Fashion Life Style

“I bought and returned seven pairs of trainers during lockdown,” says Kate from Sussex. “I often order the same thing in two different sizes or two different colors and then return what I don’t like or what doesn’t fit. I never thought I would buy clothes online when the internet first started offering this, but I’m now very happy to.”

Kate is just one of millions of shoppers who, spurred on by the closure of physical stores during months of pandemic lockdowns, now regularly buys and returns goods online.

Up to half of clothing bought online is returned, depending on the retailer. Shoppers sent back an estimated £6.3bn of online purchases, including clothing, in 2020 and that figure is expected to rise by 9% by 2025, according to analysts at GlobalData.

Since the Covid lockdowns ended, returns have shot up as more fitted items – especially dresses – have come

Outside Amazon’s first in-person clothing store in California, Diemmi Le, 22, summed up her experience: “You don’t have to talk to anybody.”

For years, Amazon tried – and eventually failed – to translate its online book business into successful brick and mortar bookstores. Dozens of stores were shuttered this spring. Now, the online shopping giant is trying again, this time trying to reinvent the mall clothing store.

During the pandemic, Amazon pushed past Walmart to become the number one clothing retailer in the US, analysts from Wells Fargo concluded last year. The company is billing its new store as an ambitious fusion of its online shopping algorithm with an in-person shopping experience.

The first Amazon Style store, which opened in Glendale, California, a suburb of Los Angeles, in May, allows customers to use a smartphone app to send clothes directly to their fitting rooms, rather than carrying them around, and

July 26 (Reuters) – Canada’s Shopify Inc (SHOP.TO) is laying off 10% of its workforce as the ecommerce company struggles with slowing growth due to a pullback in online shopping after benefiting from a pandemic-fueled surge in demand.

Its shares tumbled 14.7% on the US bourses and on the Toronto Exchange, they shed 14% on Tuesday, pulling Canada’s wider main stock index lower. The shares have lost 75% of their value so far in the year.

Shopify’s turn of fortunes from the most valuable company in Canada last year to its present-day struggle to increase sales come as easing lockdowns have led consumers to return to brick-and-mortar stores.

Its sales growth during the pandemic led the Ottawa-based company to ramp up hiring and invest in technology, betting that the shift to online from physical retail shops

Value fluctuations on account of algorithms have been discovered to extend emotions of buyer betrayal.

In case you’ve shopped on-line just lately, you’ll have had this expertise: You discover an merchandise, add it to your cart, after which once you get round to paying, the worth has elevated.

You’ll be able to thank pricing algorithms.

These are pc applications that take a look at components comparable to provide, demand and the costs opponents are charging, after which alter the worth in actual time. Now, there are requires larger regulation at a time when these techniques are anticipated to turn into extra widespread.

“A key factor concerning the algorithm is that given completely different inputs, like, say, time of day or climate or what number of clients may be exhibiting up, it’d resolve on a unique worth,” mentioned Harvard economics professor Alexander MacKay.

Theoretically, these algorithms may very well be good