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 ** 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. ** percent of respondents from China and ** 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. ** percent of lifestyle brand consumers in France and ** 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, ** percent of H&M’s electricity comes from renewable sources.

In the United States, adidas.com was the clothing retailer website whose average monthly traffic increased the most between 2020 and 2021, with a nearly ** percent growth rate. Shein.com came in second, with ** percent more monthly visitors.

According to the source, Shein has been a leading force in the fast fashion industry in terms of sales growth. The online fast fashion retailer from China had a peak in sales growth in the first quarter of 2021 with an increase of ***** percent. In comparison, the fast fashion market, excluding Shein, saw a **** percent sales increase in that same quarter. In Q2 2023, Shein's sales growth has decreased to **** percent, while the fast fashion market reportedly saw a **** percent decrease in sales.

Online fast-fashion retailers in the United Kingdom (UK) produce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions each time consumers visit their websites. In first place comes Boohoo, being the biggest polluter, producing **** grams of CO2 per visit. Nasty Gal is the second largest retailer to pollute, emitting *** grams of CO2 per visit. Forever 21 followed shortly behind, producing *** grams of CO2 per site visit.

The global luxury fashion market size was USD 259.74 billion in 2024 & is projected to grow from USD 274.8 billion in 2025 to USD 431.43 billion by 2033.
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In the first half of 2021, Chinese online fast fashion retailer Shein invested ** million U.S. dollars in digital advertising in the United States. Swedish H&M spent ** million on online ads in the same period. The only beauty brand in the data set, Ulta Beauty, which is a U.S. chain of beauty stores, had a digital ad expenditure of ** million. The company's total ad expenses stood at ***** million in the fiscal year 2020.

In 2023, Inditex sales amounted to approximately ***** billion euros, representing a notably higher sales value than any other leading Spanish fashion retailer. As the home of Zara and Pull&Bear, Inditex is also the parent company of two of the 10 leading apparel brands worldwide. Puig ranked second on the list, followed by Mango.

Inditex’s successful brands Inditex owned five of the seven most valuable Spanish fashion brands in 2024. Zara has been the company’s strongest brand worldwide since 2013, but other brands are growing significantly in terms of net sales. Zara is known for selling clothing, accessories, beauty products, and perfumes. As a fast-fashion retail brand, it is competitive with the likes of H&M and Primark.

Fierce competition in fast fashion H&M and Zara have been competing for the global fast fashion crown since 2010. In 2022, Zara began to take the lead in a global brand value comparison. Within Spain, Inditex, H&M, and Primark made up the majority of fashion sales in 2022, a trend that can only be expected to continue based on Inditex’s sales value and status as a global and domestic leader.

In the measured time period, June 2025 saw the highest figures for online traffic to the fashion retail website zara.com. According to the data, desktop and mobile visits to zara.com reached 98 million visits that month.

In the fashion market worldwide in 2024, the apparel segment generated the highest revenue, reaching approximately 457.23 billion U.S. dollars. The accessories segment ranked second with around 185.6 billion U.S. dollars, while footwear followed with about 128.06 billion U.S. dollars.

According to a recent study predicting consumer demand for leading brands in the fashion industry during Black Friday in the UK in 2021, JD Sports Fashion is expected to see the highest growth with an increase of ** percent. Based on predictions, the Spanish fast fashion brand Zara is expected to see an increase of **** percent in consumer demand during this year's Black Friday sales period.

In 2021, Shein was the most searched fashion retail brand on Google in the United States, with a monthly average search volume of **** million. Founded in 2008, Shein is a Chinese online fast fashion retailer. The second most searched fashion retailer brand was Old Navy, with almost *** million average monthly searches.

In the United States, Shein was the most downloaded app in the fashion and beauty app segment in 2024, registering more than ** million downloads. Nike ranked second, with *** million, followed by Poshmark with about ***** million. The rise of fast fashion SHEIN-Fashion Shopping Online is the mobile app of Chinese company Shein, focused on selling fast fashion over the internet. Known for its vast catalog of inexpensive, trendy clothing, Shein has seen its popularity quickly skyrocket across the globe, particularly among younger consumers. Helped by the COVID-19 pandemic and an aggressive marketing strategy, Shein's app hit new records in monthly downloads in the U.S. in 2020. The brand has also positioned itself as the most searched brand on Google in the North American country, surpassing long-established local competitors such as Old Navy and JCPenney in 2021. Resale is not to be forgotten As a counter-proposal to the overconsumption encouraged by fast fashion, various brands have been increasingly betting on resale. In the United States, platforms such as Poshmark and GOAT have incorporated this option, attracting thousands of online shoppers interested in giving fashion items a second life. In 2021, Poshmark's app totaled some 10.4 million downloads on iOS and Android devices, while GOAT was downloaded 7.5 million times in the same period. According to forecasts, the value of the U.S. online resale market will increase nearly threefold between 2020 and 2030, to nearly *** billion U.S. dollars.

In financial year 2021, an estimated *** kilotons of clothing waste was generated in Australia. Around *** kilotons of this clothing waste was given to donation or collection services, whilst around *** kilotons went straight to landfill. The largest proportion of clothing donations, around *** kilotons, was exported from Australia with the intention of being resold; nonetheless, the fate of much of this clothing is uncertain, with the possibility that many of these donations went to landfill abroad. An estimated ** to ** kilotons of clothing donations were resold in charity shops in Australia.

When it came to launching new products, online quick fashion retailer SHEIN demonstrated a highspeed compared to traditional fashion retailers. Approximately ******* new SKUs were added to SHEIN in 2021, compared to only 1,000 at UNIQLO.

In 2022, China was the top ranked global clothing exporter with a share of approximately 31.7 percent, followed by the European Union, Bangladesh, and Viet Nam. In that year, China and the European Union were also the leading textile exporters in the world.

Apparel and clothing market in Europe

Europe has one of the most lucrative apparel and clothing markets in the world. In 2020, specialized clothing stores in the European Union generated more than 139 billion euros in turnover from retail sales, continuing the downturn experienced in 2019. Between 2011 and 2020, the number of clothing and footwear retail stores in the European Union has decreased, despite steady increase in turnover from retail sales during this time period. This could be attributable to the key role e-commerce came to play in the apparel market in Europe and beyond. In 2019, there were some 262 thousand stores specializing in clothing and around 53 thousand footwear and leather goods stores in the EU.

Leading clothing retailers in Europe

Europe is home to some of the world’s most famous clothing retailers and brands. The Spanish apparel company Inditex was the leading fashion retailer in Europe, with a turnover of 17.5 billion euros in 2021. Inditex is the mother company of iconic brands such as Zara, Bershka, Stradivarius, Massimo Dutti, Pull&Bear and more. The Swedish H&M (Hennes and Mauritz) followed in second place, with a turnover of around 13.2 billion euros. The German fashion retailer Zalando came in third place, with roughly 10.4 billion euros in annual turnover in 2021. A brand value comparison between H&M and Zara shows that the Swedish retailer’s brand value was higher than Zara’s.

In fiscal year 2024, Fast Retailing operated ***** stores worldwide, continuing the upward momentum that has only been throttled twice in the past 27 years - most recently in the previous fiscal year of 2021.Fast Retailing is a Japanese clothing and accessories retailer headquartered in Yamaguchi prefecture. The company is globally best known through its subsidiary and fashion brand UNIQLO.

The Japanese fashion company Fast Retailing reported a ******* in emissions from raw materials and fabric and garment production for Uniqlo and GU in fiscal year 2024. The greenhouse gas emissions from purchased goods and services for both fashion brands amounted to around *** million tons of CO₂ equivalent.

When asked about the websites they used to shop for fashion items, nearly ********* (** percent) of internet users surveyed in Mexico named the fast-fashion retailer SHEIN as their preferred site. Amazon and Liverpool followed, each with ** percent of respondents.

The Russian fashion retail market's sales value has generally followed a downward trend over the period observed. In 2021, the figure amounted to *** trillion Russian rubles, having recovered from **** trillion Russian rubles in the year earlier. The negative trend can be attributed to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, which resulted in clothing stores being forced to temporarily shut down. Russia from the global perspective Russia has long been known as a major resource exporter. Justifiably so, as the oil and natural gas sector accounts for a lion’s share of the country’s exports and contributes over a quarter to its gross domestic product (GDP). With a population of nearly *** million people in mid-2021, Russia is the largest consumer market in Europe and the ninth-largest consumer market in the world. Yet, the country has never been thought of as a nation of spenders, especially given its past crusades against capitalism. What is the future of the fashion retail market in Russia? After a worldwide deep crisis phase from 2008 until 2010, the Russian clothing market has recovered comparatively fast in the following years. Furthermore, the total market revenue was projected a stable growth, with an increase of about ** percent in 2026 compared to 2021. However, the rising cost of salaries and wages, higher rent prices, friction from job rotation of trained employees among competitors, and the unavailability of a skilled labor force had a significant impact on the competitiveness of clothing retailers in Russia. Particularly, the Russian textile production has been struggling, leading to a substantial decline of over *** percent in employment rates in this sector relative to the 2000 levels.

In 2022, Fast Retailing was the leading fashion company in Japan, with sales exceeding *** trillion Japanese yen. The clothing manufacturer and retailer owns the casual wear brand Uniqlo, which is the main contributor to the group company’s sales with its worldwide business operations. The Japanese ceramics and electronics manufacturer Kyocera ranked in second place, manufacturing and selling jewelry and accessories. The Japanese fashion industry The domestic apparel market showed stable retail sales in the decade before the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, with womenswear being the main market segment. However, manufacturers have been exploring new market opportunities within the menswear segment through trending casual wear styles and other alternatives to formal wear. Workwear suits were expected to show continued growth in popularity, being considered a more comfortable alternative made from functional materials as compared to deep-rooted business suits. Japanese fashion trends Trends within the Japanese fashion market are inspired and influenced by a variety of domestic and foreign sources, ranging from global trends to influencers on social networking services (SNS), popular culture, and traditional crafts. The Tokyo Fashion Week is the largest fashion event in Japan, at which prominent and small labels showcase their newest styles and creations. Outside of the semi-annual event in the capital city, local fashion shows in other prefectures like Fukuoka and Aichi target the general public with their showcases of domestic casual wear brands.