US Apparel Ecommerce Industry Report

Sustained Traffic Decline Defines the Current Period

US apparel e-commerce stores recorded an average of 6,919 monthly visits in January 2026, continuing a prolonged contraction that began in early 2025. This figure represents a -22.4% drop from the same month in 2024, when average traffic stood at 8,919. The pattern is consistent across nearly every month of 2025: after peaking at 12,974 average visits in November 2024—likely driven by holiday shopping demand—traffic fell sharply into the new year and never recovered. By March 2025, monthly averages had slipped to 6,269, the lowest point in the entire two-year dataset, and subsequent months showed only marginal variation, ranging between 6,909 and 7,282 through the remainder of 2025 before settling at 6,919 in January 2026.

The year-over-year organic search traffic growth rate of -10.1% underscores that this is not simply seasonal softness. Organic search remains the dominant acquisition channel—SEO accounts for 88.2% of total traffic as of January 2026, with 33,117,582 out of 37,557,491 total visits attributable to organic search. This heavy reliance on a channel that is actively contracting poses a structural risk for stores in this segment.

Channel Concentration Creates Fragility

The January 2026 traffic split reveals an acquisition profile heavily weighted toward a single channel. Organic social contributes 10.4% of traffic (3,914,497 visits), making it the only meaningful secondary source. Paid search accounts for just 0.5% of total visits (201,507), while paid social represents 0.9% (323,905 visits). Combined, paid channels drive only 1.4% of total traffic, suggesting that US apparel stores in this segment are investing minimally in performance marketing and are almost entirely dependent on earned visibility.

This concentration amplifies the impact of algorithm shifts or organic search volatility. With SEO traffic declining -10.1% year-over-year and paid channels generating a negligible share of visits, there is limited buffer against further organic losses. Stores that diversified into paid search or paid social would have a mechanism to offset declines; at current investment levels, that lever remains largely unused.

Revenue Contraction Outpaces Traffic Losses

Average store revenue tells an even sharper story than traffic alone. From a peak of $409,838 in November 2024, average monthly revenue fell to $139,102 in January 2026—a -66.1% decline over 14 months. Even compared to January 2024's average of $226,246, the January 2026 figure represents a -38.5% year-over-year drop. Notably, revenue contraction has been steeper and more sustained than traffic contraction, implying that conversion rates, average order values, or both have also deteriorated during this period.

The divergence between traffic and revenue trends is particularly visible in the second half of 2025. While traffic stabilized in a narrow band between roughly 6,900 and 7,300 average monthly visits from May through December 2025, revenue continued to fall—from $189,468 in May to $130,913 in November, a -30.9% decline within the same period. This suggests that the visitors arriving during this window were less commercially engaged, potentially reflecting a shift in audience quality or intent that organic search volatility can produce when rankings shift toward informational rather than transactional queries.

Organic Traffic Trends Reveal Sustained Pressure

US apparel e-commerce stores recorded an average of 6,101.2 monthly organic search visitors as of January 2026, reflecting a -10.1% year-over-year decline in organic traffic and a -1.4% contraction in organic SERP presence. The trajectory over the past two years tells a clear story of boom and retreat: SEO traffic peaked sharply in November 2024 at 12,596.1 average monthly visits, buoyed by seasonal demand, before falling steeply through early 2025. By March 2025, average SEO traffic had dropped to 6,048.7—less than half the November 2024 peak—and has largely plateaued in the 5,800–6,400 range through the end of 2025 and into January 2026.

Organic traffic consistently accounts for the dominant share of total traffic across the segment. In January 2026, SEO traffic represented approximately 88.2% of total average traffic (6,101.2 out of 6,919.2), a proportion that has held relatively steady throughout the observed period—suggesting that while paid and referral channels have grown modestly in relative terms, apparel stores in this segment remain heavily dependent on organic search as their primary acquisition channel.

Domain Authority Under Meaningful Strain

Average PageRank for US apparel stores stood at 2.43 in January 2026, down -13.1% year-over-year—a significant erosion in domain authority that helps explain the sustained traffic declines. PageRank had briefly recovered to a local high of 3.47 in October–November 2024, then dropped sharply to 2.82 in January 2025 following post-holiday recalibration. A second partial recovery brought scores back toward 3.29 in August 2025, but the metric has since deteriorated again, reaching 2.43 by January 2026—the lowest recorded value in the entire dataset.

This declining authority profile aligns with softening backlink data. Average backlinks per store fell to 21,682.1 in January 2026, continuing a steady downward trend from a high of 127,395.1 in September 2024. Referring domains similarly declined, averaging 758.0 in January 2026, down from a peak of 2,459.9 in September 2024. While that September 2024 spike likely reflects outlier activity among a small number of high-authority stores, the broader trend since mid-2025 shows gradual attrition in both backlink volume and referring domain counts, pointing to a segment-wide challenge in sustaining link equity.

Traffic Concentration Highlights a Long-Tail Dominated Segment

The SEO traffic distribution reveals an overwhelmingly fragmented competitive landscape. Of the stores analyzed, 5,397 generate fewer than 50,000 monthly organic visits, while only 12 stores fall in the 100k–250k range and just 3 exceed 250,000 monthly organic visitors. This concentration at the low end underscores that the average traffic figures—roughly 6,100 monthly organic visits—are shaped almost entirely by small and mid-tier operators rather than traffic-heavy outliers.

For the vast majority of stores in this segment, SEO is the backbone of visibility yet operates at modest absolute scale. The combination of declining PageRank (-13.1% YoY), shrinking backlink profiles, and flat-to-declining SERP presence (-1.4% organic SERPs growth) suggests that stores in the under-50k tier face compounding headwinds: lower authority makes it harder to defend existing rankings, while reduced referring domain counts limit the organic link-building momentum needed to recover lost ground.

Paid Search Spend Has Collapsed Year-Over-Year

US apparel e-commerce stores entered 2026 with average paid search spend of just $208.65 in January, representing an -83.8% cost decline and a -78.4% drop in paid search traffic compared to the same month one year prior. To contextualize the magnitude of this shift, average monthly paid search spend peaked at $954.04 in May 2025 before entering a sustained contraction through the second half of the year. By December 2025, spend had fallen to $206.26—a level not seen in the trailing dataset—and January 2026 held essentially flat at $208.65. This sharp pullback suggests a structural reallocation of budget rather than simple seasonal softness, as even the historically active holiday window (November–December) saw spend crater to $353.84 and $206.26 respectively, months that in prior periods still commanded meaningful investment.

Paid search traffic tells a parallel story. In January 2024, paid search accounted for just 2.4% of average total traffic (358.8 sessions), but that share climbed steadily to a peak of 12.0% by April–May 2024 (averaging over 1,500 sessions per month). By January 2026, paid search traffic had fallen back to 234.6 average sessions, representing only 1.7% of total traffic—the lowest share in the entire two-year dataset. Total site traffic in January 2026 averaged 13,871.9 sessions, which is actually healthier than several mid-2025 months, underscoring that the traffic decline is specifically a paid search phenomenon rather than a broad audience loss.

Google Ads Adoption Remains Thin, with Spend Below Global Norms

Only 19.3% of US apparel stores in this segment ran Google Ads at any point in the current year, and active participation in the most recent month was even lower at 15.8%. Among those that do invest in Google Ads, average spend of $229.12 sits -5.7% below the global average of $242.95, indicating that apparel stores not only participate less frequently but also spend more conservatively when they do. This combination of low adoption and below-average spend per active store points to a segment that has not fully committed to paid search as a scalable acquisition channel.

The month-over-month spend trend from December 2025 ($206.26) to January 2026 ($208.65) shows a marginal +1.2% uptick, and February 2026 data projects a further rise to $229.12—potentially signaling early-year budget restarts. Whether this represents a genuine recovery or simply the floor of a new, lower spending regime remains to be seen.

Meta Ads Outpace Global Benchmarks, but Adoption Is Minimal

Despite the weakness in paid search, US apparel stores that do invest in Meta Ads are spending at a notably elevated rate. The segment's average Meta Ads spend of $3,507.35 is +22.4% above the global average of $2,866.26, suggesting that the subset of stores committed to social paid media are deploying it aggressively. This premium spend profile likely reflects the visual nature of apparel product marketing and the targeting precision Meta's platforms offer for fashion-oriented demographics.

However, Meta Ads adoption across the full segment is strikingly low: only 2.1% of stores were active on Meta in either the current year or the most recent month (2.1% and 2.1% respectively). When combining all paid media channels, the segment's total average spend of $1,922.32 is +107.1% above the global average of $928.11—a figure driven heavily by the high per-store Meta spend among the small minority of active advertisers rather than broad-based investment across the segment.

Instagram Remains the Dominant Organic Social Channel—But Its Share Is Eroding

Instagram consistently drives the largest share of social-referred traffic among US apparel e-commerce stores, but its contribution has declined meaningfully over the observed period. In April 2025, Instagram accounted for 16.9% of average total traffic (approximately 1,622 visits per store). By January 2026, that figure had fallen to 11.0%, representing an average of just 777 visits per store—a drop of roughly -52% in absolute Instagram traffic volume over nine months. The steepest single-month compression occurred in December 2025, when Instagram's share hit a low of 10.0%, coinciding with holiday-season traffic being dominated by paid and direct channels. Posting cadence offers a partial explanation: stores averaged 3.30 posts per week in January 2026, down from 3.44 in December 2025, a -4.1% month-over-month decline. With an average engagement rate of just 0.02% across the segment, organic reach constraints on the platform are clearly limiting conversion from content investment to site traffic.

Follower distribution data further contextualizes the challenge. The largest cohort of stores—1,566—sits below 10k followers, where algorithmic reach is most restricted. The next largest group (1,425 stores) falls in the 10k–50k range. Only 409 stores have surpassed 250k followers, meaning the majority of the segment operates without the scale needed to generate significant organic Instagram traffic regardless of posting frequency.

TikTok Contribution Remains Modest and Relatively Stable

TikTok's share of total traffic has settled into a narrow band, ranging between 3.2% and 4.1% across the April 2025–January 2026 window. In January 2026, TikTok accounted for an average of 335 visits per store, representing 3.7% of total traffic—essentially flat compared to 3.5% in October and 4.1% in November 2025. Weekly upload cadence on TikTok slipped marginally month-over-month, from 2.36 uploads per week in December 2025 to 2.34 in January 2026, a -0.8% change. This near-zero movement suggests stores have reached a steady-state content rhythm on the platform without meaningfully scaling output.

Notably, TikTok traffic peaked in absolute terms in January 2025 at an average of 547 visits per store (7.3% of traffic), then declined through mid-2025 before stabilizing. The early-2025 spike likely reflected heightened platform attention during the US TikTok ban uncertainty period, which temporarily elevated engagement before normalizing. The current 3.7% contribution, while modest, has proven durable across the back half of 2025.

Organic Social as a Channel Classification Shows Rapid Mid-Year Emergence

The "organic social" traffic category—distinct from platform-specific referral tracking—tells a striking story of sudden activation. Through Q1 2025, organic social contributed essentially nothing: 0.1% of traffic in January, 0.1% in February, and 0.3% in March 2025. Then in April 2025, the share surged to 6.1% (approximately 413 visits per store), climbing further to 10.2% by May 2025. By January 2026, the channel accounts for 10.4% of average total traffic, or approximately 721 visits per store.

This trajectory points to a structural shift—likely the broader adoption of link-in-bio tools, social storefronts, or reclassification of traffic sources—rather than a gradual organic growth curve. November 2025 marked the peak at 12.2% (approximately 840 visits per store), a figure that retreated in December before recovering in January 2026. With stores averaging 3.87 posts per week across platforms and engagement rates remaining very low at 0.02%, growth in this channel appears driven more by content volume and social commerce infrastructure than by audience interaction depth.

Lighthouse Scores Reveal a Performance Gap in US Apparel

US apparel e-commerce stores recorded an average Lighthouse Performance score of 51.96/100 in January 2026, reflecting a modest +0.7% improvement over the previous month's score of 51.89/100. While the upward movement is encouraging, a score barely above the midpoint signals that page speed and core web vitals remain a material weakness across the segment. Slow-loading storefronts carry a measurable cost in apparel, where high-resolution imagery and rich product detail pages are standard — both of which add render-blocking weight that drags performance scores downward.

Accessibility held steady at 87.70/100, essentially flat compared to the prior month's 87.84/100, a -0.2% shift that is negligible in practical terms. While this score is relatively strong, it still leaves meaningful room for improvement given that accessibility compliance is increasingly tied to both legal exposure and conversion among shoppers using assistive technologies.

SEO Scores Are Strong but Plateauing

The average Lighthouse SEO score for US apparel stores reached 93.10/100 in January 2026 — statistically unchanged from December's 93.10/100 (0% change month-over-month). This is a standout result and indicates that the segment broadly adheres to technical SEO fundamentals: metadata completeness, crawlability, and mobile-friendliness are well-managed across the store population.

However, the flatness of this metric is itself worth noting. SEO scores at this level tend to plateau because the remaining gains require resolving deeply embedded structural issues — canonicalization conflicts, structured data gaps, or JavaScript rendering delays — that are harder to address at scale. Stores that have not already closed these gaps may find it increasingly difficult to push further without dedicated technical investment.

Catalog Size and Pricing Trends Add Context to Site Load Demands

SKU distribution data helps explain why performance scores remain under pressure. The largest single cohort of US apparel stores falls in the 1,001–2,500 SKU range (1,567 stores), while 655 stores operate catalogs exceeding 2,500 SKUs. Together, these larger-catalog stores represent a significant share of the segment and are disproportionately likely to experience performance degradation from unoptimized product listing pages, image-heavy category pages, and faceted navigation rendering.

Average product pricing adds another layer of context. Prices climbed steadily from $629.65 in August 2025 to a peak of $735.28 in December 2025 — a +16.8% increase over that four-month period — before pulling back to $724.37 in January 2026 and further to $623.92 in February 2026. The December peak aligns predictably with holiday gifting demand for premium apparel, while the subsequent retreat into February suggests a return to normalized price positioning post-season.

Higher average order values in this price range elevate the stakes of underperformance: a shopper spending over $700 on a single item is less likely to tolerate a sluggish or inaccessible storefront. Stores in the upper pricing tier have both greater financial incentive and, typically, greater margin headroom to invest in front-end optimization — making the current performance scores a competitive differentiator waiting to be exploited by those who act first.