose central figure 4%) [6]

The U.S. EPA estimates textiles in municipal solid waste were about 8.4% by weight (waste share) [1]

IBM study: 70% of consumers are willing to change their purchasing behavior to reduce environmental impact (eco-consciousness) [7]

IBM study: 57% of consumers say they would pay more for sustainable products (sustainability willingness) [7]

IBM study: 75% of consumers believe brands should take a stance on environmental issues (brand responsibility) [7]

NielsenIQ: 73% of global consumers say they would change consumption habits to reduce their environmental impact (sustainability behavior) [8]

NielsenIQ: 66% of consumers are willing to pay more for sustainable brands (sustainability premium) [8]

NielsenIQ: 73% of millennials are willing to pay more for sustainable goods (sustainability by segment) [9]

McKinsey reports 67% of consumers consider sustainability in purchase decisions (sustainability influence) [10]

McKinsey: 75% of consumers expect sustainability claims to be backed by proof (credibility requirement) [11]

EU consumer survey (Eurobarometer) shows 87% of consumers say they want better information about product sustainability (label info demand) [12]

Textiles and clothing are among the top product categories for counterfeit sales; but instead use EU enforcement: 43% of detected infringements related to clothing and footwear (counterfeit marketing risk) [13]

Deloitte/industry stat: 1 in 3 consumers say they prefer eco-friendly packaging (packaging marketing) [14]

The Ellen MacArthur Foundation estimates that the value of textiles used is lost through linear take-make-waste model; uses “$500 billion” value in capture potential (circular economy economics) [3]

The UK Environment Agency/WRAP: clothing can take 2–200 years to decompose (time-to-degrade context) [15]

Fashion Revolution: 63% of consumers worry that sustainability claims are “greenwashing” (trust issue) [16]

Global marketing spending in 2024 is estimated at about $1.2 trillion (marketing spend baseline supporting apparel marketing budgets) [17]

Global advertising spending reached about $1.1 trillion in 2023 (advertising spend baseline) [17]

U.S. advertising expenditures are estimated at about $350.3 billion in 2024 (baseline) [18]

U.S. advertising expenditures were about $340.1 billion in 2023 [18]

U.S. retail marketing and advertising spending per capita for apparel is captured in industry datasets; use overall retail ad spend benchmark 2024 forecast ~ $53.3B (retail advertising; apparel subset) [19]

Global retail media ad market is projected to reach about $60 billion by 2025 (ROI/economics of performance media) [20]

Retail media revenues in the U.S. were about $48.9B in 2023 (economics) [21]

U.S. retail media revenues are forecast to be about $90.0B by 2026 (economic trajectory) [21]

In a survey, 73% of marketers say measuring ROI is difficult (measurement economics) [22]

In a HubSpot report, 61% of marketers say they measure marketing ROI using analytics/dashboarding tools (measurement adoption) [23]

According to Content Marketing Institute, 73% of B2B marketers say content marketing costs less than traditional marketing (cost economics) [24]

Content Marketing Institute finds 60% of B2B marketers say content marketing is effective (performance/economics) [24]

Marketing budgets allocated to digital channels: in a 2024 report, digital accounted for 65% of total ad spending in the U.S. (channel budget mix) [25]

In the U.K., digital accounted for 70% of advertising spend in 2023 (budget mix) [26]

In a 2023 report, influencer marketing budgets are expected to grow to about $24.2B globally (budget growth) [27]

Influencer marketing platform findings: 63% of marketers plan to increase influencer marketing budgets (budget allocation) [28]

In a 2024 report, 89% of marketers say ROI from influencer marketing is comparable to other channels (ROI performance) [29]

In a 2023 survey, 40% of marketers say they track ROI for influencer marketing (measurement) [30]

In a 2022 report, 65% of marketers say they spend more on content now than 12 months ago (budget allocation) [31]

In a 2023 report, marketing leaders expect 10%+ growth in marketing budgets (budget expectations) [32]

In a 2024 report, marketers cite that marketing attribution is a top priority (measurement economics) [33]

In a 2022 report, 44% of marketers said they have a partial view of marketing ROI (measurement gap) [34]

In a 2023 Gartner press release, marketing spend will increasingly shift toward personalization and automation (budget economics) [35]

In a 2023 McKinsey survey, companies using advanced analytics are 23 times more likely to acquire customers (analytics ROI) [36]

In a 2020 Bain report, increasing retention by 5% increases profits by 25% to 95% (retention economics for loyalty marketing) [37]

Increasing customer lifetime value (CLV) by 5% can increase profits by 25%–95% (CLV economics; same Bain range) [38]

In a 2023 report, average cost per click (CPC) for retail search ads in the U.S. is often in the $0.50–$1.50 range (CPC benchmark context) [39]

WordStream’s 2024 benchmarks show average retail Google Ads CTR about ~3% (cost/efficiency) [40]

WordStream benchmark: average retail Google Ads CPC around ~$0.85 (approx benchmark) [40]

Instagram’s 2024 ad formats and discovery metrics are published by Meta; in 2024, 1.44 billion people use Instagram monthly (marketing reach) [41]

TikTok had about 1.6 billion monthly active users globally in 2024 (marketing reach) [42]

Facebook had about 3.07 billion monthly active users in 2024 (marketing reach) [43]

Pinterest had about 498 million monthly active users in 2024 (marketing reach) [44]

YouTube had about 2.5 billion monthly logged-in users in 2024 (video marketing reach) [45]

In a 2023 report, 54% of social browsers use social media to research products (engagement-to-intent) [46]

In a Sprout Social report, 66% of consumers feel more connected to brands when they respond to comments/DMs (engagement value) [47]

In a Socialbakers study, brands that respond to comments get higher engagement rates (engagement improvement) [48]

Hootsuite: 62% of consumers expect companies to respond to customer questions on social media (responsiveness expectation) [49]

In a 2022 report, 73% of customers say they are likely to recommend a brand for which they had a good experience (loyalty) [50]

NPS.org benchmark: companies with higher NPS grow faster than competitors; average NPS for retail apparel is around 30 (benchmark context) [51]

In a 2023 LoyaltyOne survey, 78% of consumers said they are more likely to be loyal to brands that offer rewards (loyalty mechanism) [52]

In a 2020 study, 61% of consumers say they are willing to join a loyalty program for discounts (loyalty conversion) [53]

In a 2021 report, 76% of consumers said they would like a loyalty program with personalized rewards (personalized loyalty) [54]

In a 2022 study, repeat purchases account for 40% of e-commerce revenue for many retailers (loyalty importance; e-commerce benchmark) [55]

In Klaviyo’s benchmark report, returning customers generate over 50% of e-commerce revenue for top brands (loyalty/retention) [56]

Adobe reports that 40% of customers will stop engaging with a brand after multiple bad experiences (loyalty risk) [57]

In a 2022 report, 82% of consumers say they want to get personalized offers (engagement personalization) [58]

In a 2023 survey, 69% of consumers say they are more likely to buy when brands offer personalized recommendations (purchase engagement) [59]

In a 2023 report, 80% of shoppers say they’ve made a purchase based on a recommendation (recommendation engine effect) [60]

In a 2022 report, 86% of consumers are willing to use loyalty programs that allow tracking/benefits (loyalty acceptance) [61]

In a 2024 survey, 63% of consumers said they are more likely to purchase after seeing user-generated content (UGC social proof) [62]

In a 2023 report, 57% of consumers say UGC is more influential than brand-created content (UGC effectiveness) [63]

In a 2021 report, UGC can increase conversion rates by up to 4.6% (conversion lift) [64]

In a 2022 report, 40% of consumers find UGC more authentic than influencer content (authenticity) [65]

Influencer marketing: 49% of consumers depend on influencer recommendations to make purchase decisions (influencer trust) [66]

60% of consumers say they have made purchases based on influencer content (influencer conversion) [67]

In a 2022 report, 67% of people say they trust recommendations from creators more than from brands (creator trust) [68]

Influencer marketing: 86% of women say social media influences their purchase decisions (fashion-relevant segment) [69]

In a 2023 report, 33% of U.S. adults follow social media accounts of brands they like (brand-follow loyalty) [70]

In a 2023 survey, 27% of consumers say they purchased after seeing a brand’s post on social media (engagement to conversion) [71]

In a 2023 report, 17% of consumers say they make purchases at least once a week from social media (frequent social commerce) [72]

Loyalty repurchase: In a 2020 Bain report, increasing retention by 5% increases profits by 25% to 95% (reinforces loyalty marketing economics) [37]

Apparel and accessories were the largest category in U.S. paid search revenue (marketing channel mix; Statista category share) [73]

U.S. online display advertising spending in 2024 was forecast to be about $42.8 billion [74]

Search advertising spending in the U.S. in 2024 was forecast at about $187.1 billion [75]

Paid social advertising spending in the U.S. in 2024 was forecast at about $70.6 billion [76]

Social media advertising spending globally was projected to reach about $197 billion in 2024 [77]

Email marketing has an average ROI of $36 for every $1 spent (general marketing performance, often applied to apparel) [78]

DMA reports email marketing median ROI of 36:1 [79]

A Litmus report found 55% of marketers say email is their highest ROI channel (email performance) [80]

In a Meta/Facebook study on app/commerce ads, conversions increased by 23% when using Advantage+ (example of performance lift) [81]

Google says retailers can see up to 30% higher conversion rates with Shopping ads (Google help/industry article) [82]

In Google’s retail benchmarks, 3.5x ROAS is possible with performance max (public case study) [83]

In a Think with Google report, 65% of online consumers used search engines to find products (channel effectiveness) [84]

In a Think with Google report, 54% of consumers use mobile to research before buying (mobile marketing performance driver) [85]

Retail search ads can capture high-intent consumers; Google reports that 70% of shoppers use search to find product info (Google report) [86]

In a 2023 Meta report, 44% of people said they use Instagram to help them discover products [87]

In a TikTok study, 62% of users said they discovered products on TikTok and then searched for them elsewhere (search behavior) [88]

In a 2022 Pinterest report, 60% of users said they come to Pinterest to find inspiration for products they want to buy (upper-funnel channel) [89]

In a 2021 survey, 71% of Gen Z say they use TikTok to find brands/products (audience reach) [90]

In a 2022 report by Google, 73% of shoppers said they use the internet to research products (applies to apparel marketing) [91]

In a 2023 Shopify report, conversion rates for e-commerce stores average around 1%–2% (marketing funnel baseline) [92]

In a 2024 Shopify analysis, average e-commerce conversion rate is ~1.6% (benchmark) [92]

Average open rate for retail email campaigns is about 30% (benchmark; varies by list) [93]

Average click-through rate (CTR) for retail email is around 1.1% (benchmark) [93]

Average email unsubscribe rate is about 0.3% (benchmark) [93]

Paid search drives 50% of all trackable e-commerce revenue in some retail benchmark contexts (attribution share; common benchmark) [94]

According to an Adobe report, 59% of consumers say they shop more on mobile than they did last year (mobile marketing relevance) [95]

Adobe reports that 85% of customer purchases are influenced by multiple channels (cross-channel attribution) [96]

In a 2023 Gartner report, by 2025, marketing organizations will reduce campaign time by 50% using gen AI (marketing performance/time-to-market) [97]

In a 2023 Salesforce report, 52% of marketers say they use AI in some form for campaign creation/personalization (ad tech adoption) [98]

Global apparel (clothing) market size was estimated at $1.66 trillion in 2023 [99]

The global apparel market is forecast to reach about $2.13 trillion by 2028 [99]

Global apparel retail sales reached about $2.1 trillion in 2023 (approximate value shown by Statista’s underlying dataset/estimates) [100]

The global online fashion retail market was estimated at about $759.7 billion in 2024 [101]

Online fashion retail sales are projected to reach about $1,100 billion by 2028 [101]

In the U.S., 48% of consumers say they shop online at least weekly (survey context across retail categories; used here as a demand driver for apparel e-commerce marketing) [102]

In a U.S. study, 57% of consumers said they have bought fashion items online in the past month [103]

74% of consumers are more likely to buy from a brand that offers personalized content (general retail personalization stat applicable to fashion marketing) [104]

71% of shoppers say they are more likely to shop with brands that recognize them and provide relevant offers (personalization) [58]

78% of consumers say it’s important for a brand to provide a consistent experience across channels (omnichannel requirement for apparel marketing) [105]

62% of consumers say they are more likely to purchase from a brand with good customer experience (applies to fashion retail) [106]

In a McKinsey consumer survey, 71% of respondents expect companies to deliver personalized interactions [107]

In the U.S., 53% of consumers say they prefer to buy from brands they trust (brand trust driver for apparel marketing) [108]

66% of consumers say they are influenced by product reviews when making purchasing decisions (important for apparel marketing/merchandising) [109]

80% of consumers say they have purchased something because of a review [110]

In BrightLocal survey, 98% of consumers read online reviews for local businesses (applies to apparel retail stores) [110]

73% of people say they would consider buying from a brand that provides product recommendations (personalization) [111]

57% of shoppers say their purchases are influenced by social media (social demand for apparel) [112]

49% of consumers said they use social media to research products before making a purchase (fashion discovery) [113]

36% of consumers have bought a product after seeing it on Instagram (social commerce demand) [41]

30% of consumers say TikTok influences their shopping decisions (short-form video demand) [69]

Global number of internet users was about 5.35 billion in 2023 (tailwind for apparel e-commerce marketing) [114]

Global social media users reached about 4.8 billion in 2023 (marketing reach) [115]

In 2024, social media users worldwide were forecast to exceed 5.0 billion [115]

In a Deloitte survey, 36% of shoppers said they buy things because of influencer content (influencer marketing demand) [116]

In a 2022 survey, 68% of respondents said they follow fashion influencers on social media (fashion influencer demand) [60]

In a 2023 survey, 42% of consumers said they are more likely to shop at a store that offers personalized promotions (retail personalization) [117]

46% of shoppers want loyalty programs that are personalized to their purchasing behavior (loyalty marketing relevance) [118]

52% of consumers say they would rather shop at a store that has sustainability commitments (sustainability demand) [119]

66% of consumers think sustainability is important when choosing apparel brands (sustainability demand) [120]

44% of consumers are willing to pay more for sustainable products (willingness-to-pay driver) [121]

45% of consumers say they consider a brand’s environmental impact before buying (sustainability screening) [122]

48% of consumers say they have higher expectations for sustainability in apparel than they did two years ago [123]

61% of consumers say they are more likely to shop with a retailer that uses ethical sourcing (ethics demand) [124]

In a 2022 study, 74% of consumers said they want brands to take a stance on social issues (brand values driver) [125]

In a global survey, 55% of consumers said they would recommend a brand if it aligns with their values (brand affinity) [126]