The fashion industry has always been one of the most lucrative and broad industries in the world. Clothes and fashion effect and influence almost everyone on the planet, and the introduction of the internet has not only caused this to grow but to absolutely skyrocket. Over the next 5 weeks on my blog, I will be talking about all aspects of online clothes shopping, both the production and distribution of it and how it has affected shopping in real life. I will also talk about some of the biggest brands right now on the market, and the methods that these websites utilise in order to increase their success and awareness of them.
The Rise of Online Shopping
Shopping has always been one of the world’s favourite pastimes, for both men and women, and this was true even before online shopping began. Online shopping has allowed the chance for people to purchase anything they could ever want at just the touch of a button. Clothing brands which once began on the high streets and shopping centres have now started to transfer a lot of their efforts into their own online websites, people preferring to browse from the comfort of their own homes. On a poll I set on my companion Instagram, @NotSoFastFash, 100% of my followers answered that they often use online shopping as a way of buying new clothes for themselves. ‘Online fashion sales are increasing year-on-year and retailers are keen to invest in strong, user-friendly web platforms to drive what, in today’s market, can account for a considerable percentage of their business. A recent Drapers study into the online buying habits of UK consumers revealed that 48% of shoppers buy clothes online at least once a month,’ and linking these results to the ones I found in my own time, it is clear to see that this is the truth!
The Benefits of Browsing Online
People are choosing to shop online frequently for a number of reasons, the first one being that shopping online is a task that can be done in all weather, any time of the day, not restricted by opening closing times of high street stores. I know it’s not just me who has been in the position where you know you need to venture out into the world to do something, but you just can’t bring yourself to leave the comfort of your own bed, and the availability of online clothes shopping takes this dilemma away completely. The introduction of next day delivery also means the wait for these products bought online has been reduced completely, to being now almost instant.
The Kamani Family Fashion Empire
(Image from @AishaKamani on Instagram)
We will now be discussing one of the biggest families in the online fashion industry in the UK, one who has revolutionised it and achieved astronomical amounts of success.
Mahmud Kamani is a British businessman of Kenyan descent, who is the co-founder and joint CEO of Boohoo.com, an extremely successful online fashion brand, which he founded in 2006. Boohoo is an extremely affordable online clothing brand, mostly marketed at young females, and since its inception, it has grown and achieved mass success, and in 2019 is still one of the most popular and successful British online fashion brands. In a Daily Mail article written about the Kamani family, it is said that ‘Today, Boohoo has a workforce of 1,415, with teams in Manchester, Burnley, London, New York and Los Angeles. It is endorsed by celebrities like Little Mix and the cast of TOWIE, and is worth an eye-watering £2.6 billion.’ (Daily Mail 2018).
More recently following in their father’s footsteps, his sons Umar and Adam Kamani went on to found Prettylittlething.com in 2012. Pretty Little Thing is a very similar brand to their fathers, selling fashion-forward, affordable clothing items and accessories mainly marketed towards young female shoppers. In the same article mentioned before, Daily Mail wrote that ‘PrettyLittleThing employs 300 staff and counts singers Miley Cyrus, Rita Ora and Nicki Minaj among its fans. The brand opened a flagship store in LA in 2016, and Kylie Jenner attended the launch party.’
The family have become a huge name in the business, and they have forged and cemented their own place in the fashion industry, and their success seems to only be increasing year by year as online clothes shopping also continues to grow.
What’s To Come…
To round out my first blog post which has introduced the online shopping industry, I just wanted to give a little taster to you guys of what is to come on my second blog post next week! In my second post, I will be talking about some of the most popular and influential online clothing brands right now and giving you my own personal top 10 list of the brands I believe are the most successful currently.
See you guys next week!