Last year, online fashion sales decreased 7 percent in Switzerland, compared to 2023. The total online revenue for fashion came to around 2.4 billion euros in the country. The online share of the fashion market in Switzerland was around 30 percent.
These data come from the latest update on Swiss online fashion retail from Carpathia. This is a Swiss ecommerce management consultancy. Earlier this year, the same company already indicated that Swiss consumers spent a record of 15.9 billion euros online in 2024.
This was an increase of 3.5 percent compared to a year earlier, but when corrected for inflation the volume growth was 2.4 percent. While ecommerce in the country increased slightly, it seems that the online sales of clothing and accessories have decreased.
Zalando is the biggest online seller in fashion
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When looking at the top 10 biggest online retailers in Switzerland, Zalando has been the market leader in the country for several years now. Carpathia’s latest update now indicates that when looking at only fashion sales, Zalando is still the most dominant seller. In 2024, its fashion sales amounted to 1.8 billion euros (1.7 billion Swiss francs).
Growth of Chinese online sellers
Chinese online seller Shein has increased its sales in Switzerland in the last couple of years. While it does not only sell clothing and accessories, Carpathia estimates that this fashion category takes up 80 percent of Shein’s sales in Switzerland.
Shein generated more than 214 million euros in fashion sales in Switzerland in 2024
In its first year there, in 2022, it achieved a turnover in fashion sales of 55.7 million euros (55 million Swiss francs). Last year, it generated 214.2 million euros (200 million Swiss francs) in fashion sales. For the second year in a row, it ranks in second place of the list of the biggest online fashion sellers in the country.
Other Chinese online sellers are also making an impact on Swiss online fashion. Carpathia expects that Temu’s fashion share in Switzerland is around 35 percent, while AliExpress’ share comes to 30 percent. Together with Shein, these platforms generated 602 million euros (562 million Swiss francs) in online fashion sales in the country.
‘Cheap is cool’
“This development demonstrates that affordable fashion is in tune with the zeitgeist – “cheap is cool” is back, at least in the closet. The overflowing collections of secondhand clothing also testify to this and are clear indicators that cheap fashion is trending”, according to the press release.
Recommerce is lagging behind
While Swiss consumers do sell second-hand clothing on platforms, the recommerce market in the country is still lagging behind other European online markets. For example, in France, Vinted is the biggest online fashion seller. It ranked higher than traditional online sellers. In Switzerland, there are some niche providers that offer a marketplace model, but market leaders like Vinted and Zalando Pre-Owned are still not active there.
