Top Consumer Buying Trends for Fashion and Apparel Brands

When consumers shop online today, chances are they’re buying fashion or apparel.

Fashion and apparel are the most purchased online categories, with 65% of shoppers purchasing these items within the last year, according to Salsify’s “2026 Consumer Research” report.

The global ecommerce apparel market was valued at approximately $779 billion in 2025 and is estimated to reach nearly two trillion dollars in 2035, according to Precedence Research.

Brands that want to capture some of this market share will need to adapt to several consumer buying trends. Here are five consumer fashion trends influencing fashion and apparel ecommerce, and how your company can capitalize on them.

1. The Rise of the Resale Market

One in five shoppers now regularly buys secondhand or from resale platforms, according to Salsify research.

Evolving global trade policies, namely tariffs, are influencing this behavior. With rising prices, consumers have gotten more cost-conscious. They’re more values-driven, too. Many are embracing sustainability-minded brands and circular fashion to reduce their environmental impact.

Twenty-six percent of shoppers say sustainable or recyclable packaging indicates product quality and value, according to Salsify’s consumer research.

Brands should lean into these sentiments and highlight characteristics that set their products apart, such as sustainable design, their company’s public climate commitments, or their product durability. Also consider launching a resale or recommerce program that lets consumers sell and buy pre-loved items.

Image Source: Levi’s

Consumers want to lower the cost per wear of fashion and apparel, so use these programs to engage them and give them more value for their money.

2. Every Shopper Is Now an Omnichannel Shopper

This shouldn’t be surprising, but consumers scour multiple channels before they make a purchase. From Amazon and other marketplaces to direct-to-consumer (D2C) sites and generative AI (GenAI) engines like ChatGPT and Google Gemini, shoppers obtain multiple inputs before they make a buying decision.

Fifty-four percent of fashion and apparel shoppers review two to three channels before their purchase, while 21% review four to six. They showroom and webroom, browsing several physical and digital touchpoints before committing.

And this isn’t because consumers are fickle — they’re just gathering intel. Fashion and apparel brands can use this behavior to their advantage by delivering cohesive, engaging, and accurate product content that familiarizes shoppers with their offerings long before they’re ready to buy.

First, make sure you tell a consistent story on your product detail pages (PDPs), regardless of channel. Next, give consumers options like buy online, pick up in-store (BOPIS), or purchase in-store and ship-to-home if a product isn’t in stock.

Omnichannel is now table stakes, so it’s up to your brand to meet consumers wherever they are.

3. Quality Product Content Is the Ultimate Conversion Driver

Arguably, fashion and apparel, more than any other category, rely on quality product content to move merchandise.

Your PDP can make or break whether a consumer converts.

Image Source: Target

Shoppers say product images and videos (61%) are the most important PDP elements that compel them to buy. They also love ratings, reviews, and user-generated content (UGC) (57%), along with enhanced product content, such as comparison charts, feature tours, and brand content (37%). However, poor product content leads to cart abandonment and returns.

This is a clear signal for brands: Consumers need to trust what you’re telling — and selling — them. Inaccurate or low-quality product content undermines that trust.

In fashion and apparel ecommerce, consumers need to really see a product since they can’t actually feel it, so use your PDP, along with things like virtual try-ons and live shopping experiences, to give them a complete picture.

4. The AI Shopping Era Has Arrived

Move over search engine optimization (SEO), brands now have to create generative engine optimization (GEO)-driven content, too.

Consumers are now using generative AI tools for product discovery: 22% use AI tools for product research, according to Salsify’s consumer research. At the same time, only 14% fully trust AI recommendations.

This AI trust gap creates an opportunity for brands. AI is still a discovery layer and not a decision layer. It’s one of many sources consumers now turn to, but they still use other channels to validate a product before they purchase it.

In 2026, no brand can afford to ignore AI. You’ll need to optimize your content for generative AI engines, which means paying even closer attention to your brand presence online.

GenAI engines pull information from the entire internet, so if your product content isn’t consistent across channels, it could reflect poorly on your brand when consumers go searching for more information.

As your brand fine-tunes its omnichannel strategy, think about how to make AI a bigger part of your marketing mix.

5. Gen Alpha Are the New Influencers

Generation Alpha, a group born between 2010 and 2024, is reshaping household spending.

According to Salsify research, Gen Alpha influences 43% of household purchases and 24% of fashion and apparel purchases. Basically, their wants, needs, and personal tastes dictate what their millennial, Generation X, and baby boomer parents and guardians buy.

Ironically, a group that can’t even drive (and in some cases, can’t even talk) holds so much sway and purchasing power. But today’s Gen Alpha ecommerce influencers will be tomorrow’s buyers, so your brand needs to make a conscious effort to understand and engage this demographic.

Since Gen Alpha is so young, these activations will look different. They’ll center around family-friendly messaging and UGC. Think “MomTok,” where mom influencers test products, share reviews, or do shopping haul videos.

Image Source: Lacoste

Nostalgia-driven campaigns also can work here (who doesn’t love Snoopy, LEGOs, and Beanie Babies?) You don’t have to manufacture these products to tap into the feelings they evoke. Identify the nostalgic vibes unique to your brand and highlight them in your campaigns and on your social channels.

Consumer Buying Trends: The New Ecommerce Fashion Rules

Whether it’s capturing the attention of Gen Alpha, getting in on the resale market, or delivering an omnichannel shopping experience, several apparel ecommerce trends are reshaping the category.

Fashion and apparel dominate online shopping, but how consumers discover and buy these products is constantly changing. Brands that want to keep up need to continually reimagine the customer journey and be ready for whenever consumers want to take them next.