The apparel e-commerce landscape in the Asia-Pacific Region
Roberta Cavalcante
Senior Corporate Marketing ManagerComscore
In many corners of Asia, e-commerce is being re-invented; and fashion, which constantly reinvents itself, greatly contributes to this dynamic. Therefore, in this week’s edition of Comscore Snapshots, we look at apparel e-commerce sites, where users can buy clothing online, in order to answer questions such as: What is the size of the market? Who are the major players in the sector? How has it been impacted by the pandemic?
As of August 2021, by far the largest market among the selected countries is India, with 158 million unique visitors to sites that focus exclusively on apparel retail. This is followed by Japan, with 9 million unique visitors, and Indonesia, with nearly 8 million.
Table 1. Size of apparel audience
| Internet - Total Unique Visitors (Millions) | Apparel Retail - Total Unique Visitors (Millions) |
India | 467.9 | 158.0 |
Japan | 132.1 | 9.0 |
Indonesia | 91.1 | 7.7 |
Australia | 20.0 | 1.5 |
Malaysia | 19.9 | 1.8 |
Taiwan | 17.7 | 1.2 |
Hong Kong | 6.3 | 0.4 |
Singapore | 5.1 | 0.3 |
Source: Comscore MMX Multi-Platform, Total Audience, August 2021, India, Japan, Indonesia, Australia, Malaysia, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore.
A look at the top players in each market shows that a handful of brands that go direct to consumers tend to perform well – witness the position of Shein and Adidas. Particularly noteworthy is the rise of Shein, which we also observed in our analysis of the apparel e-commerce landscape in Europe. Within the APAC region, we could say that they have their place in the sun, as the brand leads the Australia and Malaysia market as the most visited site.
Table 2. Top apparel players – sites or apps
Top apparel players - sites or apps | |
India | MYNTRA.COM |
Japan | ZOZO.JP |
Indonesia | Net-A-Porter (Mobile App) |
Australia | SHEIN* |
Malaysia | SHEIN* |
Taiwan | OBDESIGN.COM.TW |
Hong Kong | ADIDAS GROUP |
Singapore | ADIDAS GROUP |
*Shein consists of SHEIN Shopping (Mobile App) and shein.com
Source: Comscore MMX Multi-Platform, Total Audience, August 2021, India, Japan, Indonesia, Australia, Malaysia, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore.
The pandemic-induced lockdowns have disrupted both the supply and demand side of the apparel industry, by forcing manufacturing plants and stores to close down. Yet, online retail has remained stable throughout, and this is reflected in the table below: the reach of online apparel retail has remained relatively stable throughout the pandemic, with slight oscillations over time.
Table 3. Apparel reach %
| Apparel reach % | ||
| 2019 average | 2020 average | 2021 average |
India | 32 | 28 | 30 |
Australia | 7 | 6 | 8 |
Japan | 11 | 11 | 10 |
Malaysia | 7 | 6 | 7 |
Hong Kong | 8 | 8 | 7 |
Taiwan | 10 | 8 | 7 |
Indonesia | 5 | 3 | 6 |
Singapore | 6 | 5 | 7 |
Source: Comscore MMX Multi-Platform, Total Audience, Jan 2019 - Aug 2021, India, Japan, Indonesia, Australia, Malaysia, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore.