The fashion industry is projected to grow significantly in the next ten years. Two categories in the fashion industry that are of interest are the fast fashion market and the second-hand fashion market. By 2029, the fast fashion market is expected to grow by 20 percent. For the second-hand market this number is higher at 185 percent.

Market overview

Because of technological innovation, fashion in the last two decades has been produced at an accelerating speed. This so called 'fast' fashion is known for it’s accessible price point. Additionally, it often responds well to current trends because of product turnover, which further increases the appeal. European brands such as

Shein's market share in the United States more than doubled between March 2020 and March 2022, going from approximately 18 to 40 percent. This market share gain occurred at the expense of nearly all other fast fashion companies in the United States, as all except Zara saw their market share dwindle during that time period. Most notably, H&M's market share in the U.S. decreased ten percentage points between March 2020 and March 2022. By November 2022, Shein held 50 percent of the U.S. fast fashion market.

Fast fashion e-commerce

As the fast fashion industry continues to evolve, Shein is not the only e-commerce pure player disrupting the overall landscape. Companies such as ASOS and Zalando, for example, can turn out collections with remarkable speed, providing an edge against their brick-and-mortar competitors. From 2020 to 2022, net sales at ASOS.com are forecast to increase by more than two million U.S. dollars. Over the same time period, Zalando's net sales are forecast to increase by nearly one million U.S. dollars.

The rise of Shein

Shein may not be the only e-commerce pure player changing the landscape of the fast fashion industry, but it is definitely the most prominent one. According to estimates, the fast fashion giant has seen its revenue increase by more than 22 billion U.S. dollars since 2016. Maybe even more impressive is the fact that Shein.com was the second fastest growing e-commerce website in the world in 2022, and was the only fashion company to crack the list.

Of the surveyed fast fashion retailers in Europe, H&M had the highest proportion of sustainable collections among their clothing lines in the first quarter of 2021, at almost 25 percent. Notably, the percentage of sustainable clothing at Zara and C&A decreased massively from 2020 to 2021.

Sustainable fashion consumers

Sustainability is an increasingly important topic in many aspects of life, and consumers around the world are paying more attention to the sustainability of fashion. A 2022 survey showed that the majority of lifestyle brand consumers care more about the sustainability of products than they did in the previous year. 80 percent of respondents from China and 67 percent of respondents from the United States said that their concerns had increased. One way of shopping more sustainably is to simply buy fewer products. 73 percent % of lifestyle brand consumers in France and 69 percent in the United Kingdom (UK) said that they were intending to purchase fewer products for the sake of sustainability.

H&M sustainability

Fashion brands are aware of the consumer demand to act more sustainably. There is particular pressure on fast fashion companies, such as H&M and Zara, to reduce their environmental impact. In response, these companies have set sustainability targets and publish their progress. H&M intends to source 100 percent of its materials sustainably, and use 100 percent renewable electricity by 2030. Currently, 95 percent % of H&M’s electricity comes from renewable sources.

Based on the revenue figures from the company's financial year 2018, Spain-based retailer Zara (Inditex) ranked as the leading fast-fashion company in Europe. In that year, Zara generated around 22 billion British pounds, surpassing the annual revenues of British retailers Marks & Spencer and Primark combined.

Fast fashion’s product suppliers
The fashion industry’s big names such as Zara and H&M are known for driving overproduction of apparel, which is predominantly outsourced through supplier factories in developing countries. H&M’s two main suppliers are located in China and Bangladesh, for instance. While the former also happens to be where most of the Inditex Group’s products are manufactured, the Spanish fashion retailer also has suppliers around European countries, such as Portugal and Spain.

Europe’s textile waste problem

Fast fashion companies often receive criticism for a string of reasons, the main ones revolving around environmental and ethical issues. Besides concerns around materials used in the production of clothes, unsold apparel that may end up sitting in companies’ inventories and clothing products that actually reach consumers but end up getting discarded create immediate problems. Recent studies looking into discarded textile items demonstrated that in Europe total textile waste produced per person was as high as nearly 15 kilograms, most of which went to landfills to complicate the matter even further.

This statistic shows the market value of the apparel second-hand apparel and fast fashion market worldwide. By 2030, the global market value of second hand apparel forecast to value at 84 billion U.S. dollars.

In early 2024, two-thirds of Hispanic Americans surveyed stated that they purchase fast fashion products, while over 60 percent of non-Hispanic Americans indicated that they don't purchase fast fashion items.

Shein had the lowest womenswear prices compared to all other fast-fashion retailers in the United States. According to average prices monitored on March 8, 2022, dresses would be sold at 15.74 U.S. dollars on Shein, while Zara had an average selling price of 48.19 U.S. dollars for the same product. The price difference was also also quite stark for women's outwear: shoppers were charged an average of 19.72 dollars for outwear products sold on Shein, compared to H&M's 51.22 dollars and Zara's 78.27 dollars.

In the United States, the online retailer selling fast fashion that was most liked or loved by shoppers in March 2023 was Amazon.com. When it came to fast fashion, the online marketplace was reported as liked or loved by 42 percent of women and 34 percent of men. Meanwhile, omnichannel retailer Old Navy was liked or loved by 42 percent of women and 35 percent of men.

The value of the fast fashion market worldwide was estimated to be worth over 106 billion U.S. dollars in 2022. This was forecast to rise considerably in the following years. In 2027, the global market value of fast fashion was forecast to reach a value of approximately 185 billion U.S. dollars.

H&M and Zara Two of the major brands in the fast fashion industry are H&M and Zara. These two brands have jostled for position as the market leader in recent years, with the title for highest brand value changing hands on several occasions. In 2022, Zara came out on top, with a value of approximately 15 billion U.S. dollars. Zara is owned by the Spanish company Inditex, which also operates brands such as Bershka and Pull&Bear.

Shein making gains in the U.S. However, these two brands have faced increased competition from online retailers, one of the most notable being Shein, the Chinese fast fashion company. Shein saw its share of the fast fashion market in the United States more than double from March 2020 to 2022, claiming the largest portion of the market. This came at the expense of brands such as H&M, which lost a 10 percent share.

Fast fashion industry has been under the environmental spotlight in recent years, due to a variety of reasons including the growing amount of household textile waste in Europe. One of the main reasons why fast fashion is a usual suspect in the issue is the large quantities of clothing and apparel items sold by brands usually at cheap prices.

As displayed in this statistic, in 2019, leading Europe-based fast fashion brands sold as many as almost 3 billion units, as in the case of Zara. Following the Spanish fashion group Inditex's Zara, H&M ranked in second place, having sold around 2.2 billion clothing and apparel items in the year 2018/19.

The revenue in the fashion e-commerce market in the United Kingdom was forecast to continuously increase between 2024 and 2029 by in total 18.2 billion U.S. dollars (+45.56 percent). After the sixth consecutive increasing year, the indicator is estimated to reach 58.1 billion U.S. dollars and therefore a new peak in 2029. Find more information concerning North America and the United States. The Statista Market Insights cover a broad range of additional markets.

The market size of fast fashion was valued at over 11 billion U.S. dollars in India. The market is likely to grow at CAGR of 16.5 percent by 2030. H&M, Zara, and Roadster were some of the popular fast fashion brands in the country.

In December 2023, the fast-fashion e-commerce site shein.com was the most visited in the fashion and apparel category worldwide, accounting for over 2.6 percent of desktop traffic. The online site for Nike ranked second, with 1.93 percent of visits.

Chinese brand's popularity in the U.S market

Based on the yearly percentage growth in terms of website traffic, shein.com emerged as the one of the leading fast-fashion retailer websites in the United States in 2021, with a growth of 45 percent compared to 2020. The affordable fast-fashion retailer also got listed as the second most downloaded shopping application in App Store in the United States, with over 17 million downloads in 2021.

Shein and U.S. teens

Shein does not have any physical stores, but it has garnered millions of followers across the globe for its wide range of trendy products and rock-bottom prices. It is the second preferred online shopping website of teens in the United States, after Amazon.

The ranking of the most sustainable cotton usage European retailer is led by H&M Group, with a score of 77.4. Scores are based on the retailer’s policy, uptake and traceability performance in relation to cotton usage. A score above 50 places retailers in the “leading way” class, a score between 25 and 50 is “well on the way” and a score below 25 is classified as “starting the journey” to sustainable cotton usage.

Sustainable Cotton and Fast Fashion In the assessment, the Spanish fast-fashion company INDITEX S.A., which is famous for its retailer Zara, received the lowest sustainable cotton score of 15.9. This low score is in stark contrast to its high revenue, which ranked as the leading fast-fashion company in Europe in 2018. In addition, INDITEX has also been ranked as the leading carbon emissions retailer in Europe.

Attitudes Towards Sustainable Consumption
Supportive attitudes towards sustainable fashion seem to be correlated to age of consumers. In other words, the younger the cohort, the more supportive they tend to be of sustainable fashion. 49 percent of consumers in the 18 to 24 age range report being “very supportive” of sustainability in the fashion industry, compared to 25 percent of consumers in the 55 plus age range. However, many consumers are unaware of the sustainability of fashion brands’ supply chains. Only 15 percent of consumers associated H&M with having a sustainable supply chain. This suggests that apparel retailers should perhaps be more transparent with their sustainability practices to improve their brand image in the eyes of consumers.

According to a survey conducted in September 2024, nearly 90 percent of American consumers thought that social media fueled overconsumption of fashion. Just under 60 percent believed that Americans valued quantity over quality in fashion.

Inditex had the highest sales among the selected major apparel retailers and manufacturers, with revenues of approximately 38.9 billion U.S. dollars in fiscal year 2023. Hennes and Mauritz (H&M), and Fast Retailing were ranked second and third, respectively. Leading apparel retail brands Nike was recognized as the most valuable apparel brand in 2023, however, the company primarily designs, manufactures and deals with athletic apparel, footwear and sporting goods. On the other hand, Inditex, Hennes & Mauritz (H&M), and Ralph Lauren are retailers, who operate in the conventional apparel market. These companies cater to the apparel needs of men, women, children and in some cases infants. Inditex as a global brand Inditex owns many recognizable fashion apparel brands such as Zara, Massimo Dutti, Bershka, Pull and Bear, and Stradivarius—its most recognised brand being Zara. Inditex utilizes the fast fashion business model. Fast fashion companies manufacture have their garments prototyped in a very short amount of time. As a result, clothing items go from design to store shelves very quickly. Some retailers can manage this process in as little as 15 days. This also means they can market more collections throughout the year. Inditex has an impressive global reach. The company has more stores than its main competitors, H&M and Fast Retailing.

During the 2023 financial year, the revenue generated from the sales of fast fashion items of SSI Group in the Philippines amounted to about 10 billion Philippine pesos, indicating an increase from the previous year. SSI Group is the country's leading specialty retailer, offering consumers clothing brands such as Marks and Spencer, Stradivarius, Superdry, Women's Secret, Zara, and Springfield.

According to a survey conducted in 2022, over 70 percent of consumers shared that they were concerned about sustainability when making fashion purchases. Just three percent answered that they would pay a premium for sustainably produced clothing.

In 2021, slightly more than half 55.3 percent of e-commerce fashion sales in the United Kingdom were made by women. Across segment women were more likely to purchase fashion products like apparel, footwear, and bags & accessories online. Only in the bags & accessories market segment do women make up more than 60 percent of sales, accounting for over 68 percent of all purchases.

In 2022, a survey revealed that in the United States, the majority of fast fashion was purchased online, with nearly half of respondents reporting that they bought their fast fashion apparel through the internet. In comparison, 35 percent reported that they bought fast-fashion items in-store.