Clothing has a problem that most categories do not. The same label size fits differently from one brand to the next, and sometimes from one style to the next within a brand. A buyer cannot try anything on, so many hedge by ordering two sizes and sending one back. Fashion ecommerce is shaped by that habit: by returns, by size data and by how clearly a page explains fit.

This guide looks at how clothing buyers shop and return online, where fashion sellers lose margin, what an apparel product page needs and which platform questions matter. Figures are linked to their sources, with vendor and retailer surveys labelled. I also checked a set of UK fashion product pages in October 2026, and the results are below.

How clothing buyers shop online

Good, current UK data on the online share of clothing is harder to find than you might expect. None of the sources I could use gives a recent clothing-only figure. The nearest is for all retail. ONS data reported by TheIndustry.fashion put internet sales at 26.6% of all UK retail sales in May 2022, up from 19.7% in February 2020. That figure is now dated. The same report described clothing’s online share as higher than before the pandemic, without giving a number.

What the data does show clearly is how buyers deal with uncertain sizing. In a June 2026 survey by Popsy Clothing, a UK retailer, of 1,813 of its own customers, 82% said their size always or often varies between brands. Only 1% said it stays the same. 27% said they regularly order more than one size and return the rest (Popsy Fit Fix Report 2026). The sample is self-selected and comes from one retailer’s customers, so it is not representative. The pattern is still worth knowing.

The same survey ranked jeans as the hardest item to size online, named by 47%, followed by trousers and leggings at 43%. Those are the products with the most measurements in play: waist, leg length, rise and cut.

Where fashion sellers lose margin

Returns, mostly about fit

The scale is large. A 2025 benchmark by Retail Economics and ZigZag forecast UK non-food returns worth £25.1bn in 2025, down from £26.7bn in 2024. It put the overall returns rate at 19.5% in 2025 (Retail Economics and ZigZag). Those figures cover all non-food retail. ZigZag sells returns technology and co-produced the report.

Fit comes up again and again. 73% of the Popsy respondents had returned at least one item in the past year because it did not fit as expected. 15% gave “looked different to the image” as a reason. In the US, a 2023 CoreSight survey put size and fit at 53% of returns, as cited in an academic paper on virtual try-on. That is a second-hand US figure, not a UK measure.

The sizing information gap

Baymard Institute’s apparel sizing research, published in 2022, found that 83% of desktop apparel sites and 87% of mobile sites did not give sufficient sizing information. Site count and geography are not stated in the public summary. Even so, it points at a fix that sits entirely with the retailer.

Charging for returns

Many retailers now charge. The Retail Economics and ZigZag benchmark of 100 live returns found 42% of leading UK clothing and footwear retailers charged for returns, excluding delivery fees. The split was wide: 11% of luxury retailers and 80% of young fashion retailers. 49% of consumers surveyed said a returns policy had led them to abandon a purchase. FashionNetwork’s report on a further ZigZag and Retail Economics report, again co-produced by the vendor, gives a typical fee under £3. It adds that younger shoppers tolerated up to £2.10 before reconsidering, and older shoppers £1.50.

A fee can cut returns and lose orders at the same time. Whatever you decide, the cost of a return and the route for an exchange belong on the product page.

Seasons and sell-through

Fashion stock is typically bought by season, and much of it is never repeated. Sizes sell out unevenly, so a product page can spend weeks with only the smallest and largest sizes left. In my check, two of the six product pages had nothing left to sell in any size. One still showed “Add to bag” and “Buy now” with every size unavailable. The other offered no alternative products, only category links.

What six UK fashion product pages offered

In October 2026 I checked eight UK fashion URLs across mass-market, brand-direct, specialist and premium sellers. All eight were readable, but two returned category listings rather than a product, so the table counts the six product pages. One of those was thin, and one was served from a non-UK storefront in US dollars. The check read page text, so script-driven tools may not show; “not found” is not “not there”.

What the page showedPages where found (of 6)
Size options5
Price (one in US dollars as served)4
More than one colour3
Size guide link3
Garment measurement or model’s height and size2
Each colour on a separate product page2
Delivery or dispatch time2
Returns terms (one item-level, one store-wide)2
Finance (one in the footer only)2
Every size unavailable at the time2
Product video (a file in the gallery)1
Reviews referenced1
Interactive fit finder0
Personalisation0

A zero means nothing was found in the page text, not that the feature is confirmed missing. Two pages showed no visible size guide link. Only one gave the model’s height and the size worn, which is among the cheapest fit aids there is. One page required a full return and a new order to change size, which adds a step at exactly the moment a buyer is deciding whether to stay.

What an apparel product page needs

  1. Garment measurements for each size. Body-size charts are a start, but chest, length, sleeve and inside leg of the garment itself answer more questions.
  2. The model’s height and the size worn. Better still, show the piece on two models of different sizes.
  3. A fit description in plain words. Regular, relaxed, oversized or cropped, with stretch, fabric weight and how it compares with your other cuts.
  4. Fit notes drawn from returns. If a style comes back for being small, say “comes up small, consider a size up” before the buyer orders.
  5. Honest colour. Photograph each colour, add a fabric close-up and avoid heavy retouching.
  6. Sold-out sizes handled well. A back-in-stock alert for each size, and similar styles available in the size the buyer wanted.
  7. Returns cost and an exchange route. A straight size swap, shown on the page, can keep a sale that a refund would lose.
  8. Composition and care. Fibre content, washing instructions and where it was made.

Platform and operations

Apparel variants multiply in more dimensions than people expect. A pair of jeans in three washes, eight waist sizes and four leg lengths makes 96 variants before adding a fit. Fit, colour, waist and length is four option types. Check the limits on your platform. Some ranges are better split by fit or wash into separate products, which also suits search, as covered in fashion ecommerce SEO. On WooCommerce, large variation sets need a careful set-up; see WooCommerce variable products at scale.

Other fashion-specific points:

  • Returns software. If you use a returns portal, it needs to talk to stock, so an exchange reserves the new size straight away.
  • Pre-orders and drops. Seasonal launches and limited runs need pre-order terms and stock limits per customer.
  • Wholesale. Brands that sell to stockists typically take forward orders by season and size curve. That route sits behind a trade login; see B2B ecommerce.
  • Uniform and teamwear. Organisations ordering in bulk need size breakdowns, logo placement and approval steps rather than a public basket.

Speed is the other drag. In my October 2026 test of five UK fashion product pages, three had URL-level field data from real visitors and all three failed Core Web Vitals. Details are in fashion website performance. For page-level fixes that lift sales, see ecommerce conversion rate optimisation.

Where a configurator fits

In fashion, a configurator is rarely about seeing a jumper in another colour. It is about fit and personal choice: made-to-measure shirts and suits, monogramming, custom team kit and uniforms, and fit finders that turn a buyer’s measurements into a size. The clothing configurator guide covers what each needs. The fashion configurator demos show image-based examples on illustrative garments.

Where to start

Pull your return reasons for the last season and sort them by style. The ten styles with the most “too small”, “too big” or “not as pictured” returns are likely to be where product page fixes pay back fastest. Add garment measurements, fit notes and a model’s size to those first, then watch the next season’s figures. Should you want another view on those return reasons, get in touch. I reply within two UK working days.

Sources