In 2019, there were around 10,670 web shops and mail order companies in clothing in the Netherlands. This number steadily increased over the years, making online fashion the biggest branch of web shops in the country. The share of consumers aged 16 to 75 years old who purchased fashion or sports goods online in the Netherlands was 57 percent in 2017, only second in the EU-28 behind the United Kingdom with 61 percent.

How often do people buy clothes online?

Three quarters of Dutch consumers bought either fashion, accessories, shoes or jewelry at least once via the Internet in 2017. Approximately 34 percent of the respondents to a survey indicated they used e-commerce to buy any of these products between one or three times a year, whereas 20 percent said they never purchased these products online. In August 2018, 52 percent of Dutch online shoppers indicated they would purchase clothing from the online shop of a specific retailer and not necessarily from online marketplaces like Amazon or Bol.com (an online marketplace from the Netherlands).

From which retailers do Dutch consumers buy online fashion?

Based on the online revenue made in the Netherlands, Zalando was the biggest online fashion retailer in the country. The German-based retailer had a revenue of 670 million euros in 2017, considerably higher than the 270 million euros reached by H&M that year. The Dutch website of Zalando attracted approximately 35 million desktop visits in 2018, compared to roughly 15.5 million visits for H&M.