Apparel Ecommerce Industry Report

Traffic Volume and Year-over-Year Trends

Apparel e-commerce stores averaged 7,087 monthly visitors in January 2026, a figure that masks a significant structural shift over the prior 24 months. Throughout 2024, the segment exhibited strong seasonal momentum, peaking at 12,021 average monthly visits in November 2024 before declining sharply into the new year. By contrast, the 2025 seasonal cycle was notably flatter: the September–November 2024 surge reached an average above 11,000 visits per month, while the equivalent period in 2025 plateaued around 7,000—a compression of roughly -38% at the seasonal peak. This suggests that the outsized 2024 performance was partly driven by temporary tailwinds that did not carry forward into 2025.

The January 2026 figure of 7,087 average visits is broadly consistent with the 2025 baseline range of 6,991–7,354, indicating the segment has stabilized at a lower traffic level rather than continuing to decline. However, this stability offers limited comfort given that the 2025 full-year average sits well below 2024 levels across nearly every month of comparison.

Traffic Source Composition

As of January 2026, organic search dominates the apparel segment's traffic mix, accounting for 87.5% of total visits (69.2 million out of 79.1 million total). Organic social contributes a meaningful secondary share at 11.5% (9.1 million visits), while paid search and paid social each represent just 0.5% of total traffic—371,097 and 364,517 visits respectively. This heavy reliance on SEO is a defining structural characteristic of the segment.

That concentration carries material risk: organic search traffic has declined -9.3% year-over-year, a meaningful headwind given how much total volume depends on it. With paid channels accounting for only 1.0% of combined traffic, stores in this segment have limited paid diversification to buffer against organic losses. The relatively high organic social share of 11.5% points to content-driven discovery—likely through platforms such as Instagram and TikTok—as an emerging complement to search, though it has not yet offset the SEO decline.

Revenue Trajectory and Traffic-Revenue Relationship

Average monthly revenue in January 2026 reached $377,008, down sharply from $725,296 in January 2024—a decline of approximately -48% over two years for the same calendar month. The revenue deterioration has been more severe than the traffic decline, implying that revenue per visit has also compressed. In November 2024, when traffic peaked at 12,021 average visits and revenue averaged $883,971, the implied revenue efficiency was at its highest point in the dataset. By November 2025, traffic had fallen to 6,992 and revenue to $416,266—a simultaneous contraction suggesting weaker conversion, lower average order values, or both.

The December 2025 recovery to $556,105 in average revenue, compared to $310,782 in traffic-equivalent terms, is a modest seasonal bright spot, though it fell well short of the $758,490 recorded in December 2024. Taken together, the data paints a picture of a segment navigating a sustained traffic and revenue reset following a strong 2024 cycle, with organic search headwinds remaining the primary lever to watch in the months ahead.

Organic Traffic Trends Reveal Structural Softness

Apparel e-commerce stores recorded an average SEO traffic of 6,203.89 visits in January 2026, reflecting a year-over-year decline of -9.3% in organic search traffic and a -4.9% contraction in organic SERPs visibility. This divergence between traffic and SERP ranking losses suggests that ranking positions are eroding more slowly than the click-through rates those positions generate—pointing to intensifying competition for above-the-fold real estate from paid placements and AI-generated search summaries.

The monthly trajectory tells a clear story. SEO traffic peaked sharply in late 2024, reaching 11,670.89 in November 2024 before declining steeply through the first half of 2025. By March 2025, average SEO traffic had fallen to 6,368.71—a drop of -45.4% from that November peak—and has remained range-bound between approximately 6,100 and 6,500 visits through the remainder of 2025 and into January 2026. The seasonal surge observed in Q3–Q4 2024, when traffic climbed from 8,185.12 in August to a peak of 11,670.89 in November, did not repeat in 2025. The equivalent months in 2025 (August–November) averaged just 6,270 visits, indicating that year-over-year seasonality has been severely compressed.

SEO traffic remains the dominant channel for apparel stores, consistently accounting for more than 85% of total traffic across the observed period. In January 2026, SEO traffic of 6,203.89 represented 87.5% of the 7,087.14 total average traffic—a proportion that underscores how dependent this segment is on organic search performance, and how exposed it is to algorithm changes or shifting search behavior.

Domain Authority Under Pressure

Average PageRank for apparel e-commerce stores currently stands at 2.37, reflecting a year-over-year decline of -13.1%. This is a meaningful deterioration. The PageRank time series shows the metric was considerably stronger in late 2024, peaking at 3.40 in October and November 2024, before falling sharply to 2.77 in January 2025. After a partial recovery through mid-2025—reaching 3.26 in September 2025—authority has since softened again, dropping to 2.38 by January 2026. This pattern of recovery followed by renewed decline suggests these stores are struggling to sustain link equity over time.

The backlink data adds further context. Average referring domains stood at 680.55 in January 2026, down from a high of 1,746.61 recorded in September 2024. While raw backlink counts appear relatively robust at 41,593.67 in January 2026—well above the 10,846.83 recorded in January 2025—the concentration of links from a shrinking number of referring domains (680 vs. 1,747) signals a less diversified and potentially lower-quality link profile. High backlink volume from few domains is a weaker authority signal than broader referring domain coverage.

Traffic Concentration Highlights Scale Disparity

The SEO traffic distribution reveals a pronounced long-tail structure across the apparel segment. An overwhelming 11,094 stores fall into the under-50k monthly SEO traffic tier, while only 27 stores reach the 100k–250k range and just 6 exceed 250k visits per month. This means fewer than 0.3% of tracked apparel stores generate high-volume organic traffic, concentrating search visibility gains among a very small number of players. For the vast majority of stores in this segment, organic search is a modest-volume channel operating well below the threshold needed to drive significant scale. Closing that gap will require sustained investment in technical SEO, content depth, and authoritative backlink acquisition—areas where the current PageRank trend suggests many stores are losing ground rather than gaining it.

Paid Search Investment Collapses Heading Into 2026

Apparel e-commerce stores have seen a dramatic pullback in paid search activity over the past year. Average monthly paid search spend peaked at $611.67 in September 2025 before entering a steep and sustained decline — falling to $531.79 in October, $239.57 in November, $147.65 in December, and reaching just $143.64 by January 2026. That trajectory represents a -86.8% year-over-year drop in paid search cost and a -83.8% decline in paid search traffic over the same period, signaling a broad retreat from Google Ads investment across the segment.

The share of total traffic driven by paid search tells a similar story. In April 2024, paid search accounted for 13.0% of average store traffic — the highest point in the dataset. By January 2026, that figure had collapsed to just 1.3%, down from 5.1% in January 2025. This compression is particularly striking given that total site traffic for the segment has remained relatively stable, averaging 13,417.58 sessions in January 2026 compared to 11,516.26 in January 2025. Stores are not losing overall traffic — they are simply no longer funding paid search as a meaningful acquisition channel.

Google Ads Adoption Remains Thin and Contracting

Only 22.8% of apparel stores in the segment ran Google Ads at any point this year, and just 18.6% were active in the most recent month — a gap that suggests meaningful mid-year drop-off and limited retention among paid search advertisers. Among those still spending, the segment's average Google Ads outlay of $141.44 sits at just 58.2% of the global average of $242.95. This positions apparel stores as notably underspenders on paid search relative to broader e-commerce benchmarks, likely reflecting both the category's strong organic and social discovery dynamics and the cost pressures of competing in fashion-related search auctions.

Meta Ads participation is even more marginal, with only 1.3% of stores active last month and 1.3% active at any point this year — indicating that social paid media is not a widely adopted tactic in this segment despite its potential fit for visually driven fashion merchandise.

Meta Spend Outperforms Globally, Total Paid Media Runs Ahead of Benchmark

Despite the low adoption rate for Meta Ads, the stores within this apparel segment that do invest in social paid media are committing significantly above-average budgets. The segment's average Meta Ads spend of $3,193.07 is 111.4% of the global average of $2,866.26 — meaning active Meta advertisers in apparel are spending at a premium relative to peers across all verticals. This suggests a bifurcated landscape: a small cohort of apparel stores leaning heavily into Meta as a primary paid channel, while the vast majority allocate nothing.

When all paid media channels are combined, the segment's average total spend of $1,157.91 runs 24.8% above the global average of $928.11. This aggregate figure is shaped disproportionately by the high-spending Meta minority, and it masks the broader retreat from paid search visible in the monthly trend data. The net picture heading into early 2026 is one of declining paid search reliance, ultra-low platform adoption rates, and a small but high-spending cohort sustaining the segment's above-average total paid media position.

Instagram Remains the Dominant Organic Social Channel—But Shows Traffic Pressure

Instagram continues to generate the largest share of social-referred traffic among apparel e-commerce stores, delivering an average of 878.56 visits in January 2026. However, this figure represents a meaningful decline from April 2025's peak of 1,594.92 average visits, a drop of -44.9% over nine months. As a share of total traffic, Instagram fluctuated between 10.6% and 13.6% across the tracked window, settling at 11.8% in January 2026. The November 2025 peak of 13.6% suggests seasonal gifting content drove a temporary lift, but the December collapse to 10.6% indicates that momentum did not carry into the holiday sales period itself. Posting frequency has remained relatively stable—stores averaged 3.50 posts per week in January 2026, a marginal -1.5% dip from December's 3.55—suggesting the traffic decline reflects audience fatigue or algorithmic headwinds rather than reduced publishing activity. Follower base fragmentation is notable: 2,936 stores fall under 10k followers and 3,012 sit in the 10k–50k range, meaning the majority of the segment operates at relatively modest scale, which constrains organic reach potential.

TikTok Holds Steady but Remains a Secondary Driver

TikTok traffic has settled into a narrow band after a sharp mid-year contraction. Average TikTok visits peaked at 578.16 in March 2025 before declining steadily to a low of 309.53 in December 2025, a fall of -46.4%. January 2026 recovered modestly to 319.19 average visits. As a share of total traffic, TikTok has plateaued at approximately 3.2%–3.3% across the August–November 2025 window, dipping to 2.8% in December before recovering to 3.2% in January 2026. On a more positive note, weekly upload frequency rose +21.3% month-over-month, climbing from 2.49 uploads per week in December to 3.02 in January 2026—the highest rate in the tracked period. This uptick in content cadence may support a gradual traffic recovery if sustained, but TikTok's contribution remains roughly one-quarter the size of Instagram's in absolute visit terms, underscoring its role as a supplementary rather than primary organic social channel for apparel stores.

Organic Social as a Traffic Category Reaches Its Highest Share on Record

Organic social traffic—tracked as a distinct channel separate from platform-specific referrals—has shown the most dramatic growth trajectory in this analysis. From a near-negligible 0.03% of total traffic in January 2025, organic social climbed to 11.5% in January 2026, with average visits reaching 817.32. The sharpest inflection occurred between March and April 2025, when average organic social visits surged from 22.43 to 319.69—a +1,325.5% jump in a single month—suggesting a structural reclassification or a rapid adoption of shoppable and link-in-bio formats that began attributing social visits more accurately. Growth then continued steadily, peaking at 10.3% share in November 2025 before a December dip to 8.6% and a rebound to 11.5% in January 2026. The overall average engagement rate across the segment stands at 0.016%, which is extremely low by industry standards and points to a disconnect between follower counts and active audience participation. With an average of 4.03 posts per week across all platforms, stores are publishing at a reasonable cadence, but improving content relevance and interactive formats will be critical to converting that publishing volume into meaningful traffic and engagement gains.

Lighthouse Performance Scores Remain Critically Low

Apparel e-commerce stores recorded an average Lighthouse Performance score of 51.3 out of 100 in January 2026, a figure that places the majority of stores well below the threshold considered acceptable for competitive digital retail. Month-over-month movement was negligible, with the current score of 51.4 essentially flat against the previous month's 51.3 — a change of 0%. While the stability suggests no deterioration, it equally reflects a persistent failure to improve. Slow-loading storefronts in apparel are particularly costly given the visual-heavy nature of the category, where high-resolution imagery and lookbook-style layouts routinely introduce render-blocking bottlenecks. Stores in this segment that have not invested in image compression, lazy loading, and next-generation format delivery are likely the primary drag on the segment average.

SEO and Accessibility Hold Steady but Leave Room for Gains

The average Lighthouse SEO score for January 2026 stood at 93.3 out of 100 — a strong result and effectively unchanged from the prior month's 93.2, representing 0% movement. This suggests the segment has broadly adopted foundational SEO hygiene: meta tags, structured data, and crawlability appear well-managed across most stores. Accessibility told a slightly different story. The January 2026 average of 87.1 dipped from 87.3 the prior month, a -0.2% change. While modest, this marginal decline is worth monitoring, as accessibility scores below 90 frequently point to contrast ratio failures, missing ARIA labels, and inadequate keyboard navigation — issues that carry both UX and regulatory implications in key markets.

Catalog Depth and Pricing Signal a Bifurcated Market

SKU distribution across apparel stores reveals a heavily polarized catalog landscape. The largest single bracket is stores carrying 1,001–2,500 SKUs, accounting for 3,444 stores, followed closely by the 0–250 SKU bracket at 2,838 stores. Mid-range catalogs of 251–500 SKUs represent the smallest cohort at 1,573 stores, while 1,181 stores operate at the high end with 2,500+ SKUs. This distribution suggests a market divided between lean, curated boutiques and large multi-category apparel retailers, with relatively few stores occupying the middle ground.

Average product pricing across the segment has trended upward over the past six months. From a base of $570.84 in August 2025, prices climbed to $635.78 by October before dipping to $570.61 in November — likely reflecting promotional discounting during the peak holiday buildup. Prices recovered through December ($611.84) and January 2026 ($617.41), and the February 2026 reading of $704.30 marks the highest average in the observed window, a +23.4% increase versus the August 2025 baseline. This upward trajectory may reflect a mix of post-holiday inventory normalisation, a shift toward premium SKU promotion, and broader inflationary pressure on apparel retail pricing. Stores with larger catalogs (1,001+ SKUs) are likely anchoring this average higher as they surface higher-margin products in the post-peak period.